From Myth to Reality

The Legacy of Percy Fawcett’s Final Expedition

This is British explorer Percy Fawcett, who was last heard from deep in the Amazon rainforest in 1925 during his eighth expedition. His objective? To find the ruins of a lost city he called “Z.” Fawcett’s quest was fueled by centuries-old rumors of large cities hidden deep within the Amazon. However, he never found Z or any other city, and his mysterious disappearance only reinforced the prevailing belief that the Amazon was too hostile and remote to support such civilizations.

For decades, experts maintained that the rainforest’s challenging environment made it impossible for large, complex societies to thrive there. But recently, scientists have begun to uncover evidence that challenges this notion—man-made ditches and mounds scattered throughout the rainforest. These discoveries have led archaeologists to believe they may have finally solved the ancient mystery: Where are the lost cities of the Amazon?

In the 16th century, European colonizers flooded into Central and South America, bringing soldiers, diseases, and a drive to conquer. They encountered indigenous groups that had already built massive cities, like Tenochtitlan, founded by the Mexica people in 1325 AD, and Cusco, founded by the Incas around 1200 AD. These cities, constructed with stone and featuring well-planned roads and neighborhoods, were eventually taken over by the Europeans. Rumors soon spread of another city, where a “great Lord” covered in gold dust bathed in a lake, which gave rise to the legend of El Dorado—a city of gold hidden in the Amazon rainforest.

El Dorado seemed plausible to the Europeans, who launched numerous expeditions in search of it. These quests typically ended in failure, with starvation, disease, and death. Despite the lack of a golden city, explorers recorded sightings of “cities that glistened in white,” “large towns,” and “chiefs with gold idols.” By the 19th century, however, El Dorado was dismissed as a myth.

In the early 20th century, Percy Fawcett revived the search for a lost city in the Amazon. For two decades, he scoured the western and southern Amazon but found no evidence of the grand cities described by earlier explorers. He encountered indigenous people, whom he described as living in small, simple villages, with no sign of stone ruins. This reinforced the prevailing belief that the Amazon was too inhospitable to support large societies, and some even suggested racist theories that indigenous people were too “unsophisticated” to build cities. Others pointed to the Amazon’s seemingly infertile soil as evidence against large-scale agriculture.

Despite this, Fawcett was convinced that cities existed in the Amazon. In his final letter to his wife, he confidently wrote, “You need have no fear of any failure.” He then left his camp and was never seen again. For decades, the Amazon was believed to have always been relatively empty, but Fawcett had been looking in the right place—just for the wrong thing.

In the 1960s, scientists discovered patches of extremely fertile soil in the Amazon, known as terra preta or “black earth.” This soil, rich in nutrients, was likely created by human waste or the intentional burning of the forest. Terra preta provided evidence that large-scale agriculture was indeed possible in the Amazon.

In the 1990s, archaeologists led by Dr. Michael Heckenberger from the University of Florida made a remarkable discovery along the Xingu River in Brazil. They found long ditches that, when mapped, revealed the remnants of large settlements, including carefully designed walls and roads that connected multiple communities. This area, roughly the size of New Jersey, was once home to more than 50,000 people between 1250 and 1650 AD. These settlements were organized to sustainably utilize the forest, with areas designated for gardens, orchards, and animal husbandry.

These were the lost cities of the Amazon, and they were not alone. Over the past few decades, experts have uncovered evidence of large settlements throughout the rainforest. In Bolivia, satellite technology has revealed U-shaped structures atop 22-meter-tall pyramids. These findings suggest that the Amazon was once home to millions of people, far more than previously believed.

Fawcett didn’t find large populations of indigenous people because, by his time, an estimated 80-95% had died from smallpox and measles introduced by European colonizers in the 16th and 17th centuries. He also missed the evidence of large cities because the Amazon’s indigenous people built with wood and earth, materials that decompose over time. What Fawcett found was an Amazon that appeared untouched by humans, when in fact, it had been engineered for centuries.

These lost cities reveal a sophisticated relationship between humans and the rainforest—a relationship we are only beginning to understand.