The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story is a New York Times best-selling nonfiction book written by journalist and novelist Douglas Preston and published by Grand Central Publishing in 2017. Preston’s book follows the history of various expeditions in search of the legendary Lost City of the Monkey God in the La Mosquitia region of Honduras. Most of the book covers an aerial lidar survey and a ground expedition organized and led by documentary producer Steve Elkins and covered by Preston.

The first five chapters provide historical context about the legendary Lost City of the Monkey God, also known as the Lost City, White City, or Ciudad Blanca. Preston follows the development of the Lost City legend over time, beginning with Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and continuing with later explorers and more recent failed expeditions to find the city. He also narrates the stories of charlatans and frauds who claimed to have found the city. By continually noting the dangers and isolation of the Mosquitia region, Preston builds suspense for their later expedition throughout these chapters.

Chapters 6-12 detail Elkins’s failed expedition to find the White City in 1994, followed by his more successful aerial lidar survey in 2012, in which Preston participates. The survey involves scanning the jungle, below the tree cover, using an advanced laser scanning technology called lidar. When two large ancient cities are found, it is revealed that the legend of a single city was likely based on the more complex reality of a largely unknown but advanced civilization. Preston’s style adopts the tone of a first-person adventure story in much of this part.

Preston narrates his experiences on Elkins’s 2015 ground expedition to one of the two sites found via lidar, called T1, in Chapters 13-19. The book follows their exploration of the ruined city and the many dangers they face in the jungle. The book is organized much like a journal in this part, and the adventure-story tone is even stronger. Preston concludes this section by recognizing and evaluating the controversy generated their expedition and its press.

In the final eight chapters Preston explores the team’s interpretations of their discoveries, particularly regarding the abandonment of the T1 site and the collapse of the Mosquitia civilization. Excavations of a sculpture cache at the site that was left during its abandonment emphasize themes of death, and Preston argues that the Mosquitia cities were likely decimated and abandoned after 1500 due to a pandemic brought by Spanish explorers. Preston relates this hypothesis to an outbreak of a fatal disease, leishmaniasis, which he and much of his team experienced after the expedition. He closes the book by noting that we ignore history and archaeology at our own peril, and that disease and pandemics are also the greatest threat to modern civilization.

Throughout the book Preston explores themes of legend versus reality, looting and destruction of the natural environment, and the heights of indigenous American civilizations. He ties these themes together through his narrative of Elkins’s and many others’ quests for the Lost City and their eventual discovery of a forgotten civilization. The ubiquitous dangers of snakes, disease, drug cartels, and violence in Honduras maintain a constant suspenseful tone throughout the book. Ultimately, the book seeks to affirm the value of archaeology, science, and unrelenting research.