From the mountain-top citadel of Peru's Machu Picchu, shrouded in cloud, to the forgotten splendour of Persepolis, Iran, seat of a long-vanished kingdom, Lost Cities surveys the world's most evocative abandoned settlements.
The 28 cities in this book are some of the most inspiring places in history -- the near-mythical cities of Babylon and Troy are home to world-famous legends, while others, such as Harappa in the Indus Valley of Pakistan, had been all but forgotten before their discovery, and existed only in the hazy tales of local folklore. While cities such as Alexandria or the beautiful rose-hued Petra were home to some of the world's greatest civilizations and empires, others, including Mexico's Chichen Itza, remain cloaked in mystery, with strange petroglyphs and carvings hinting at a complex culture that, to this day, we know little about.
From religion to government, food to art, alliances to enemies, Joel Levy discusses the lives of the people who inhabited these metropolises, the reasons for the cities' founding and, eventually, their subsequent abandonment.
Beautiful and fascinating, Lost Cities brings forgotten worlds to life.