Four Lost Cities

Investigating across centuries and around the world, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient abandoned cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia that stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.

In Four Lost Cities, Newitz blends an engaging account of their travels to all four sites with an exploration of cutting-edge research in archaeology—including new discoveries about who lived in these cities and the tools they used to create monuments that lasted millennia. The result is a thrilling journey into the urban past that reveals the mix of environmental changes, social transformation, and political turmoil that doomed ancient cities—and could be a sign of things to come.