From the inside cover: Pompeii! Troy! Angkor! What have these three cities in common? Knossos, Babylon and Chichen Itza share the same quality, the only one all six do share. The quality is that of extinction, obliteration, and decay.

These six cities, chosen as key cultures by author Robert Silverberg, form the basic building blocks in his brilliant revelation of antiquity, and the stories of their discoverers and the scientists who unveiled them are as fascinating as the lost cities themselves.