Overview

Cibola: The Seven Cities of Gold by Peter H. Fairbanks takes readers across deserts, centuries, and dreams in pursuit of one of history's most enduring legends-the mythical golden cities said to lie beyond the edge of the known world. From the windswept plains of New Spain to the red mesas of New Mexico, Fairbanks traces the origins of the Cíbola myth from medieval Spain's tales of lost Christian kingdoms to the fevered expeditions of the sixteenth century. At the heart of the story is Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's grand but doomed journey of 1540-a march of hundreds across uncharted lands, driven by the promise of gold glimpsed in the words of a wandering friar. Through eyewitness chronicles, early maps, and the fragments of ruins scattered across the American Southwest, Fairbanks reconstructs the collision of myth and empire that reshaped two worlds forever. But the legend did not end with Coronado's retreat. It burned through Jesuit mission lore, frontier treasure maps, and modern expeditions that still seek the Seven Cities among the canyons and dust. Blending history, archaeology, and the psychology of the treasure hunter, Cibola: The Seven Cities of Gold explores how the search for wealth became a search for meaning-and how, in every age, humanity continues to chase the horizon of its own imagination. Rich in historical detail and cinematic in scope, Fairbanks's account moves from the chronicles of Fray Marcos de Niza and Pedro de Castañeda to the sacred geography of the Zuni, revealing that the true treasure was never metal, but the unquenchable spirit of discovery itself. Ideal for readers fascinated by lost civilizations, Spanish exploration, and the enduring mysteries of the American Southwest, Cibola: The Seven Cities of Gold blends meticulous research with evocative storytelling to illuminate the myth, the journey, and the desert light that still gleams like gold.

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