The Lost City of the Monkey God

by Douglas Preston

Even as he uncovered many other ancient wonders, Strong continued to hear stories of the greatest ruin of them all, the White City, which he dismissed as a “lovely legend.” While sitting on the banks of the Río Tinto in Mosquitia, an informant told Strong the following story, which he recorded in his journal, under an entry entitled “The Forbidden City.” The lost city, he wrote, lies on the shores of a lake deep in the mountains to the north, its white ramparts surrounded by groves of orange, lemon, and banana trees. But if one partakes of the forbidden fruit, he will be lost in the hills forever. “So goes the tale,” Strong wrote, “but it would be better to do as an informant’s father did, follow the river until it becomes a mere trickle among dark rocks and woods and then have to turn back. The city would still be there that way. Like the ‘Ciudad Blanco’—the ‘forbidden fruit’ will probably long remain a lure to the curious.”