The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

Written by Douglas Preston

Narrated by Bill Mumy

The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, named one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and National Geographic: acclaimed journalist Douglas Preston takes readers on a true adventure deep into the Honduran rainforest in this riveting narrative about the discovery of a lost civilization -- culminating in a stunning medical mystery.
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.


Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Jan 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781478964513

Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston y Lincoln Child son coautores de las exitosas series de novelas protagonizadas por el agente especial del FBI Aloysius X. L. Pendergast, por un lado, y por el brillante Gideon Crew, por otro. Todos sus libros se han convertido en best sellers internacionales. Douglas Preston ha trabajado en el Museo de Historia Natural de Nueva York y en la Universidad de Princeton. También ha publicado numerosos artículos científicos para The New Yorker.

Reviews for The Lost City of the Monkey God

[mattrwalker · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Meh...

Although the portion of this book (about 40%) about the actual archaeological dig was very interesting, the rest just left a lot to be desired. There was clearly some research done into the history of Honduran "lost" societies, but Preston's writing on the topic felt rushed and thrown together.

The book left me wanting much more about the lost city and the site, but he just left that topic and went into a very long "run for you lives" warning about the dangers of the leishmaniasis parasite. Parts of that were interesting, but like the dialogue on the history of Hondurans earliest inhabitants it just felt sloppy.

[hccpsk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For hundreds of years, Hondurans have told the legend of the White City, or City of the Monkey God — a cursed civilization deep in the jungle — but no one had ever been able to find it. In 2012, author Douglas Preston came to Honduras with a group of scientists who scanned the jungle from an airplane with a new laser technology that found the outlines of a number of villages complete with pyramids, plazas, houses, and roads. They all returned a couple of years later to unearth one of the sites, while Preston wrote about the expedition for National Geographic. Preston turned all of his writings into The Lost City of the Monkey God, an exciting adventure nonfiction that examines these trips, and the tropical disease many of the group members consequently developed.

[jklugman_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An engaging account of an archeological investigation in Honduras, although I think the most fascinating chapter was on the history of Samuel Zemurray. The account becomes focused on leishmaniasis, a horrific parasitical disease afflicting most of the investigators, and the last chapter points out that it has been creeping up into the United States due to global warming.

[wvlibrarydude · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This may be a decent book for many readers, but I have read better adventure/exploration books (Lost City of Z, River of Doubt, Walk in the Woods, To Timbuktu and others). The adventure was mild, the science was sketchy, and too many assumptions that lead to conclusions based on sinking mud. I would suggest moving on to something a little more rewarding.

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The 500 year old legend said there was an ancient city hidden the Honduran rain forest and those who went there fell ill and died. Author Preston joined an scientific expedition in 2012 to find this city and explore it. Using latest technology such as Lidar that permitted the exploring of the jungle canopy from the air they discovered the exact location of the ancient buildings and planned an on foot exploration.

The trip would prove dangerous because of snakes, including the deadly fer-de-lance, multiple diseases carried by insects including leishmaniasis and wild animals such as the jaguar. Most of the participants would become affected with tropical diseases, some who will probably suffer from them for the rest of their lives.

An exciting and challenging true story that challenges the reader to ask, "Could I do such a trip?"

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There is something about finding clues to an ancient culture that has always intrigued me. In this book, the author takes us along on his journey, as part of an archeological expedition, to find the legendary White City (aka Lost City of the Monkey God) in the jungles of Mosquitia in the interior of Honduras. He traces the roots of the legend and covers the prior explorers who searched for it. I felt the jungle come to life in his descriptions of the snakes, insects, animals, plant life, rivers, camp sites, and how the team conducted its search. This book contains elements of archeological exploration and the application of new scientific techniques, history and politics of Honduras, and the spread and treatment of diseases. The author also attempts to solve the mystery of why the city was deserted. Parts of the narrative may seem a bit dry if you are not 100 percent vested in learning about the topic, but overall I found it interesting and compelling. Recommended to those interested in non-fiction, archeology, exploration, Central American culture and diseases/pandemics.

[amkitty-511462 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Unabridged audio

An interesting ramble about the identification and early excavation of an abandoned city in the Honduran jungle. Interesting, that is, until the author spent the last 20 minutes pouting about the “evil” of early explorers bringing slavery, murder and rape to the native populations. I found this particularly annoying because the book contains an earlier discussion of how the indigenous people treated slaves and conquered rivals before these explorers ever set foot in their lands.

I do wish authors today would quit polluting otherwise interesting stories and ideas with modern-day political value judgments.

[library_lin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. Douglas Preston turned what could have been a somewhat dry archeological discovery into a fascinating musing on humanity, history, and nature.

In 2012, a team of scientists, filmmakers, photographers, writers, and adventurers were guided into one of the most remote sections of the world in the mountain jungles of Honduras. The site was located with the aid of state-of-the-art lidar equipment that could penetrate the dense, water-soaked, plant-choked earth above the ruins. They were also accompanied by the Honduran military and three former British special forces members who were hired to clear the area, at least as much as possible, of vegetation and snakes and to keep the team safe.

Preston captured the excitement, danger, and tension in the dig. But he also spent a fair amount of time talking about the obstacles to this sort of research both from within and without the scientific community and by the people of Honduras. he was captivated by the beauty of the untouched jungle and lamented disturbing it. He finishes the book with a reflection on exactly why the people of the "lost city" abandoned the location approximately 500 years ago.

I am writing this review in the summer of 2020 and this book was published in 2017. Preston speaks of epidemics and the effect they have on the societies that have experienced them in the past. He goes on to speculate on pandemics that are sure to visit our modern world in the future. That future wasn't long coming. We are just beginning to experience it now. So it was with great interest that I read on his speculations.

The future wasn't rosy for the inhabitants of the lost city and while we may understand disease and treatments better today, we need to be cautious of feeling invincible. There are still many things about nature and human nature that we cannot control.

[sarah220-732610 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the audio book version and it definitely suffered from a narrator that was not very engaging. The book was also far too genre hopping. I was looking for an adventure / survival/ archaeological romp. It was partially that but it was also a detailed history of Honduras, how the US has mucked with the social / political situation in Latin America, archaeological theory and methodology, the new science behind modern archaeology (LiDAR), and finally epidemiology, the effects of infectious diseases (especially on native populations after European contact), and the impact of climate change on the modern and predicted patterns of disease and parasitic transfer. Plus some pretty terrifying details about leishmaniasis. I just wasn't always in the mood to hear about whatever new topic the author skipped to. It has a mind-boggling level of detail and research but I think I would have preferred the Cliff Notes.

[andy_dimartino · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent job in recounting his real life involvement in the discovery of this huge archaeological discovery in the Honduras and the aftermath. I am looking forward to hearing more of what is brought out of the jungle from the "City of the Jaguars".

[dandailey-212203 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fantastic read! Although a true account of an archeological expedition, it reads like a novel. I could not put this one down> It coust me some sleep, but it was well worth it.

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great lively document of search and discovery of Honduras ruins with some critical thoughts. And the outlook on a potential pandemic. Very timely reading this in 2020.

[marquis784-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another compelling novel by Preston

Douglas Preston writes for The New Yorker, National Geographic, Smithsonian and has taught at Princeton University. He describes his dangerous expedition into the jungle of Honduras in 2015. His frank observations and detailed facts provide captivating history of the indigenous people of the "Lost City of the Monkey God".

"I first heard the legend of the White City in 1996, when I was on assignment from National Geographic to write a story about the ancient temples of Cambodia."

"Forever after, it became a forbidden place, and anyone who entered it would die of sickness or be killed by the devil."

"It was the first time our expedition had come together in one room, a rather motley crew of scientists, photographers, film producers, and archaeologists, plus me, a writer. We all had widely varying experience in wilderness skills."

“I’ve had dengue fever twice,” Woody said, and launched into a shockingly graphic description of the disease, which had almost killed him the second time. It is called “breakbone fever,” he said, because it is so painful you feel like your bones are breaking."

"The vociferousness of the criticism went far beyond the usual academic tiff or a dispute over language, and they were amazed that these scholars, who had never been to the site and had no idea where it was, would make claims like these with such certainty."

Of course such grand explorations come with criticism.
"All this made it clear that the protest letter was, in part, a proxy attack on the present Honduran government, an example of how the coup and its aftermath left the Honduran archaeological community angry and divided."

Fascinating read about a lost city and the life and death exploration to find it!

[baochuan-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is a good chronicle of the expedition.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Digital audiobook narrated by Bill Mumy

Subtitle: A True Story

From the book jacket: 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.

My reactions: Wow. Preston is perhaps best known as the co-author with Lincoln Child of the mystery series starring FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast. But he has also written nonfiction, and worked as a writer and editor for the American Museum of Natural History.

I was mesmerized by this adventure story, as Preston recounts the expedition’s efforts to find these ruins in the dense jungle, plagued by weather, poisonous snakes, and biting insects. And I was equally interested in the history (rumors of a lost city of immense wealth date back to the days of the Conquistadors) to the alleged curse that anyone who dares enter the city will fall ill and die.

But this was more than just an adventure of grown men playing at Indiana Jones. Preston also give equal time to political discourse and environmental impact. And the medical mystery of aftereffects of their time in the jungle was equally fascinating, and horrifying.

Bill Mumy does a fantastic job narrating the audio book. He set a great pace and I felt the sense of awe and wonder at the expedition members’ discovery of the ruins, as well as their anxiety and worry over symptoms that puzzled medical professionals.

[toobusyreading · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Legends of a White City, a City of the Monkey God, had been around for centuries, but there was no proof it ever existed. And its supposed location, deep in the Mosquitia region of the Honduran jungle, made it unlikely to ever be found. And then, in 2012, a dangerous “lidar” expedition showed that there very well might be some truth to the legends, and the author was able to be part of that expedition. So, in 2015 an expedition, whose members again included the author, was undertaken. A really, really dangerous undertaking, given that the lidar images showed ruins under heavy jungle. Filled with dangerous creatures, including the too common few-de-lance, a very poisonous and aggressive snake. And, as it turned out, much smaller dangers.

I found some of the first part of the book a little slow going. Lots of information about the history of the area and the prep for the expedition, about previously searches for this alleged city. But once the lidar expedition was undertaken, the story got pretty interesting. Also interesting was the fights among experts on the proper way to handle excavation, how to have respect for the civilizations gone before us and yet learn. It's a fine line.

In the aftermath of the 2015 expedition, we were told about the disease that was so prevalent there, and what it may have done to the ancient civilization as well what could happen in our current world. I really hated reading about the hapless mice were unwillingly subjected to medical research. But, in light of the current pandemic, I found the information from Dr. Anthony Fauci, written before the current crisis to be frighteningly prophetic”

Although I waited too long to read this book, having it on my bookshelf for too long, I think this was the right time to read it. A good part of it became a cautionary tale.

If you like your adventure in non-fiction form, this book is both interesting and disturbing.

[lbswiener · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Lost City of the Monkey God : a true story is a fascinating true adventure to discover the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God in Honduras. The imagery was very well described. Also written about was the Herculean effort that went into getting permits, funding, and gathering a very professional entourage of photographers, reporters, guides, archaeological, technological, anthropologist to go on an adventure of a lifetime. A very detailed report on group diseases and the causes was reported. In fact the disease that the author and the other people in his explorer group got on this exhibition could be used to determine when the mass annihilation of the city occurred. The author made the point that no civilization is immune to these diseases particularly now with climate change and the desire of the parasites to seek warmer weather.

[charrlygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story is not my normal cuppa, but came to me highly recommended. I'm glad that I reserved the audio at my library.

I enjoyed this story, but was slightly disappointed at the time spent actually exploring. The beginning of the book goes into previous expeditions to areas near this city and the problems faced due to the fact that Honduras can be a very dangerous country. Not only due to the insects, snakes and other poisonous creatures, but also because of drug cartels.

The brief portion that involved the actual exploration was fascinating. Imagine going into an area completely untouched by mankind in 500 hundred years. How exciting! However, the actuality of exploring such an area means exposing oneself to thousands of dangers from extremely deep mud, insects of all kinds, snakes and even jaguars, to name just a few.

There was another brief section talking about the problems with other archaeologists and academia throwing shade on this expedition, some of them doing so with no REAL knowledge of what went on, how LIDAR worked and what was found.

Lastly, and the part I found most interesting, was what happened to many of the explorers after they got home and that is: Leishmaniasis. OMG. This is a disease, (actually many diseases and symptoms, grouped under one name), which is mainly carried by tiny sand flies. The havoc this disease can wreak is almost unbelievable. This led to another section of the book which spoke about new world diseases and how they affected the Americas. There is talk of how some of the early civilizations disappeared and how that may have been caused by parasites and diseases. I found all of this fascinating but extremely scary. Most especially when it was mentioned that cases of Leish have now been found in Texas and the speculation about how that is because sand flies are moving northward due to climate change.

What I found most surprising is that many of the explorers that were diagnosed and treated for Leish, jumped at the chance to go back to the site. I can only assume that they were CRAZY!

I enjoyed this book and I learned a lot about Honduras and its history. I recommend The Lost City of the Monkey God to anyone interested in learning more about Honduras, the city and the history of the world, in general.

*I checked out this audio from my local library. Libraries RULE!*

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When Douglas Preston heard about a ruin secretly being hunted for somewhere in Central America, he was excited and ended up getting himself invited to serve as the official writer for an expedition to find a mythical lost city in Honduras. A new kind of military-grade radar allowed archeologists to look at the ground structure of even heavily forested areas and the question of whether it would be able to penetrate the densest rain forest in the Americas was one that a wealthy adventurer was willing to answer, putting together a team of scientists, archaeologists, film crew, Preston and a very sketchy fixer. The answer, of course, was yes and then the challenge became that of reaching a remote area, doing the fieldwork and keeping its location a secret from looters, all in an unstable country.

What follows is a mishmash of Indiana Jones-style adventures (lots of snakes) with a veneer of respectable archeology, some controversy, a few photo opportunities by politicians, and Preston, always at the center of the narrative. There's a fair amount of history, politics, science and nature, but never so much on any one topic to bore the restless reader. This is a beach read for those who don't want to read a novel or delve too deeply into any single subject. Despite the cursory nature of the many subjects this book touched on, it wasn't a bad introduction to any of those topics. It's quickly paced, with a big emphasis on how actively terrifying and beautiful the rain forest is. And the final chapters, about disease, felt entirely too of the moment.

[catherine.cox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A compelling read. This is actually two narratives. It starts out as an archaeological expedition to look for remains of a non-Mayan civilization, it ends with a fascinating and depressing discussion of a tropical disease.

The first part of the book starts with a good description of the rape of the peoples and environment of central american and Honduras in particular, by American Fruit companies.

The book concludes with an overview of the lamentable status of health care for the poor in the world today. Several members of the expedition contracted leishmaniasis. This is a well known (in the medical community) and poorly studied, often fatal disease. There is no money in cures for diseases that only attack poor people in poorer parts of the world.

The two narratives come together in the discussion of what might of ended human settlement in these cities.

[grandpahobo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent account of the discovery of a lost city (and civilization) in Guatamala. The authors account of the discovery, exploration and aftermath of these events are detailed and compelling.

[dele2451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Guaranteed to give you a tremendous respect for the fer-de-lance. A very interesting read.

[breic-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Preston's story of finding, and very partially excavating, two cities in the Honduran jungle. It is both interesting and readable. Perhaps the best parts were in the New Yorker magazine article, but there is (barely) enough material to make a book. I was sorry, though, that the first section, on discovering the sites, was so short. The section on the history of the region was interesting, as were the archaeology politics. The book would be much better if it included more archaeology, even if Preston had to use more second-hand stories. The sites apparently hadn't been much explored yet when the book was published.

The chapters on the author's and expedition's leishmaniasis infections were far too long. One chapter would have been plenty. Preston tries to connect his medical issues to the rest of the story. (1) He proposes that DNA mutations in the strain could be used to date the abandonment of the cities (acidic jungle soil destroys organic material), but this is implausible. (2) He connects the spread of diseases through the New World after contact with the Europeans to the climate-change-induced spread of leishmaniasis. This connection is also quite a stretch. Exploring the Honduran jungle? I want to know every detail. Visiting the NIH campus? I don't need to know what cars are parked in the lot.

[siri51 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating adventure, archaeology and surprising survival of a tropical disease, proving scientists (and those who travel with them to record) are brave and slightly crazy.

[big_bang_gorilla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In which is described an expedition to remote and forbidding northeastern Honduras to try and find remnants of a great Pre-Columbian city which has been the subject of rumor and legend throughout history. The book comes billed as a travel adventure, and indeed its middle third is a masterpiece of the genre. However, the book takes in much more territory; it begins with considerable history of legend origins and the several attempts to locate the city during the twentieth century and the mapping and remote sensing equipment and techniques which the expedition used as a preparation for its entry into the mountainous jungle. It ends by describing the controversy which the expedition provoked within the archaeological community, the forceful outrage of the Honduran indigine community, and, especially, the horrific effects of the leishmaniasis which many members of the expedition returned with. In a frightening coda, the author really spoils the picnic by describing how global heating has spread the disease into the United States; in the twentieth century there were twenty-nine American cases of it, all in extreme south Texas, but the disease has now been reported in Dallas/Fort Worth and Oklahoma, and its sandfly carriers have been reported hundreds of miles north of those places. Amid the serpents and the quickmud, this is the most frightening part of all in the book. The major thorn in this rose of a book is the ridiculously inadequate map, a scribbled, nearly illegible manuscript map from a century ago; this from an expedition which was able to produce finely detailed topo maps using state-of-the-art cartographic technology.

[MerariG3584 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First-person narration by the author of the book, based on all the experiences he lived, along with explorers, archaeologists, and technical teams who traveled several times to the region of La Mosquitia in Honduras to explore three target areas suspected of containing archaeological deposits. (Translated from Spanish)

[addunn3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting telling of the discovery of lost city in Honduran jungle and speculations about what happened to the inhabitants. I listened to the book but happened to see the print edition - seeing the pictures improved the listen greatly.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Author Douglas Preston joined a group of scientists on an expedition to excavate T-1, one of the possible locations of the Lost City of the Monkey God, in Honduras. They used lidar to help locate prospective sites and then determined which of the most likely sites to excavate. While "T-2" was a larger site, T-1's location was important to the person organizing the expedition and became the focus. Their work was criticized by some in the archaeological community. Many members, including Preston and National Geographic photographer Dave Yoder, contracted a tropical parasitic disease. There are three main focuses to the book--the expedition itself, the reaction of the archaeological community to the expedition, and the discovery and treatment of leishmaniasis which affected many on the expedition. Several members of the team, including Preston and Yoder, returned to the site later to further excavate it and to try to come up with ways to safeguard the antiquities which were at risk. The book opened by scaring the wits out of readers in much the same manner they were scared by their guide as they prepared for their first trip to Honduras with tales of the deadly fer de lance snake. I debated abandoning the book then and there because I am so phobic about snakes, but once you got past the initial scare, the actual encounters themselves were not nearly as frightening to the listener. I do, however, now know I have no desire to visit Honduras because I don't want to encounter that snake nor do I wish to be exposed to the tropical disease. Readers are made aware the disease is now in Texas and Oklahoma, proceeding along a northeasterly route being carried by a species of rats and the sand flea. By the end of the 21st century, the disease is expected to be a problem for all the United States and parts of Canada, due to global warming. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Bill Mumy.

[kglattstein · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a great read. Adventure, perspective, history with great storytelling. Loved it.

[highlander6022 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A very good book about prejudice against citizens of Japanese ancestry both before, during and after WWII. The book ostensibly is focused on a Japanese man unjustly accused of murder and his trial, but also provides some backstory to his life, while integrating the prejudice that existed. Somewhat slow moving in parts but made up for by the overall story.