On the following day, we once again took the ferry to Victoria. But this was a rainy day—perfect for a visit to the Royal British Columbia Museum.

Far from being stuffy, this 1886 landmark was ultramodern on the inside and gives the classiest Silicon Valley Computer museum a run for its money.

Without going into the general detail, I'd like to focus on the one thing that truly blew me away. That was their special exhibit on the Mayan.

And the one thing that truly amazed me—and shocked me was an original Mayan Codex.

What's a Mayan Codex? Good question—and if it wasn't due to this museum, I would never have had a clue.

Contrary to the limited education many of us have about pre-Columbian American culture, the Mayans were an advanced civilization.

How advanced? They had many, many Codices. These Codices were books—written and illustrated. They were the records of Mayan art, science and culture.

There were many Codices in existence at the time of the Spanish conquest of Yucatán in the 16th century; most were destroyed by Catholic priests—many were destroyed by Bishop Diego de Landa in July 1562.[5] In his conviction of the superiority and absolute truth of Christianity, De Landa wrote:

"We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction."

Superstition?

Physically, Maya codices are folding books written by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican fig tree bark paper.

Once there were many, but only four survived.

~ Al Zagofsky