This guide to the art and architecture of ancient Mesoamerica surveys the artistic achievements of the unified high Precolumbian civilizations - Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Toltec, Aztec - as well as those of their lesser-known contemporaries. The book contains pictures of their pyramids and palaces, jades and brightly coloured paintings. The author of this work provides fresh readings of Mesoamerican works of art while offering archaeological interpretations. Also included in the book are hieroglyphic decipherments which give insights into ancient works, confirming the connections between the Maya and their neighbours.