The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*I received this book from NetGalley, and Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group) in return for a fair review.*

- werejaguar

South of the furthest extent of Mayan civilization, rested another civilization, distinguishable from the Mayan, though incorporating certain influences from the Maya. The name for this multi-city culture? …. According to the book I read, the culture has been in the shadow of the Maya – so much so, that it doesn’t even have its own official name. At the present time what is known is that several ruins have been found in the La Mosquitia region of Honduras – some of which are quite large scale in size. None have been fully investigated by Archaeologists.

I read an ARC version of the book, so I’ll quote from a National Geographic article by the same author instead of from the book (since the wording might have changed in the final published version) – “In contrast to the nearby Maya, this vanished culture has been scarcely studied and it remains virtually unknown. Archaeologists don’t even have a name for it.” - Honduras Lost City by Douglas Preston, March 2 2015.

A man, Steve Elkins, spent a very long time dipping into and out of exploration. A cinematographer by trade, Elkins had long been interested in digging into ‘lost things’ – like the treasure that had been looted from Lima and the legendary 'White City' otherwise known as 'the City of the Monkey Gods' in Honduras.

Elkins had set everything up to enter Honduras, after much research among archaeological files, and myths, and legends, and folk-lore, and search for this ‘lost city’. This was late in the 1990s (1997?). But Honduras fell apart and Elkins lost his chance. At least, for a decade or two.

In 2012 Elkins finally was able to get in – and he was going to use a technology newish to Archaeology. Not new to science – heck they mapped the moon and Mars with it, just newish to Archaeology (not new, since they had used it to find Ubar lost in the sands of Arabia (see: Lost City of Ubar found; also, it should be noted that Elkins is not the first to use the tech in the Americas). That technology? Lidar (“LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth”). He had determined that there were four possible locations of interest he wanted to look at – one was removed from the list when rainforest deforestation was detected in the area. Using an old plane loaded with advanced technology from NASA, a map could be generated that – hopefully, could find the markings of man-made alterations.

- Illustration by Ron Kurnlawan in Douglas Preston New Yorker article from 2013.

- Business Insider – Ciudad Blanca Honduras Lidar images – 2013-5

The book describes, somewhat, Elkins earlier investigations in the 1990s, then three that occurred in the 2010s. The first in 2012 involved that plane I mentioned with the LIDAR thingie in it. The author of the book, Preston, was along for that one. And describes the process – including one wild ride with him on board (in a tiny space that wasn’t really big enough for him – he accidentally turned off the machine once with his knee).

Preston was also along when the team actually went into the valley that contained T1 (T1 being the designation given by Elkins for the first place he wanted looked at) in 2015. Rain. Mud. A valley hidden from man for hundreds of years – but extensively modified by man (as found when the city was examined). The description given by Preston of both expeditions he joined into the T1 valley was quite interesting.

The book also contains, eventually, a little history on the area – both pre and post arrival of Columbus and what had happened to the natives – who had many extensive sophisticated civilizations in the Americas prior to Columbus’ arrival. Preston included a chart that ‘tells the story’ of Hispaniola as an example (the island contains both the Dominican Republic and Haiti). There’s debate on the numbers pre-Columbus. Some say millions, some say 500,000. Whatever the number, at least 500,000 natives were on the island in 1492. Only 60,000 16 years later (1508). 18,000 10 years after that (1518). And 0 by 1542. Two reasons to note this little issue – there are many reasons why this rapid decrease in population occurred, the largest one being death by disease; and there is evidence that – even though the European invaders never even made it to the T1 city – no one had (supposedly) before Preston’s team in 2012 – that area itself was wiped out by disease (evidence of extensive trade network mentioned; also mentioned was what happened in the Americas when the Spanish arrived (relatively easy conquest – several near defeats that turned into victories when their native opponents died from disease; compared with the Spanish in the Philippines – where the Spanish never were able to ‘complete’ their conquest (Philippines natives had ‘suffered’ along with Europe, Asia, and Africa from the many diseases that wiped out the American natives – who hadn’t gone through that suffering before the arrival of the Europeans).

Also included in the book – a really long discussion on how he, the author, and other members of the team were infected from their time in the valley and the treatments that had to occur to not cure but beat back the disease.

One last point – the findings of the team Preston joined were revealed – or mentioned – in the previously linked National Geographic article on March 2 2015, lead almost immediately to controversy. A letter went out carrying many signatures attacking the article and the expeditions. Preston handles that section quite well. One of the points of contention involved how cameras were along for the ride, the word choices used (‘lost city’, etc.), and the lack of proper archaeological oversight. And that it ‘ignores decades of research and indigenous peoples knowledge’ (which is countered by Preston).

A quite interesting and intriguing book. It should be noted that while the National Geographic article includes pictures, the book does not. I read an advanced readers copy so I do not know if pictures or the like appear in the finished published version of the book.

- base camp

- ‘A stream winds through part of an unexplored valley in Mosquitia in eastern Honduras, a region long rumored to contain a legendary ‘White City,’ also called the City of the Monkey God’



January 26 2017




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