Douglas Preston

A five-hundred-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle. Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location. Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization. Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease. Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.

A True Story

The Lost City of the Monkey God

Andrew John Kinney

I enjoyed this book, and having spent time in Honduras, it was interesting to hear the descriptions of the nearly impenetrable jungle that kept the "lost city" a secret for 500 years. The book is very readable, and is a good companion to Charles Mann's 1493. There is perhaps more than I needed to know about the tropical disease the author picked up in the jungle, but it was surprising to learn that such a horrific disease exists, and it is almost unknown in first world countries, except by specialists in tropical diseases. I was a little dismayed to hear about the "military air strip" at La Ceiba. When I was there, the mud hut villages of La Ceiba lived cheek by jowl with the rainforest, and one woke daily to the cacophony of howler monkeys and the arrival of toucans. I suspect the rainforest has retreated a good ways by now, victim of slash and burn agriculture, and, worse, cattle ranching. The uniqueness of the T1 lost city site led to its protection by the Honduran government, but such protection is just as precarious as the government. All in all, an interesting story.

The #1 New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller! A five-hundred-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle. Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location. Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization. Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease. Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.

Wynter

What started as a promise of an Indiana Jones-esque search for a lost ancient city quickly turned into an informative history lesson of the past explorations, a glimpse into the future of archaeology through technological lense, lush descriptions of the virgin jungles of Honduras, a front seat to one of the most unbelievable discoveries in our age of information, well-formed hypotheses on the culture of Mosquitia, and a morbidly fascinating sidetrack into a parasitic infection. I must say, I really enjoyed this book. And if I was not so terrified of leishmaniasis now, I’d be totally inspired to trek into some unexplored lands myself.

Elizabeth Moore

If I had half stars this would get 3.5! Interesting, fast-paced read on an exciting cultural discovery adventure that transitions into a meditation on the inevitability of the next debilitating pandemic that will cross over from the old world to the new...which equals a lot of queasiness and mild fits of terror if you happen to be reading this guy 3 years after it was blithely published in 2017. Eek.

The expedition and excavation stories were fascinating, the snakes are terrifying (although it’s more exciting than terrifying unless you have a true phobia of snakes), and the stories from the since-passed, morbidly-obese, cigar smoking, beer-swizzling, gun-slinging, ironically-Indiana-Jones-ing, law-breaking, looting, jungle-traipsing, expat fixer Bruce Heinicke are the best parts of the book. The chapters about the expedition crew’s crazy diseases are both riveting and super disturbing. And best of all... the entire book is true!

I definitely recommend this book if you’re non-fiction lover, adventure junkie, or a geopolitical or ancient history buff. Even if you’re not, it’ll most likely keep you hooked and intrigued, although I was kind of bummed that the explorers were never chased out of an underground chamber by a giant rolling monolith after attempting to swap a priceless Mosquitian gold deity with a bag of sand (that said, this book also gives you a good cursory schooling on why so many of our romantic visions of European adventurer archaeology are, in fact, very bad and usually racist).

Melody Izard

Starts out as a tale of adventure then turns into a horror story of evil illnesses that are on the rise because of global warming. Might as well face it, we are doomed.

Judy Hudgins

A bit repetitive about how remote and hostile the location. Could have done a little less on the bugs and snakes.

Leafling

Such a fun book!!! (especially on audio)
Such adventure, such intrigue

Les Reynolds

A fascinating story about finding/mapping of a city of myth in Honduras. Some interesting lessons for our culture today, when you look at how ancient civilizations like this may have collapsed.

The Lost City of the Monkey God A True Story

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