Lost City of Z

For other uses, see Lost City of Z (disambiguation).

The Lost City of Z is the name given by Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British surveyor, to a city that he thought existed in the jungle of the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. Another mysterious city is referenced in a document known as Manuscript 512, housed at the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, believed to be by Portuguese bandeirante pt who wrote that he'd visited the city in 1753. The city is described in great detail without providing a specific location. Fawcett allegedly heard about this city in the early 1900s and went to Rio de Janeiro to learn more, and came across the earlier report. He was about to go in search of the city when World War I intervened. In 1925, Fawcett, his son Jack, and Raleigh Rimell disappeared in the Mato Grosso while searching for Z with the final destination the 1753 city in the province of Bahia.

Although the search for the lost city of Z was made in the Mato Grosso, the secondary goal was the 1753 city in Bahia province Manuscript 512 was written after explorations made in the sertão of the province of Bahia, see Fawcetts own book "Exploration Fawcett".

Forthcoming film

David Grann's New Yorker article "The Lost City of Z" (2005) was expanded into a book The Lost City of Z (2009). A movie based on the book has began filming from August 19, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland and will continue till October 2015.

Possible influences on Fawcett

There is a possibility that legends regarding the archaeological complex at Kuhikugu may have influenced the British explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett to go on his ill-fated last expedition in 1925, looking through the Amazon rainforest for what he called "City Z."

References in literature

Despite being located in Africa rather than South America, the Lost City of Zinj in Michael Crichton's novel Congo may be modeled after the Lost City of Z.

See also

• Dead Horse Camp
• The Lost City of Z (book)
• Kuhikugu

Sources

• Fawcett, Percy and Brian Fawcett. - Lost Trails, Lost Cities Funk & Wagnalls (1953)
• Furneaux, Rupert. The World's Strangest Mysteries. Ace Books. New York. 1961.
• The Guardian: Veil lifts on jungle mystery of the colonel who vanished. 21 March 2004, URL accessed 19 May 2007.
• Smith, Warren. Lost Cities of the Ancients-Unearthed!. Zebra Books. New York. 1976.
• Time: Fawcett of the Mato Grosso. 25 May 1953, URL accessed 18 May 2007.

External links

• Movie: The Secret of El Dorado
• Manuscript 512 (English translations by Isabel Burton and Harold T. Wilkins).
• Manuscript 512, English translation.
• Secrets of the Dead - Lost in the Amazon. PBS Video special on Fawcett's quest for the City of Z.
• "The Lost City of Z", The New Yorker article by David Grann 2005
• "Under the Jungle", David Grann 2010