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When explorers ventured into the Amazon Basin in the 1540s, many of them recorded Indigenous accounts of a lost city containing an inordinate amount of wealth, known as El Dorado.
Many expeditions were launched over the centuries to look for the city, but they were all in vain and produced no results. The last attempt to locate it was undertaken by British explorer Percy Fawcett in the first quarter of the 1900s.
Percy Harrison Fawcett was a geographer, archaeologist, and explorer. Born in 1867, he served in the British Army and was later recruited by the Royal Geographical Society to map parts of South America, which ended up sparking his interest in the Amazon.
Fawcett's initial expeditions to South America involved surveying and mapping uncharted regions. His detailed reports and maps (particularly of the borderlands between Bolivia and Brazil) contributed significantly to our understanding of the Amazonian terrain.
Between 1906 and 1924, Fawcett led no fewer than seven expeditions into the Amazon Basin. The outbreak of the First World War briefly put a stop to his explorations, but he quickly returned to Brazil after the war ended.
As Fawcett spent more and more time in the Amazon Basin, he became convinced that Spanish and Portuguese accounts from the 16th and 17th centuries detailing complex civilizations in the forest may have had merit.
One particular document fascinated Fawcett, known as Manuscript 512. The 10-page document, written in Portuguese, alleges to be a first-hand account of adventurers from the 18th century who stumbled across a ruined city with architecture and artifacts reminiscent of the Greco-Roman style.
Manuscript 512 was found in 1839 at the National Library of Brazil, where it is still kept to this day. Some Brazilian historians consider the document to be "the greatest myth of national archaeology," as they believe it to be a forgery.
Although Manuscript 512 indicated that there was a wealthy city in Brazil’s northeast, Fawcett became convinced that a wholly different city existed further southwest in the wild, central-western region of Mato Grosso. He named the city Z.
Although Fawcett was an incredibly adept explorer (having been on multiple expeditions already), it is possible that the trio’s food supply ran short and they ended up starving to death.
Another reason why Fawcett didn’t discover any ruins is because, unlike the Aztec ruins found in Central America that were built with stone, the Amazon’s indigenous people built their houses with wood and earth, which deteriorates over time.
Fawcett was well aware that many Indigenous tribes in the Amazon Basin were hostile towards outsiders. It is for this reason that he chose only two companions with whom to travel. Many theorists have said that the trio may have been attacked and killed during their expedition.
In 1952, anthropologist Orlando Villas-Bôas (pictured, center) claimed to have discovered the remains of Percy Fawcett and alleged that the Kalapalo Indians had admitted to killing him. However, subsequent forensic analysis determined that the bones were not those of Fawcett.
Fawcett was also known to be against any rescue attempts should he disappear. The explorer often stated that, in such an event, no rescue party should venture into the jungle because the danger was too great.
Many expeditions were launched to determine what happened to the three travelers, including one headed by Peter Fleming (pictured, the brother of James Bond creator Ian Fleming), but many of these searches also ended in tragedy without shedding any light on Fawcett’s whereabouts.
Fawcett’s story has truly had an immense impact on popular culture. In fact, he is one of the inspirations for the fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones.
The legend of the Lost City of Z has captured popular imagination and has inspired books, documentaries, and films around the world. The New Yorker staff writer David Grann also wrote a book called 'The Lost City of Z' (2009), which was made into a feature film in 2016.
Modern explorers and archaeologists have continued the search for the Lost City of Z, using advanced technologies like satellite imaging and LiDAR (light detection and ranging) to uncover ancient structures hidden beneath the dense jungle canopy.
Many people had assumed that the Amazon rainforest was largely uninhabited, but all of the new research over the past few years suggests that the canopy was actually home to millions of people before Europeans arrived.
Sources: (National Geographic) (Time) (Vox)
The Kalapalo Indians have told an oral story over time that speaks of the arrival of three explorers who traveled east and, after five days, the group no longer made any campfires. The story also says that both of the younger men were lame and ill when last seen, which suggests that they died of natural causes in the Brazilian jungle.
Considering the brutal environment of the Amazon, it is easy to consider that the three explorers merely succumbed to an incurable disease or infection.
Brazil achieved independence from Portugal in 1825, and the new, insecure republic would have probably found it beneficial to 'discover' a manuscript that spoke of ancient and wealthy civilizations in its territory.
The trio of travelers really did disappear without a trace, and nothing has been heard from them since. Many have wondered what became of them, and some theories have been put forward.
In 1925, Fawcett embarked on an expedition with his son Jack and Jack's friend, Raleigh Rimell. They ventured deep into the Amazon, seeking the Lost City of Z. On May 29, 1925, Fawcett wrote a letter to his wife, claiming that they would disappear from civilization until the next year.
But Percy Fawcett was deeply inspired by the manuscript (especially by the architecture described therein), and was convinced that the complex civilization truly existed. And so he became obsessed with finding it.
One of the main reasons why Fawcett didn’t discover all these people during his expeditions is because an estimated 80–95% had died from smallpox and measles, which were brought to the Amazon by European colonizers.
In recent decades, exploration in the Amazon has revealed ancient structures in what is now the Xingu Indigenous Park. Modern scans have shown that a network of settlements existed in the area between 1,500 and 400 years ago, which could have been home to about 500,000 people. This was a bigger population than most European cities of the time.
Some people have suggested that, instead of being attacked by Indigenous tribes, Fawcett decided to live with them.
Before the age of technology became an ever-present thing in society, there was a time when venturing into the wild meant certain risk of death or injury. Myths and legends caused people to go above and beyond in the hopes of proving them true, whether we're talking the myth of Atlantis or the dangers of the Bermuda Triangle. And many people never returned from their expeditions.
One such person, a colonel in the British Army, was convinced that there was a wealthy city located in the Amazon rainforest, and he was hell-bent on finding it. Did he manage to succeed? Click through this gallery to find out what happened to him.
The search for the Lost City of Z
The story of an explorer’s hope in finding an ancient civilization
LIFESTYLE History
Before the age of technology became an ever-present thing in society, there was a time when venturing into the wild meant certain risk of death or injury. Myths and legends caused people to go above and beyond in the hopes of proving them true, whether we're talking the myth of Atlantis or the dangers of the Bermuda Triangle. And many people never returned from their expeditions.
One such person, a colonel in the British Army, was convinced that there was a wealthy city located in the Amazon rainforest, and he was hell-bent on finding it. Did he manage to succeed? Click through this gallery to find out what happened to him.