The Lost City of the Monkey God Summary
Preston, Douglas

The Lost City of the Monkey God Overview

Douglas Preston's adventurous tale recounts his participation in a groundbreaking 2015 expedition to a site called T1 in the heart of Honduras to uncover the ruins of a mysterious unknown people. The adventure began with maps made by an aerial laser system called lidar to pinpoint the site of ruins in the dense rainforest. Preston tells the history of the many adventurers who have claimed to have found the mythical Lost City of the Monkey God and then narrates his own journey as part of the expedition that finally landed in Mosquitia and uncovered ruins related to a lost civilization that was likely suffering from exposure to European diseases. In an odd twist of fate, Preston and many members of the expedition become sick from leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that resulted from sand fly bites they received in Mosquitia. Preston concludes his narrative with thoughts about the future of disease and lessons about what great civilizations of the past teach us about the impermanence of any one civilization or people.