Lost City of Z - Wikipedia
The Lost City of Z is the name given by Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British surveyor of the early 20th Century, to an indigenous city that he believed had existed in the jungle of the Mato Grosso state of Brazil. Based on early histories of South America and his own explorations of the Amazon River region, Fawcett theorized that a complex civilization once existed there, and that isolated ruins may have survived.[ 1]
Fawcett found a document known as Manuscript 512, held at the National Library of Brazil, believed to have been written by Portuguese bandeirante João da Silva Guimarães [pt] . According to the document, in 1753, a group of bandeirantes discovered the ruins of an ancient city that contained arches, a statue and a temple with hieroglyphs. He described the city ruins in great detail without giving its location.[citation needed ]
Manuscript 512 was written after explorations made in the sertão of the province of Bahia.[ 2] [page needed ] Fawcett intended to pursue finding this city as a secondary goal after "Z". He was preparing an expedition to find "Z" when World War I broke out and the British government suspended its support. Fawcett returned to Britain and served on the Western Front during 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.
