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Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of Africa and Arabia
Rogue adventurer and maverick archaeologist Childress takes the reader on unforgettable journeys in search of lost cities and ancient mysteries. Join him as he crosses deserts, mountains, and jungles in search of legendary cities, vast gold treasure, jungle pyramids, ancient seafarers, living dinosaurs, and solutions to the fantastic mysteries of the past.
325 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1987
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248 people want to read
About the author
David Hatcher Childress
85 books207 followersDavid Hatcher Childress (born 1957) is an American author and publisher of books on topics in alternative history and historical revisionism. His works often cover such subjects as pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, the Knights Templar, lost cities and vimana aircraft. Despite his public involvement in the general field of study, Childress claims to have no academic credentials as a professional archaeologist.
Born in France, and raised in Colorado, Childress began his world travels at age nineteen in pursuit of his archaeological interests. In 1983 Childress relocated to Stelle, Illinois, a community founded by New Age writer Richard Kieninger, after Childress was given a book authored by Kieninger while touring Africa. Childress chronicled his explorations in his Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries series of books, whose core concepts were influenced by the ideas of Kieninger.
While residing in Stelle, Childress began self publishing his own works and later other authors, which focus on presenting fringe scientific theories regarding ancient civilizations and little-known technologies, as well as establishing a travel business in partnership with Kieninger. In 1991, in the nearby town of Kempton, Illinois, Childress, along with historian and linguist Carl W. Hart, founded the World Explorers Club, a group that often travels to the places he writes about, and an affiliated magazine, World Explorer.
David Hatcher Childress has appeared on several television programs on NBC ("The Mysterious Origins of Man"), Fox Network (Sightings and Encounters), Discovery Channel, A&E, The History Channel, as a commentator on subjects such as the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, and UFOs.
Childress has been involved in two lawsuits regarding his publishing activities, one of which failed due to the expiry of a statute of limitations and the other, involving his company's publication of a master's thesis without permission, which was settled out of court.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ha...
Born in France, and raised in Colorado, Childress began his world travels at age nineteen in pursuit of his archaeological interests. In 1983 Childress relocated to Stelle, Illinois, a community founded by New Age writer Richard Kieninger, after Childress was given a book authored by Kieninger while touring Africa. Childress chronicled his explorations in his Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries series of books, whose core concepts were influenced by the ideas of Kieninger.
While residing in Stelle, Childress began self publishing his own works and later other authors, which focus on presenting fringe scientific theories regarding ancient civilizations and little-known technologies, as well as establishing a travel business in partnership with Kieninger. In 1991, in the nearby town of Kempton, Illinois, Childress, along with historian and linguist Carl W. Hart, founded the World Explorers Club, a group that often travels to the places he writes about, and an affiliated magazine, World Explorer.
David Hatcher Childress has appeared on several television programs on NBC ("The Mysterious Origins of Man"), Fox Network (Sightings and Encounters), Discovery Channel, A&E, The History Channel, as a commentator on subjects such as the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, and UFOs.
Childress has been involved in two lawsuits regarding his publishing activities, one of which failed due to the expiry of a statute of limitations and the other, involving his company's publication of a master's thesis without permission, which was settled out of court.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ha...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 2, 2008
Disclaimer: this book is full of ridiculous speculation; nevertheless a great sourcebook of pop mythology, conspiracy, and archeaological anomalies.
September 26, 2011
Far fetched, but entertaining if read as semi-fiction.
May 25, 2009
It's kind of physically painful to give this book two stars, but it's really one of the few works I could find that cover the subject in this detail. I would give it three for its utility to me... but really, it's practically unreadable.
Semi-self-published by some culty lunatic asylum in Illinois, the book (part of a rather large series) would clearly have benefited from an agressive book editor or project manager who would have trimmed down Childress's meandering prose and tightened the book by a hundred pages, then beaten the interior page designer with a tire iron. Never mind that said book editor might also have challenged some of Childress's more bizarre lapses in documentation which -- quite apart from the outlandish and unsupported claims he makes throughout the book -- make the thing of limited utility even to scholars of esoterica like this humble poster.
To be honest, the unreadable and amateurish layout meant I could not read the whole thing cover to cover -- if I had, I would be making this post from inside Arkham asylum. However, I did pull some interesting theories from it, including that of "Lake Tritonis," which was more or less what I was looking for. Lake Tritonis was a vast inland lake that supposedly covered a good deal of what is now the Sahara desert. The existence of this lake appears to be more or less accepted among geologists, but Childress claims it existed within human memory -- which there's little support for, but hey, that's why it's fringe history, right?
Childress, a fringe archaeologist, draws his information from a single source: The Ancient Atlantic by L. Taylor Hansen, an Amazing Stories author who also wrote on fringe archaeology (as did several of pulp's best-known authors -- L. Sprague de Camp and Avram Davidson being notable examples).
Sadly, I have been unable to secure a copy of this valued tome. Childress, as far as I can guess, took from it verbatim the information he relates... since Hansen's rather obscure book is the only reference he sites, and he refers to the place as Lake Triton (not Tritonis), a name I can't find anywhere else. I can only assume the name comes from Hansen.
Regardless, as it turns out the supposed lake is referred to by Herodotus and Apollonius of Rhodes. Dude! Way to note primary references. It's kind of physically painful to give this book two stars, but it's really one of the few works I could find that cover the subject in this detail. I would give it three for its utility to me... but really, it's practically unreadable.
Semi-self-published by some culty lunatic asylum in Illinois, the book (part of a rather large series) would clearly have benefited from an agressive book editor or project manager who would have trimmed down Childress's meandering prose and tightened the book by a hundred pages, then beaten the interior page designer with a tire iron. Never mind that said book editor might also have challenged some of Childress's more bizarre lapses in documentation which -- quite apart from the outlandish and unsupported claims he makes throughout the book -- make the thing of limited utility even to scholars of esoterica like this humble poster.
To be honest, the unreadable and amateurish layout meant I could not read the whole thing cover to cover -- if I had, I would be making this post from inside Arkham asylum. However, I did pull some interesting theories from it, including that of "Lake Tritonis," which was more or less what I was looking for. Lake Tritonis was a vast inland lake that supposedly covered a good deal of what is now the Sahara desert. The existence of this lake appears to be more or less accepted among geologists, but Childress claims it existed within human memory -- which there's little support for, but hey, that's why it's fringe history, right?
Childress, a fringe archaeologist, draws his information from a single source: The Ancient Atlantic by L. Taylor Hansen by L. Taylor Hansen. Sadly, I have been unable to secure a copy of this valued tome. Childress, as far as I can guess, took from it verbatim the information he relates... since it's the only reference he sites, and he refers to the place as Lake Triton (not Tritonis), a name I can't find anywhere else. I can only assume the name comes from Hansen.
Regardless, as it turns out the supposed lake is referred to by Herodotus and Apollonius of Rhodes. Dude! Way to note primary references.
The problems with this section, which was the only part I was really willing to pore over, are endemic to the book. After a couple hours of alternating boredom and curmudgeonliness, my efforts to read the whole thing really didn't seem worth it. Following enough of an effort to bring myself to head-pounding frustration with the font and the lack of editing, I gave up.
In short, open memo to Mr. Childress: 1) Get a book editor, 2) Get a better designer, 3) Stop rambling! Oh, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence -- no, no, let's just scratch that one, because really who cares? It's fringe theory, fringe archaeology, and I forgive it every failing except the ones I don't forgive it. Because that's how my inner Von Daniken rolls, babe.
Semi-self-published by some culty lunatic asylum in Illinois, the book (part of a rather large series) would clearly have benefited from an agressive book editor or project manager who would have trimmed down Childress's meandering prose and tightened the book by a hundred pages, then beaten the interior page designer with a tire iron. Never mind that said book editor might also have challenged some of Childress's more bizarre lapses in documentation which -- quite apart from the outlandish and unsupported claims he makes throughout the book -- make the thing of limited utility even to scholars of esoterica like this humble poster.
To be honest, the unreadable and amateurish layout meant I could not read the whole thing cover to cover -- if I had, I would be making this post from inside Arkham asylum. However, I did pull some interesting theories from it, including that of "Lake Tritonis," which was more or less what I was looking for. Lake Tritonis was a vast inland lake that supposedly covered a good deal of what is now the Sahara desert. The existence of this lake appears to be more or less accepted among geologists, but Childress claims it existed within human memory -- which there's little support for, but hey, that's why it's fringe history, right?
Childress, a fringe archaeologist, draws his information from a single source: The Ancient Atlantic by L. Taylor Hansen, an Amazing Stories author who also wrote on fringe archaeology (as did several of pulp's best-known authors -- L. Sprague de Camp and Avram Davidson being notable examples).
Sadly, I have been unable to secure a copy of this valued tome. Childress, as far as I can guess, took from it verbatim the information he relates... since Hansen's rather obscure book is the only reference he sites, and he refers to the place as Lake Triton (not Tritonis), a name I can't find anywhere else. I can only assume the name comes from Hansen.
Regardless, as it turns out the supposed lake is referred to by Herodotus and Apollonius of Rhodes. Dude! Way to note primary references. It's kind of physically painful to give this book two stars, but it's really one of the few works I could find that cover the subject in this detail. I would give it three for its utility to me... but really, it's practically unreadable.
Semi-self-published by some culty lunatic asylum in Illinois, the book (part of a rather large series) would clearly have benefited from an agressive book editor or project manager who would have trimmed down Childress's meandering prose and tightened the book by a hundred pages, then beaten the interior page designer with a tire iron. Never mind that said book editor might also have challenged some of Childress's more bizarre lapses in documentation which -- quite apart from the outlandish and unsupported claims he makes throughout the book -- make the thing of limited utility even to scholars of esoterica like this humble poster.
To be honest, the unreadable and amateurish layout meant I could not read the whole thing cover to cover -- if I had, I would be making this post from inside Arkham asylum. However, I did pull some interesting theories from it, including that of "Lake Tritonis," which was more or less what I was looking for. Lake Tritonis was a vast inland lake that supposedly covered a good deal of what is now the Sahara desert. The existence of this lake appears to be more or less accepted among geologists, but Childress claims it existed within human memory -- which there's little support for, but hey, that's why it's fringe history, right?
Childress, a fringe archaeologist, draws his information from a single source: The Ancient Atlantic by L. Taylor Hansen by L. Taylor Hansen. Sadly, I have been unable to secure a copy of this valued tome. Childress, as far as I can guess, took from it verbatim the information he relates... since it's the only reference he sites, and he refers to the place as Lake Triton (not Tritonis), a name I can't find anywhere else. I can only assume the name comes from Hansen.
Regardless, as it turns out the supposed lake is referred to by Herodotus and Apollonius of Rhodes. Dude! Way to note primary references.
The problems with this section, which was the only part I was really willing to pore over, are endemic to the book. After a couple hours of alternating boredom and curmudgeonliness, my efforts to read the whole thing really didn't seem worth it. Following enough of an effort to bring myself to head-pounding frustration with the font and the lack of editing, I gave up.
In short, open memo to Mr. Childress: 1) Get a book editor, 2) Get a better designer, 3) Stop rambling! Oh, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence -- no, no, let's just scratch that one, because really who cares? It's fringe theory, fringe archaeology, and I forgive it every failing except the ones I don't forgive it. Because that's how my inner Von Daniken rolls, babe.
August 11, 2023
Incredibly good adventure through the African continent. If you are a big fan of Indiana Jones but you're afraid of the adventure part, this is exactly your traveling companion. You'll see the anti diluvian temple of Baal, Jordan's lost cities of the Black Desert (Petra), Israel's Raiders of the Lost Arc, Riddle of the Sphinx, the curse of King Tut, the antiquities of Egypt, the lost world of Kush, the Queen of Sheba, Prester John and the Hidden Empire, the lost cities of Sinbad, tales from Kilimanjaro, King Solomon's Mines, Atlantis in the Calahari and much more. Many brilliant photos, illustrations and drawings are included too. Loved this adventure a lot and can highly recommend it. What a book!
March 28, 2024
This David H. Childress book is slightly different from the others that I read in the Lost Cities series, as it has less time devoted to the cities themselves because in Africa and Arabia, there is less access to the sites themselves, also less information. The book has interested me a lot, as it tells a great deal about the situation in Africa and in part of the Islamic world at the end of the nineties. He visited amazing places and countries that have up to today very limited access, so it is well worth a reading, the archaeological part, though it is small is quite interesting too.
January 16, 2025
On The Road with David Childress. If you are a fan of Archeology, History, Geography and Adventure traveling this book and the whole Lost Cities collection is for you. The author relates many tales of hair raising and sometimes funny adventures. Book also includes many maps and photos.
August 7, 2018
Was interesting at first before I noticed the many historical inaccuracies. Author states his opinion as fact and contradicts himself at times. Example; in chapter five he indicates that the hand was that of Meketaten and later says it belonged to Meritaten.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews