In 1839, rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world's most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood-both already celebrated for their adventures in Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece, and Rome-sailed out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico What they found would rewrite the West's understanding of human history.