I know some archeologists cringe at the name.Īrchaeologists cringe for good reason. I wonder how pulp stories like Indiana Jones feed into this. The fierce physical terrain, combined with surrounding lawlessness and violence, have protected this area for centuries.
The towns and rural areas surrounding the jungle are largely controlled by drug cartels, with a murder rate that is the highest in the world. In Mosquitia, an experienced group of explorers, well equipped with machetes and saws, can expect to journey two to three miles in a brutal 10-hour day. The understory is infested with deadly snakes, jaguars, and thickets of catclaw vines with hooked thorns that tear at flesh and clothing. In this area, some of the thickest rain forest on Earth covers precipitous mountain chains, some over a mile high, with roaring torrents, frequent landslides, steep ravines, waterfalls, pools of quick mud that will swallow a person alive, and noxious insects carrying diseases. Geography - natural and human - has everything to do with why the city remained undiscovered. How much did geography and terrain help shield the ruins? It's fascinating how impenetrable this part of the world is. You use the first part of the book to explore some of the history of the region and how this city has been seeped in local legend. Finally, most of the sea bed has never been explored and there are many shipwrecks and natural wonders to be found. Other scientifically unexplored areas where there might be undiscovered ruins include the deeper parts of the Amazon and the heavily forested mountains in the central highlands of Peru. It has been alleged that during the Contra war people were thrown out of helicopters into these gaping sinkholes, so there may be more awaiting the explorer than prehistoric burials. Because the ancient inhabitants of the region buried their dead in caves, these caverns likely hide major necropolises, ossuaries, and other archaeological treasures. Clearly an extensive cavern system lies in this area, and our research indicates it has never been entered or explored in modern times. The only way to get into this area would be by rappelling down from a hovering chopper. While doing aerial reconnaissance of Mosquitia, back in 2012, our expedition team spied gigantic sinkholes and monumental cave openings in an exceedingly remote area of rugged karst topography east of the Patuca River, near the Nicaraguan border. As the book shows, our LIDAR survey turned up not one but two lost cities, and the second one - as large as the core of Copan - has not been explored at all.
There are certainly more lost cities hidden in the heavily jungled mountains of Mosquitia. Are there other places around the world that might be out there, hidden? Your book, The Lost City of the Monkey God is about a long-lost Honduran civilization that was recently discovered. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. We spoke with Douglas Preston about the city and the research that he has recounted in his book. The peril continued even after they departed: the team discovered that while on site, they had been infected by a flesh-eating parasite. The site was not without dangers: the city is located in a region controlled by drug cartels, while deadly snakes and forest creatures roam the jungle. The cities belonged to a previously unknown civilization, and the reasons for its collapse aren’t known, although Preston speculates that the apocalyptic pandemics could have played a role. When Preston accompanied a team of archeologists to explore the city on foot, they found an undisturbed set of ruins overrun by the forest, likely untouched since it was abandoned. In recent years, archeologists have begun using the technology to survey archeological sites from planes, often discovering structures that can’t be seen from the ground. The system works by using lasers to calculate distances: it’s been used in everything self-driving cars to astronauts mapping the Moon. The site had first been located in 2012 when archeologists used Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) surveys to explore the dense jungle. The book deals with the history of efforts to explore the legendary “White City,” and more recent efforts from archeologists to track down its location. In 2015, Preston had been part of an expedition to Honduras that located an unexplored city deep in the rain forests of the country, one that belonged to an as-of-yet unknown civilization. In January, author Douglas Preston released his latest book, The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story.