As a boy I read Rider Haggard’s captivating books King Solomon’s Mines and She. Decades later, I watched the Indiana Jones movies; various Tarzan films and books were sandwiched in between. I never considered that there could be a genuine history behind these blockbuster tales. Adam Cruise obviously did — massively and passionately. A book, Through the Kalahari Desert, written in 1885 by Gilarmi Antonio Farini, crystallises Cruise’s vision of a lost African city in the southern part of the continent and inspires his determination to find it. He is hooked, in particular, by Farini’s sketches and descriptions of what he claimed were ancient ruins and his map with map co-ordinates. They lead Cruise nowhere. Actually, we learn that since the 1930s there have been more than 25 archaeological or scientific expedition into the Kalahari to find the Lost City. Cruise recounts many of these, together with anecdotal snippets from surprisingly many adventurers, wanderers, hunters and travel wri...
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