The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
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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.
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Wow. Easily one of my top 5 books from 2017.
The Lost City of the Monkey God is about the expedition and the men who “discovered” the lost Ciudad Blanco. I put discovered in brackets because (as the book states) many native Hondurans already knew the location of the city. These natives generally avoided the area due to a curse on the city.
I don't want to give away too much, but readers should be aware that this is about more than just the city. It's about new technology, history, political upheavals, friendships, dangers, discovery and disease. When I picked this up, I expected something along the lines of The Lost City of Z (A book I eventually shelved as a DNF). Z focused on two parallel storylines, one in modern day and one of an ancient expedition. It asked question after question, yet never answered them. Monkey God asks questions and gives answers. It reiterates the perils, and also the beauty of the rainforest. It reminds us of the cultures that have come before us and how quickly mother nature can erase our existence. It is truly an excellent book.
Very interesting read into a real life Uncharted game. Keeps you enthralled the entire time.
After reading this and a book about Teddy Roosevelts adventures in the Amazon, [b:The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey 78508 The River of Doubt Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey Candice Millard https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430014768s/78508.jpg 980007]I am more resolved to never visit the rain forest in Central and South America.This story was fascinating and terrifying. I would like to know more about the structuresin the city they uncovered.I will have to follow up on learning more about the ancient civilizations in that part of the world.
