The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

“We would be the first researchers to enter that part of Mosquitia. None of us had any idea what we would actually see on the ground, shrouded in dense jungle, in a pristine wilderness that had not seen human beings in living memory.”

Preston consistently emphasizes the unknown dangers and isolation of the T1 research area. This builds suspense and also heightens the reader’s anticipation for the discovery of the lost city. Preston uses captivating language to hook the reader at this point in the narrative, though this tone is eventually replaced by one that’s more scientific and pragmatic when he describes the research at T1.

“I can’t tell you any more, because this space-imaging data can be purchased by anybody. Anybody could do what we did and grab the credit. It could also be looted.” 

Elkins notes the extreme need for secrecy. Archaeologists are frequently shown as competing for leads and privileged information. What’s more, looters frequently sack and destroy archaeological sites if such privileged information makes its way to the public. Again, this works to create suspense and raise stakes in the narrative.

“Most Sacred Majesty [...] So wonderful are the reports about this particular province, that even allowing largely for exaggeration, it will exceed Mexico in riches, and equal it in the largeness of its towns and villages, the density of its population, and the policy of its inhabitants.” 

This quote, taken from a letter from Hernán Cortés to Emperor Charles V, marks the beginning of the White City legend in Western civilization. Preston opens the chapter with this quotation to demonstrate the importance of the White City legend and to provide it with historical legitimacy. This endows their eventual discovery of the T1 and T3 sites with more magnitude and importance than might exist without this historical context.

“The sight of this unexpected monument [...] prov[ed], like newly discovered historical records, that the people who once occupied the continent of America were not savages.” 

This quote from John Lloyd Stephens, after discovering a great sculpted monument with hieroglyphs at the ancient Maya site of Copán in Honduras, reflects the theme of indigenous American civilization that recurs throughout the book. At the time, in the 1830s, most Westerners only knew of indigenous Americans as hunter-gatherers and were largely unaware that ancient civilizations once existed in the Americas. Stephens’s explorations in Central America brought awareness of the heights of these ancient civilizations.

“That first attempt to find the White City changed Elkins. He went in curious about the White City legend and returned having found his life’s mission.” 

Here Elkins represents the many individuals who have developed an obsessive desire to find the White City, putting their lives and money on the line. Like the Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail, the White City legend draws people in and often dominates their lives. Preston’s dramatic statement here also foists Elkins’s obsession on the reader, building anticipation for his eventual discovery.

“One Honduran businessman told a reporter for the Telegraph in 2013: ‘This country is turning into the perfect zombie apocalypse.’” 

Preston provides this evocative quote while explaining the history of political and economic intervention and meddling in Honduras by the US government and US business. This long history of instigating extreme poverty and political instability in Honduras has led to a difficult, dangerous, and chaotic setting in which it is risky to conduct research. In addition to providing historical and political context, this exposition further builds the tone of suspense in the narrative.

“In five days, lidar had accomplished seven times more than the Chases had achieved in twenty-five years.” 

Lidar is introduced as an overwhelmingly powerful technology in archaeology, capable of finding sites and features at high resolution, even through thick jungle canopy. This technology has revolutionized archaeology and provided the key to finding the Lost City in the impenetrable Mosquitia rainforest. Without lidar, discoveries like those made at T1 and T3 would be nearly impossible, taking decades of hard labor to accomplish.

“Archaeology is in a race against deforestation; by the time archaeologists can reach a rainforest site to survey it, it may well be gone, fallen prey first to the logger’s ax and then the looter’s shovel.” 

Preston emphasizes the dangers of looting, which is often done by illegal loggers or ranchers. Such looting destroys archaeological sites and information which can never be replaced. It also increases the urgency of archaeological research in such regions, and in this narrative raises the stakes of finding the Lost City before looters do.

“That’s the most dangerous place on the planet, that river. [...] Life has no meaning up there.” 

Bruce Heinicke is quoted here while describing an event in which he killed two natives in self-defense on the Río Patuca in the Mosquitia region. Heinicke’s stories frequently provide evocative examples of the dangers in the region and Honduras. Such vivid descriptions work to continually raise the stakes of the narrative and build anticipation for the dangers that await the team in their expedition.

“We were flying above a primeval Eden, looking for a lost city using advanced technology to shoot billions of laser beams into a jungle that no human beings had entered for perhaps five hundred years: a twenty-first-century assault on an ancient mystery.” 

Flying over the valley of T1, Preston describes the pristine jungle below and juxtaposes it with the modern technology in their plane. This juxtaposition also emphasizes the extreme methods needed to resolve this ancient mystery and casts a greater allure on the hidden city below. The quote also succinctly summarizes the main narrative of the book.

“In his quixotic search for the mythical White City, Elkins and his team had found not one large site but two, apparently built by the almost unknown civilization that once inhabited Mosquitia.” 

When the lidar data reveals two large archaeological sites in two different valleys, it becomes clear that there is no single White City. Rather, the enigmatic Mosquitia civilization built multiple large settlements that were heretofore unknown. Such discoveries of large, unknown historical sites are common in archaeological lidar surveys, and while legends rarely turn out to be true, they are often based on some truth.

“‘I don’t think there is a single Ciudad Blanca,’ he said. ‘I think there are many.’ The myth, he said, is real in the sense that it holds intense meaning for Hondurans, but for archaeologists it’s mostly a ‘distraction.’” 

Archaeologist Chris Fisher dispels the White City legend as a story: There is an ancient civilization in Mosquitia that is much larger than previously known, but there is no mysterious, cursed White City. Despite popular belief and exaggerations from the popular press, archaeology routinely finds complex sites and data that rarely conform to such stories. Yet stories and legends are powerful tools in creating national and ethnic identities, and the White City is a significant symbol in the Honduran identity.

“It amazed me that a valley so primeval and unspoiled could still exist in the twenty-first century. It was truly a lost world, a place that did not want us and where we did not belong.” 

Preston muses on the unknown of the jungle during his first night at camp, after nearly getting lost and running into a large fer-de-lance. While the jungle is beautiful and Eden-like during the day, at night its dangers are fierce and ubiquitous. The jungle is portrayed almost as an entity, one whose dangers are intended to hide the secrets of the lost ruins, heightening the tone of danger.

“We could see nothing but leaves. Here we were, at the edge of a lost city, and we had no sense of the layout or distribution of the mounds and plazas so crisply visible on the lidar maps. The jungle cloaked all.” 

Preston is struck by the reality of exploring an archaeological site in a tropical jungle. While the reader may have expected descriptions of towering stone pyramids and walls, the reality is that sites in the jungle are nearly impossible to see through the dense growth. Only by their GPS units and lidar maps is the team able to recognize any archaeological features. The present state of the T1 site versus the expectation created by the White City legend helps break down that legend to make way for the scientific reality.

“I stood breathing in the rich odor of life, marveling at the silent mounds, the immense trees choked by strangler figs, the mats of hanging vines, the cries of birds and animals, the flowers nodding under the burden of water. The connection to the present world dissolved, and I felt we had somehow passed into a realm beyond time and space.” 

Preston further develops the jungle as a symbol of a lost, pristine world in stark contrast to our modern world. The jungle is continually presented as a living, breathing entity that is both beautiful and hostile. This setting is so isolated that Preston uses hyperbole, stating that time and space lose their meaning here.

“No wonder the rivers are drying up, the animals are going, the fish are dying!” 

Anthropologist Alicia González quotes the villagers of Wampusirpi, where many of the Honduran military contingent are from, as they react to pictures of deforestation. The people run an organic cacao cooperative and live sustainably with nature. This anecdote emphasizes the stark situation facing rural Hondurans, as deforestation and environmental degradation threaten their livelihoods.

“He said we could not engage in unethical behavior in anticipation of the illegal behavior of others. We must not do anything that would be viewed as unprofessional by the archaeological community. And besides, he said, it wasn’t our decision; this wasn’t our country; this was the national patrimony of Honduras.” 

The team discusses the ethics of excavating the large cache without a permit, due to their fear of looting by narcotraffickers or illegal settlers. The complexities of archaeological ethics are difficult, but the archaeologists on the team decide that behaving unethically out of fear is unacceptable. Archaeology frequently debates whether to study looted artifacts and how to protect sites from looters.

“It was no longer terra incognita. T1 had finally joined the rest of the world in having been discovered, explored, mapped, measured, trod upon, and photographed—a forgotten place no more. [...] I had the sense that our exploration had diminished it, stripping it of its secrets”

As Preston flies out of T1, he notes that the site is no longer as mysterious and pristine as it once was. While scientists and researchers have begun to answer the many questions about this place, they have also taken away its intrigue in the name of science. They have also brought the site onto the world stage, where it now faces the dangers of looting and destruction. Preston also notes that such dangers would have reached T1 at some point regardless, and so it is generally better to conduct research while sites are still pristine.

“‘They criticized,’ Virgilio said to me, ‘because they were not involved. Come on! They should be saying, “How can we get involved and help?” This is a project for my country, Honduras—for my children’s children.’” 

The fierce controversy in the archaeological community in response to the expedition are thought to be a result of jealousy. Many of the criticisms put forward by other archaeologists can be thrown back at some of them, and Preston does dispute some of their claims. Controversy incited by envy is not uncommon in archaeology.

“While the Maya are the most studied of ancient cultures in the Americas, the people of Mosquitia have been among the least—a question mark embodied by the legend of the White City.” 

Preston juxtaposes the enormous quantity of archaeological research about the Maya with the paucity of research into the civilization of Mosquitia, which does not even have a formal name. This lack of knowledge about the Mosquitia civilization makes the work at the T1 site immensely impactful. Such lack of knowledge also allows misleading legends like that of the White City to grow.

“Viewed in the light of these pandemics, the White City legends are a fairly straightforward description of a city (or several) swept by disease and abandoned by its people—a place that, furthermore, may have remained a hot zone for some time afterward.” 

Preston summarizes his thesis that the White City legend—in which a great city was struck by catastrophe and abandoned, forever cursed—arose after various Mosquitia cities were abandoned due to pandemics. This is yet one more example of the theme of legend versus reality, the idea that behind dramatic stories are more sober, complex realities. In the case of societal collapse caused by pandemic, Preston argues that we must learn from the past examples provided by archaeology and history.

“The ineffable mystery of being immersed in the living, breathing rainforest was gone; the area felt shrunken and bedraggled. A year of continuous occupation had taken its toll.” 

Preston describes the invasive human activity in the T1 valley a year after the first expedition. With a melancholy and sober tone, he describes the vast changes to the forest, the river, and the wildlife. While Preston still considers their research worthwhile, he also recognizes the profound effects such research has on the pristine natural environment. All research in such areas has costs and benefits.

“It chokes off the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. The survivors are deprived of that vital human connection to their past; they are robbed of their stories, their music and dance, their spiritual practices and beliefs—they are stripped of their very identity.” 

Preston describes the devastating effects of pandemic disease, emphasizing how extreme levels of mortality can rapidly destroy societies, traditions, and identities. This, he argues, is what probably led to the sudden collapse of the Mosquitia civilization. The legacy of this catastrophe survived only in the White City legend, before the T1 site and others were rediscovered.