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Overall Summary

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story is a nonfiction book by Douglas Preston, who covered various expeditions in search of the legendary Lost City of the Monkey God. The author’s book follows an aerial lidar survey and a ground expedition organized and led by documentary producer Steve Elkins.

The first five chapters discuss the history of the Lost City of the Monkey God, also known as Ciudad Blanca. The author provides a historical context for how this legend came to be and follows its development over time. He talks about Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and other explorers who tried to find it, along with frauds who claimed they did but were lying. Throughout these chapters he builds suspense by talking about how dangerous this area is—the isolation and dangers are emphasized throughout these chapters.

In chapters 6-12, Elkins tells us about his failed expedition to find the White City in 1994. He then goes on to tell us how he found it again with Preston’s help using advanced laser scanning technology called lidar. The discovery of two ancient cities leads them to believe that the legend of a single city was likely based on a more complex reality: an advanced civilization.

Preston narrates his experiences on Elkins’s 2015 ground expedition to one of the two sites found via lidar, called T1, in Chapters 13-19. The book follows their exploration of the ruined city and many dangers they face in the jungle. Preston concludes this section by recognizing and evaluating controversy generated from their expedition as well as press coverage surrounding it.

The book’s final eight chapters discuss the team’s interpretations of their discoveries. Preston argues that the Mosquitia civilization was likely decimated and abandoned after 1500 due to a pandemic brought by Spanish explorers. He relates this hypothesis to an outbreak of a fatal disease, leishmaniasis, which he and much of his team experienced after the expedition. Preston closes by noting that we ignore history and archaeology at our own peril, since disease is also one of modern civilization’s greatest threats.

Throughout Preston’s book, he explores the themes of legend versus reality and looting and destruction of natural environments. He ties these two themes together by using Elkins’s quest to find the Lost City as an example. The dangers present in Honduras help to maintain a suspenseful tone throughout the book. Ultimately, Preston wants his readers to affirm the value of archaeology, science, and unrelenting research.

Chapter 1: “The Gates of Hell”

The author describes the unknown and dangerous La Mosquitia region of Honduras, which is a very dangerous place. The author also notes how most of Honduras is extremely dangerous, due to its high murder rate. A journalist named Preston sits in a conference room with scientists and archaeologists in Catacamas, Honduras. An ex-SAS sergeant major named Woody presents to the group the countless lethal dangers of the jungle and establishes military-strict rules over them. Preston muses that T1 did not look so foreboding from the air.

Chapter 2: “Somewhere in the Americas”

The book and study guide use the terms Lost City, White City, Ciudad Blanca, and Lost City of the Monkey God interchangeably. The author recounts how he first heard about a legendary lost city in 1996 while working on an aerial radar imagery project to find archaeological sites in Cambodia. Ron Blom, the leader of that project, told Preston that he was working on locating a legendary lost city in Central America. It was secret information at first but then Preston discussed it with Harvard archaeologists David Stuart and Gordon Willey who suggested that it must be the legendary White City reported to exist in an unexplored area of Honduras. Later Preston is contacted by Steve Elkins whose team has narrowed down their search for a mysterious lost city to La Mosquitia region called Target One or T1.