The Lost City of Z

The Claim

There’s an ancient city hidden in the Amazon rainforest of South America

The lost city of Z was named as such because when information about its existence was discovered, that was the temporary name given to it by the investigating party, which ended up sticking.

The city itself is said to be located within the rainforest of Brazil in the Mato Grosso state, but supposedly no one has visited it since the 1700s.

Information on the city first came to light when Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, who was a British surveyor, found a text known as “Manuscript 512” at the National Library of Brazil, which was written by a man named João da Silva Guimarães, a settler and explorer of the region.

Da Silva wrote that in 1753, he had found the ruins of a large ancient city deep in the rain forest containing a temple with hieroglyphics, large well-built structures, and numerous statues and stone archways.

The manuscript talks about how the city seemed incredibly advanced for its location and was seemingly abandoned by its population for many years. Da Silva goes on to talk at some length about the different features of the city, naming locations such as market plazas and farming areas, though at no point does he give any kind of indication as to the location of the city.

The story fascinated Col. Fawcett, so he decided to launch an expedition to be the first to find it, and so in 1920, he set off into the Mato Grosso jungle in search of Z. His expedition didn’t last as he was soon taken by fever and ended up having to shoot his pack animal due to it becoming injured.

5 years later, he attempted again, but this time brought his son and one of his friends. They headed out into the same section of the jungle Fawcett had gone into before to try to reach further, but their goodbyes were the last thing anyone heard from them. All 3 are believed to have died in the jungle, and to this day, no one has found the remains.

There have been various other expeditions to find the city, with some estimates putting the number of people who have died in the attempt above 100, though an exact figure can’t be found.

After Fawcetts death, another expedition into the same area found a large city-sized ruin now known as Kuhikugu. This site has been estimated to be able to support up to 50,000 people and includes a collection of around 20 towns in close proximity, but it is not known if this could possibly be the same place as the lost city of Z.

Is there an ancient city in the Brazilian rainforest? Could that be true?

There’s a very good possibility that it is true, and that the ruins of Kuhikugu are not the same place as Z. The reason they are most likely not the same is due to 2 reasons, the first being that Kuhikugu isn’t in the area where the original finder, Da Silva described them to be, and since he is the only person on record who’s ever been there, his word holds good weight.

The second reason is that the descriptions don’t match. Da Silva talks at length about the features of the city, including such things as a large stone temple and other various stone works which wouldn’t have been affected by time, none of which were found in the remains of Kuhikugu.