Augustus Le Plongeon

author

Augustus Le Plongeon

1826–1908

Best known for his dramatic theories about the ancient Maya, this 19th-century photographer and writer also helped preserve important views of sites like Chichén Itzá and Uxmal. His books mix adventurous imagination with early archaeological curiosity.

2 Audiobooks

Vestiges of the Mayas or, Facts Tending to Prove That Communications and Intimate Relations Must Have Existed, in Very Remote Times, Between the Inhabitants of Mayab and Those of Asia and Africa

Vestiges of the Mayas or, Facts Tending to Prove That Communications and Intimate Relations Must Have Existed, in Very Remote Times, Between the Inhabitants of Mayab and Those of Asia and Africa

by Augustus Le Plongeon

Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas and the Quiches, 11,500 Years Ago Their relation to the sacred mysteries of Egypt, Greece, Chaldea and India. Free Masonry in times anterior to the Temple of Solomon.

Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas and the Quiches, 11,500 Years Ago Their relation to the sacred mysteries of Egypt, Greece, Chaldea and India. Free Masonry in times anterior to the Temple of Solomon.

by Augustus Le Plongeon

About the author

Born on Jersey in the Channel Islands, Augustus Le Plongeon spent much of his career as a photographer, antiquarian, and writer focused on the ancient Americas. He is especially associated with the Maya ruins of the Yucatán Peninsula, where he and his wife, Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, carried out extensive photographic and exploratory work.

His ideas about Maya civilization were highly unconventional, and many of his historical claims were rejected by other scholars and later disproven. Even so, his work remains notable for the large photographic record he created of important archaeological sites.

As an author, he is remembered for books such as Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches and Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx. Today, he is often seen as a fascinating mix of early documentarian and speculative thinker.