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The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

Douglas Preston

3.93(59420 readers)
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 Hernan Cortes, 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 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 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.
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Publisher

Grand Central Publishing

Publication Date

1/3/2017

ISBN

9781455540020

Pages

304

Categories

History

About the Author

Portrait of author Douglas Preston
Douglas Preston
Douglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard's fist; and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.)

As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.

After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.

In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.

Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.

Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...

Questions & Answers

The "Lost City of the Monkey God," or Ciudad Blanca, is not a single city but rather a series of large, previously undiscovered ruins in the Honduran rainforest. These ruins, identified through lidar technology, belong to an ancient, sophisticated civilization that thrived in the region around 1000 AD. This discovery challenged existing beliefs by revealing that Central America was home to advanced, non-Maya civilizations. The ruins' extensive plazas, mounds, and pyramids, along with artifacts like the "were-jaguar" sculpture, suggest a culture with complex social structures, rituals, and artistic traditions. The discovery also highlighted the need for further research into the enigmatic Mosquitia culture and its mysterious disappearance.

The use of advanced technology, specifically lidar, revolutionized the search for lost cities by providing unprecedented mapping capabilities. Lidar's ability to penetrate dense jungle canopies and capture detailed topographic data allowed researchers to identify previously unseen structures in Mosquitia. In the case of T1 and T3, lidar revealed extensive ruins, including plazas, mounds, and pyramids, which were previously unknown. This technology significantly reduced the need for extensive ground surveys, making it possible to map large areas quickly and efficiently. The high-resolution images provided by lidar also enabled archaeologists to analyze the sites in detail without physically entering the dangerous jungle, contributing to the discovery and preservation of these ancient cities.

The expeditions for the Lost City of the Monkey God were driven by a mix of motivations, including treasure hunting, academic research, and the allure of adventure. Early expeditions, like those led by R. Stuart Murray and Theodore Morde, were fueled by the legend of a hidden city filled with riches, reflecting a colonialist mindset that sought to exploit and control the unknown. Morde's expedition, however, was revealed to be a gold-seeking venture, not an archaeological search.

Later expeditions, such as Steve Elkins' lidar mapping project, aimed to use advanced technology for archaeological research, but they also faced criticism for being overly speculative and potentially harmful to the environment. The discovery of ruins in Mosquitia, while significant, sparked controversy over the interpretation of the findings and the role of archaeology in relation to indigenous rights and colonial attitudes.

These expeditions reflect the complex interplay between archaeology, treasure hunting, and colonialism. They highlight the tension between the desire for knowledge and the exploitation of resources, and the need for ethical practices in archaeology that respect local cultures and environments. The search for the Lost City of the Monkey God serves as a cautionary tale about the potential pitfalls of unbridled exploration and the importance of responsible archaeological practices.

The discovery of T1 and T3 in Mosquitia has significantly expanded our understanding of the Maya civilization and its influence in Central America. These sites, unlike traditional Maya cities, were built by a separate, sophisticated culture that thrived in the challenging rainforest environment. This suggests that the Maya's influence extended further than previously thought, with the Mosquitia culture adopting Maya-like architectural styles and the ball game. The lidar mapping revealed extensive agricultural systems, indicating the Mosquitia people's ability to adapt and thrive in the rainforest. However, their sudden decline around 1500, likely due to European diseases, contrasts with the Maya's more gradual collapse, highlighting the devastating impact of European colonization on indigenous populations.

Preserving Mosquitia's cultural and ecological heritage faces challenges like deforestation, looting, and the threat of invasive diseases. Potential solutions include establishing a national park or biosphere reserve, enforcing stricter regulations against illegal deforestation, and promoting sustainable tourism. The search for the Lost City of the Monkey God highlights the importance of respecting indigenous knowledge and involving local communities in conservation efforts. Future conservation should focus on:

  1. Community Involvement: Engage local communities in decision-making processes and benefit-sharing to foster ownership and stewardship.
  2. International Collaboration: Seek support from international organizations for funding, expertise, and resources.
  3. Education and Awareness: Educate the public about the value of Mosquitia's heritage and the threats it faces.
  4. Research and Monitoring: Conduct ongoing research to better understand the region's ecosystems and cultural sites, and monitor them for any changes.
  5. Climate Change Adaptation: Develop strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the region's ecosystems and communities.

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