The Lost City of the Monkey God would not be on my radar, had it not been for the reading challenge that I prepared for 2020. Fortunately, I am preparing such lists, and I am forcing myself to read different books. It was excellent to discover and read this book. If you want to read a real-life Indiana Jones story, you’ll love this book!

The Lost City of the Monkey God tells the story of the discovery of the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God in the Honduras rainforest. It was so exciting to read what happened to the team, including author Douglas Preston, I didn’t want to finish it. Archaeological studies under the threat of the world’s most dangerous snakes and the drug cartel will blow your mind. But the book is not just that; it is also about the history of Honduras, archaeology, anthropology and medicine’s helplessness against various diseases.
I didn’t expect to learn so much from such an entertaining book. So I will definitely take a look at Douglas Preston’s other books, as this is a book that satisfied me in every sense. I highly recommend this. Enjoy!

The Lost City of the Monkey God
Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumours have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden deep in the Honduran interior. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders and warn the legendary city is cursed. To enter it is a death sentence. They call it the Lost City of the Monkey God. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artefacts. And an electrifying story of having found the City 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 single-engine plane carrying 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 a lost civilization.
To confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, plagues of insects, jaguars, and so deadly snakes. They emerged from the jungle with proof of the legend… and the curse. They had contracted a horrifying, incurable and so sometimes lethal disease.
Suspenseful and shocking, filled with history, 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.
Douglas Preston
Douglas Jerome Preston is an American journalist and so author. Although he is best known for his thrillers in collaboration with Lincoln Child, he has also written six solo novels. Including the Wyman Ford series and a novel entitled Jennie, which was made into a movie by Disney.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges: