40 pages • 1 hour read
Douglas PrestonThe Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Douglas Preston
While an ancillary figure in most of the events described in the book, Preston narrates many chapters through his own perspective of the events as they took place. Preston is a journalist covering both the 2012 lidar survey and the 2015 expedition to T1 for National Geographic. His anecdotes paint him as an active team member, not comfortable passively documenting the events around him but rather participating in them. While it is not explicitly stated, Preston seems to take part in the action so that his writing provides a more evocative first-person perspective, which he uses throughout much of the book. For example, he sits in the third lidar survey flight with “no seat, my knees in my mouth” (94) so he can accurately describe the raw majesty of the T1 valley as seen from the air. When he contracts leishmaniasis, he opportunistically uses his own experiences, and those of others on the team, support the symbol of disease that is so strong toward the end of the book.
Preston also provides numerous instances demonstrating his tenacity as an investigator. He deftly acquires Theodore Morde’s journals, which no one has read in full before, to prove that Morde never actually searched for the White City but panned for gold instead. Yet Preston also softens these anecdotes by contrasting them with his many mistakes, such as nearly getting lost in the jungle, nearly walking into a six-foot fer-de-lance, and accidentally shutting off the lidar machine during the third survey flight. These anecdotes also increase the sense of danger and build suspense throughout the narrative.
Dr. Chris Fisher
Dr. Chris Fisher is a Mesoamerican archaeologist and professor of anthropology at Colorado State University. He is also an expert in the application of lidar in archaeological survey, having worked on the groundbreaking Caracol lidar project as well as a lidar survey of the Tarascan site of Angamuco in Mexico. Because of this expertise, Steve Elkins brings him into the team. Fisher plays perhaps the most critical role in the lidar survey, expedition, and later excavation of the cache at T1 by being the archaeological expert. He interprets the lidar imagery, explores and documents the T1 site on the ground, and leads the excavation of the sculpture cache. Perhaps most importantly, Fisher’s expertise and credentials lend credibility to the project and its interpretations, which is especially crucial given the controversy it causes.
Fisher is described as a passionate, energetic, thorough, and realistic researcher. He spends six months pouring over the lidar data, producing detailed maps, and evaluating the results. In the 2015 expedition to T1, Fisher is the most zealous team member, leading the charge to explore and document as much of the site as possible in the limited time available. Yet Fisher does not exaggerate or embellish his findings, and instead provides reasoned interpretations based on the evidence. Fisher’s main role in the narrative is to break down and demystify the White City legend and replace it with a more complex reality based on archaeological fact.
Steve Elkins
Steve Elkins is a TV producer and self-described “cinematographer, a curious man, an adventurer” (9). He is an enthusiastic amateur archaeologist who has obsessed over several archaeological legends for decades, but none so intensely as the Lost City of the Monkey God. He perseveres after a failed expedition to find it in 1994, eventually recognizing the revolutionary potential of lidar technology, which allows him to find two ancient cities.
While Elkins has a relatively minor role in the narrative, his work as instigator, fundraiser, and organizer of the lidar survey and ground expedition make him a central background figure. His passion for finding the Lost City and his leadership in organizing the teams for the 2012 survey and 2015 expedition drive most of the book’s action.
Bruce Heinicke
Bruce Heinicke is Steve Elkins’s longtime fixer in Honduras, who coordinates Elkins’s 1994 expedition and 2012 lidar survey despite the dangers and corruption in Honduras. Though Bruce Heinicke passed away before the 2015 ground expedition to T1, his role as the dangerous rogue in the book’s first half lends it the tone of an adventure story before the team even enters the jungle. Heinicke’s past as a looter, an artifact smuggler, and a drug runner for a Colombian cartel are told through various provocative stories.
