The Most Ordinary of Boys... The Most Extraordinary of Books... When the two collide, a destiny is set into motion which cannot be undone. Without warning, a secretive cult emerges ready to kill, and a horrifying Beast appears in the dead of night - craving to devour the Keeper of the Book. Suddenly, Cody Clemenson is forced to flee with his best friend Jade. Their journey will lead them to mystical locations and thrust them into uncharted lands, where an ancient feud between two long-lost cities is teetering on the brink of war. Will Cody rise to the occasion and become the hero he's always dreamt of being? Or will he succumb to the power of the evil empire? The fate of the world now hinges on him - and the cryptic words written in a simple, leather Book... A Power Long Maintained - Now Faded, A Secret Long Kept - Soon Unveiled, A City Long Lost - Ready to Be Found.
The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, named one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and National Geographic: acclaimed journalist Douglas Preston takes readers on a true adventure deep into the Honduran rainforest in this riveting narrative about the discovery of a lost civilization -- culminating in a stunning medical mystery. Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-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 rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, 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 an enigmatic, lost civilization. Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease. Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising 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.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon comes a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction that unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century—the story of the legendary British explorer who ventured into the Amazon jungle in search of a fabled civilization and never returned. “Suspenseful…rollicking.” —The New York Times In 1925, Percy Fawcett went into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle. Look for David Grann’s new book, The Wager, coming in April 2023!
Josh and his friend Olivia are searching for sacred talismans of the ancient world. In "Legends of the lost city" they travel to China in search of the second talisman.
Olly and Josh are in China on the track of another precious talisman - the Mooncake of Chang-O. Once again the friends' eager investigations lead them into all sorts of trouble - escaping an ancient sect, finding a lost city and outwitting a dangerous enemy who wants the talisman for himself.
*Includes pictures *Includes excerpts of medieval accounts *Includes a bibliography for further reading The story of Atlantis has captured the minds and hearts of historians, scientists, artists, and writers for millennia, and yet, it never ceases to amaze people when told that the only literary evidence that exists comes from a single 4th century BCEE author. The Athenian philosopher Plato, famous for his dialogues in which the Socratic Method was invented, was the first writer to mention the mysterious continent of Atlantis. In his works Timaeus and Critias, Plato outlines the beginning of the story of Atlantis, but the Critias, where the longer and more detailed account takes place, was never finished and, therefore, has become the mysterious germ for millennia of thought. The annals of world history are filled with intriguing, although often outlandish stories of lost cities and kingdoms, and in addition to Atlantis, there are also Hyperborea, Shambhala, and Aztlan, to name just a few. Besides being cities and kingdoms that have been lost, often through some sort of catastrophe, all of these places are mentioned in religious texts or as part of a peoples' national history. They play a major role in the identity of certain groups, at least in how certain groups identify with these mythical places. Although many, if not all, of these locations are mythical, they may have been based on actual locations, even if modern scholars are yet to definitively discover any such places. One of these lost cities is that known as Ubar, Wabar or Iram, names which are all believed to refer to the same, possibly mythical, location. The city is mentioned as a den of iniquity that was destroyed by God, both in the Quran as well as the mythical Arabian Nights. As such, Ubar became a metaphor for how good Muslims should not act, and what could happen to non-believers, especially when allowed to congregate in a specific area. Later Islamic historians and geographers describe Ubar as being somewhere in the Arabian Desert, in what is today the nation-state of Oman. In modern times there were a few attempts to locate the lost city, but, for the most part, they were futile. Ubar and its location continued to fascinate people around the world, and it seemed as though its secrets would remain hidden beneath the Arabian sands until the 1980s, when a photojournalist named Nicholas Clapp became interested in the city. Clapp eventually turned his interest into a full-time endeavor to find Ubar and put together a team of adventurers and archaeologists, receiving funding from a number of different sources. Working backwards from the few scant historical and geographical accounts that portray Ubar as a prosperous city or kingdom in the centuries before Islam, Clapp and his team narrowed their search to a location on the edge of the Arabian Desert in the Dhofar region of Oman. It is there that they believed they found Ubar, which appeared to be a productive, wealthy, and growing city from the early 1st millennium BCEE until as late as the 6th century BCEE. Clapp received great fame for his discovery and recorded his journey in a book, even as some historians remained convinced that he had not actually discovered Ubar. In fact, some continue to believe that Ubar was a purely mythical place, even as others are convinced that it was a large, historical kingdom that remains lost. The Lost City of Ubar: The History and Legends of the Ancient Arabian City Known as the Atlantis of the Sands chronicles the origins of the city, the stories about it, the way the stories spread as they became more popular, and their impact on history. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Atlantis of the Sands like never before.
**NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING ROBERT PATTINSON, CHARLIE HUNNAM AND SIENNA MILLER** ‘A riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling tale of adventure’JOHN GRISHAM The story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, the inspiration behind Conan Doyle's The Lost World, by the author of the international Number One bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE WAGER Fawcett was among the last of a legendary breed of British explorers. For years he explored the Amazon and came to believe that its jungle concealed a large, complex civilization, like El Dorado. Obsessed with its discovery, he christened it the City of Z. In 1925, Fawcett headed into the wilderness with his son Jack, vowing to make history. They vanished without a trace. For the next eighty years, hordes of explorers plunged into the jungle, trying to find evidence of Fawcett's party or Z. Some died from disease and starvation; others simply disappeared. In this spellbinding true tale of lethal obsession, David Grann retraces the footsteps of Fawcett and his followers as he unravels one of the greatest mysteries of exploration. ‘A wonderful story of a lost age of heroic exploration’ Sunday Times ‘Marvellous ... An engrossing book whose protagonist could out-think Indiana Jones’ Daily Telegraph ‘The best story in the world, told perfectly’ Evening Standard ‘A fascinating and brilliant book’ Malcolm Gladwell
The NUMA crew, under Kurt Austin’s direction, take on a blood-thirsty family with a fortune built on crime, in what may be race to discover the very secret of ever-lasting life in this heart-bounding installment in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series. Kurt Austin is mid-mission when his new colleague, the stunning archeologist Skye Labelle, is called away to examine a mysterious 16th-century military helmet discovered in the possession of a very contemporary-looking corpse. Ms. Labelle’s research on the armor draws her into the sights of a ruthless black-widow with her own plans for the artifact. As danger creeps closer to Ms. Labelle, a scientist half-way across the globe is kidnapped. At the same time, experts working to harvest an enzyme discovered two thousand feet down in the North Atlantic, in an area known as “Lost City,” start turning up dead. Worlds apart in location and areas of expertise, they all have something in common. And it’s up to Kurt Austin, with the help of Joe Zavala and the NUMA Special Assignments Team, to put the pieces together if he’s going to keep his friend safe.
Atlantis was first introduced by the Greek philosopher Plato in two "dialogues" he wrote in the fourth century B.C. His tale of a great empire that sank beneath the waves -- a tale that Plato never even finished -- has sparked thousands of years of debate over whether Atlantis really existed. But did Plato mean his tale as history, or just as a parable to help illustrate his philosophy? In "The Atlantis Dialogue," you'll find everything Plato said about Atlantis, in the context he intended. Now you can read and judge for yourself! //////////////////////////////////////// "An easy read . . . Provides a good starting point for anyone wanting to learn more about the Atlantis myth." -- Judy Justice, Midwest Book Review, Mar. 2002 (Reviewer's Choice) //////////////////////////////////////// SAMPLE CRITIAS: Consider then, Socrates, if this narrative is suited to the purpose, or whether we should seek for some other instead. SOCRATES: And what other, Critias, can we find that will be better than this, which is natural and suitable to the festival of the goddess, and has the very great advantage of being a fact and not a fiction? How or where shall we find another if we abandon this? We cannot, and therefore you must tell the tale, and good luck to you; and I in return for my yesterday's discourse will now rest and be a listener. CRITIAS: Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as I was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various nations of barbarians and families of Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must describe first of all Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with them, and then the respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms.
