Structure

Preston's book begins when the expedition is in Catacamas, Honduras, and is hearing from former SAS soldier Andrew Woods about the dangers of the area the group is about to enter. The author then discusses his history of finding out about the Lost City of the Monkey God or La Ciudad Blanca from Steve Elkins, a filmmaker who describes an area that is about one square mile called T1 that he thinks might be the site of a lost city of marvelous scale and sophistication.

Preston leaves the mystery of the lost city dangling while he goes back and retraces the history of the many explorers, including Cortes, who spread the myth of the lost city. His narrative includes the tales of many explorers, including those funded by banker George Gustav Heye in the 1930s and 1940s, to find the lost city. Unfortunately, those explorers were mostly...