While a remarkably important scientific discovery, the team's chief archaeologist decreed nothing could be excavated from the site at the time, which feels anticlimactic to the general public - and readers. It's possible that part of the dissatisfaction at the conclusion of this tale was rooted in the dissatisfaction in the expedition itself. The latter especially - an in-depth history of smallpox and other deadly diseases that systematically wiped out indigenous peoples - was a compelling read, but its contribution at the end of this book felt out of place.

Lengthy discussions of scientific equipment, aircraft, landing zones and, later, infectious diseases, while fascinating on their own, feel somewhat superfluous and ill-placed. The book originated as an article in National Geographic and it may have been a better story if kept restrained to magazine size. Preston unspools the history of the White City, the expedition and the journey itself in detail - sometimes in too much detail. Their intent was to map the city as well as explore and protect its rumored riches. They brought along a new piece of NASA-owned laser technology known as LIDAR or Light Detection and Ranging, which confirmed a sprawling metropolis inhabited around the same time as the Mayan civilization in modern-day Mexico. They faced floods, mountains, jaguars, deadly snakes, disease-carrying insects and other inherent challenges. In 2012, Preston joined a group of scientists, archaeologists, photographers and film producers who traveled to La Mosquitia, an unexplored and dangerous region of Central American jungle. For generations, indigenous people passed along stories of ancestors who fled there to escape Spanish invaders and that anyone who enters would get sick and die. ET on Science Channel, will take viewers along on the journey to find a settlement whose existence explorers and. This time, the subject matter is equally compelling - an ancient and sacred city in Honduras known as the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Lost City of the Monkey God, premiering Sunday, October 31st at 8 p.m.

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