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Lost City of Z

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For other uses, seeLost City of Z (disambiguation).

TheLost City of Zis the name given byCol. Percy Harrison Fawcett,aBritishsurveyor of the early 20th Century, to an indigenous city that he believed had existed in the jungle of theMato Grossostate ofBrazil.Based on early histories of South America and his own explorations of theAmazon Riverregion, Fawcett theorized that a complex civilization once existed there, and that isolated ruins may have survived.[1]

History[edit]

The British surveyorPercy Fawcettin 1911, who believed an indigenous city, which he called "the Lost City of Z", had existed in the Brazilian jungle.

Fawcett found a document known asManuscript 512,held at theNational Library of Brazil,believed to have been written by PortuguesebandeiranteJoão da Silva Guimarães[pt].According to the document, in 1753, a group ofbandeirantesdiscovered the ruins of an ancient city that contained arches, a statue and a temple withhieroglyphs.He described the city ruins in great detail without giving its location.[citation needed]

Manuscript 512 was written after explorations made in thesertãoof the province ofBahia.[2][page needed]Fawcett intended to pursue finding this city as a secondary goal after "Z". He was preparing an expedition to find "Z" whenWorld War Ibroke out and the British government suspended its support. Fawcett returned to Britain and served on theWestern Frontduring the war. In 1920 Fawcett undertook a personal expedition to find the city but withdrew after suffering from fever and having to shoot his pack animal.[1]On a second expedition in 1925, Fawcett, his son Jack, and Jack's friend Raleigh Rimell disappeared in the Mato Grosso jungle.

Researchers believe that Fawcett may have been influenced in his thinking by information obtained from indigenous people about thearchaeologicalsite ofKuhikugu,near the headwaters of theXingu River.[3][page needed]In 2022, the remains of settlements nearLlanos de Moxoswere surveyed usingLidar.The sites contains the ruins of pyramids,causewaysand other infrastructure, supporting Fawcett's theory about ancient settlements in theAmazon.[4][5]

In popular culture[edit]

In 2005, the American journalistDavid Grannpublished an article inThe New Yorkeron Fawcett's expeditions and findings, titled "The Lost City of Z".[1]In 2009 he developed it into abook of the same titleand, in 2016, it was adapted by writer-directorJames Grayinto afilm also of the same namestarringCharlie Hunnam,Robert Pattinson,Tom HollandandSienna Miller.[6]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcGrann, David(19 September 2005)."The Lost City of Z".The New Yorker.Vol. LXXXI, no. 28. pp. 56–81.ISSN0028-792X.
  2. ^Fawcett 1953.
  3. ^Grann, David(2009).The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.Doubleday.ISBN978-0-385-51353-1.
  4. ^Whipple, Tom; Hammond, Norman (25 May 2022)."Lost city with pyramids found in impenetrable Amazon jungle".The Times.London, Eng.Retrieved9 June2024.
  5. ^Handwerk, Brian (25 May 2022)."Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air".Smithsonian Magazine.Retrieved10 June2024.
  6. ^Jagernauth, Kevin (19 August 2015)."James Gray's 'The Lost City Of Z' Starts Shooting, Marvel's Spider-Man Tom Holland Joins The Cast".IndieWire.Archived fromthe originalon 10 December 2015.Retrieved15 December2017.

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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