The Claim
There’s an ancient city hidden in the Amazon rain forest of Brazil
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 rain forest of Brazil in the Mato Grosso state but supposedly no one has visited it since the 1700’s.
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 buildings 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 plaza’s 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 that 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 went into before to try and reach further, but their goodbye’s 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 cant 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.
There’s an advanced ancient city in the Brazilian rain forest? Could that be true?
There’s a very good possibility that it is true, and that the ruins of Kuhikugu is 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 hold good weight.
The second reason is the descriptions don’t match. Da Silva talk 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, non of which were found in the remains of Kuhikugu.
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