In 1985, I was preparing to self-publish my first book, Ten Bike Tours in and Around Toronto, and I was trying to think of a good name for my company. There were a lot of nice little Victorian houses and stores being knocked down at the time to make way for a lot of not so nice condos. Toronto the good was literally disappearing before our eyes and not being replaced by something better. The name Lost City Press popped into my mind and stayed there because it resonated with what I was thinking, that we were both losing the city we had known and the new better city we could have known had we chosen to build it. My press and this website are about focussing on people who are doing what they can to build a better Toronto and a better world. Some of them have in fact already succeeded.

Lost Cities
And of course, I also like the idea of lost cities, so I'll probably from time to time highlight a few of those. I'll start with Ekron. It was a Philistine city that once produced olive oil for the whole mediterranean region. I heard the story about how it was rediscovered on the radio. Professor Seymour Gitin from the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem was looking for Ekron in the area south of Jereusalem and was about to give up when he picked up a piece of rock and turned it over. There was some ancient writing that basically said, the city of Ekron is right under your feet. They started digging and sure enough, there it was. I contacted Professor Gitin by email and he was kind enough to answer some of my questions. Here is a link to an article he wrote about what happened to the people who lived there.

Atlantis
If you are looking for information about the most famous lost city, here is a link to part of a Discovery Channel video about it.

More Obscure Lost Cities

Shunya has lots of information about other lost cities.