[1] The work is a guide to a dozen of the more famous ruins from peoples of ancient times throughout the world, the speculations surrounding their fates, and modern fantasy literature inspired by them.

[1] Francis D. Lazenby, in the Library Journal, called the book a "highly literate volume" whose "fascinating" accounts "are not simply another retelling: unusual material is added, and in very readable prose, with witty and humorous comments throughout.

[3] Edward B. Garside in The New York Times calls the book "delightful reading," "a fine popularization, written with great verve, yet based on solid fact."

And many of them are unusual because of the scornful relish with which the de Camps demolish the absurd theories, fantastic fantasies and crackpot prophecies of cultists and hoaxers."

"[5] Fritz Leiber, reviewing the American paperback edition in Fantastic, calls it "[a] beautifully satisfying book about all those 'lost civilizations' that were the ultimate symbols of mystery to me when I was a child and some of them were just being discovered ... what they're like to visit today, the various crackpot and more respectable theories about them, [and] the fantasy uses to which they've been put.