Curses might not be a concern for scientists, but when you’re exploring the rainforest ruins of a fabled city whose citizens fled because the ‘gods’ had cursed them with agonizing diseases it pays to be wary.

That’s what a group of explorers and archaeologists discovered when they set off into the 20,000-square-mile-deep rainforests of Honduras and Nicaragua in search of the fabled ‘Lost City of the Monkey God’.

The expedition fought off venom-spitting snakes and crawled through dense woodland to find the city – but the jungle had the last laugh, as they were forced to fight off a grisly, life-threatening illness, CBS reported.

The story begins some time in the 16th century, when the inhabitants of the city – also known as ‘The White City’ – fled, believing it had been cursed.

In reality they were suffering from an invasion by European settlers, who brought with them the twin horrors of disease and slavery.

For hundreds of years, explorers had hoped to rediscover the crumbling former metropolis and the items that its citizens had left behind when they fled.

But it was lost somewhere in 20,000 miles of Mosquitia rainforest, which straddles the border of Honduras and Nicaragua, and the search defeated even the most valiant hearts.

In fact, it has remained one of the last scientifically unexplored places on Earth.

That is, until now.

Author Douglas Preston and explorer Steve Elkins – bankrolled by documentary filmmaker Bill Benenson – used high technology to locate the mysterious city.

They employed laser imaging equipment installed in an old Cessna Skymaster plane to scan hundreds of miles of jungle in just days, zapping ‘through’ the tree cover to map the ground below.

That information was then used to create 3D computer models that could point the intrepid heroes towards their goal – which is exactly what it did, uncovering rectangular structures, one with a perfect right angle.

‘They were either man-made or the world’s most intelligent gophers were out there, doing things they’d never done before,’ Benenson said.

‘Well, I knew we found a city, an ancient city,’ confirmed Elkins, who had attempted to find it before, in 1994. ‘That I knew. But what it was, beyond that, that was up to the archaeologists to figure out.’

They brought in Colorado State’s Chris Fisher, who noted the site was ‘very, very important’ for the region.

But to find out what it actually was, they would have to forget the planes and head there on foot – a risky prospect that took three whole years to plan.

Not only did they have to contest with the thick foliage and uneven terrain, the team also risked illness, injury or worse from the wildlife there – as they discovered when a deadly fer-de-lance snake squirmed into their camp.

Andrew Wood, an ex-SAS soldier and jungle warfare expert, nabbed the beast – but it still posed a deadly threat.

‘He pinned the snake,’ Elkins recalled, ‘but the snake exploded at that point into an absolute fury of striking everywhere, squirting venom, streams of venom across the night air.’

It was beheaded and strung up to a tree – a trophy for the team, and a warning to other snakes who might decide to drop by.

Eventually the team found the city, but the flora was so dense that it was impossible to see even the foundations of a massive pyramid that once stood there.

It was only when they found carvings the next day that they realized they had found the ‘cursed’ city.

‘Someone said, “Hey, wait a minute, there’s some weird stones over here,”‘ Elkins recalled.

‘And we all came back and the first thing I saw was a jaguar head coming out of the ground, carved in stone, snarling.’

The find was so exciting that the Honduran President removed the first artifact himself – causing complaints from some who said the area was sacred and should have remained untouched.

And perhaps the Monkey God agreed.

Because even after the team left the rainforest, they realized several of their number had taken something with them: Leishmaniasis, a ghastly parasite spread by sand flies that wreaks gruesome havoc on the human body.

‘The parasite migrates to the mucous membranes of your mouth and your nose, and basically eats them away,’ Preston explained.

‘Your nose falls off, your lips fall off, and eventually your face becomes a gigantic, open sore.’

Elkins and Benenson managed to escape infection, but around half of the team were not so lucky, and had to undergo treatment.

Side-effects from some drugs used to treat the horrendous parasite can include vomiting, cramps and neurological effects.

And the threat of that disease – and the other manifold dangers of the rainforest – will be keeping the team away from the site for the foreseeable future.

‘It’s just too dangerous,’ Preston said. ‘And just getting in and out is dangerous.’

The Monkey God will keep its secrets for a little while longer, it seems.

Benenson’s documentary on the quest is still in production. 

Source: Daily Mail