In 1925, legendary explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett embarked on an ambitious
and indubitably perilous mission into the maze-like jungles of Brazil in search of a
mysterious lost city he referred to simply as “Z.”
Tragically, this gargantuan endeavor ended with the disappearance of Colonel Fawcett
along with his son and a long-time friend.
Fawcett’s efforts to search for the enigmatic City of Z and his subsequent unexplained vanishing
had been dubbed as “the greatest exploration mystery of the 20th century.”
More than 90 years later, his story has continued to inspire and bewilder many, and it was compelling
enough to spawn an epic feature film titled “The Lost City of Z,” which was released
in U.S. theaters earlier this year.
The curiosity and interest on the probable existence of the Lost City of Z have noticeably
grown recently after the film’s release.
Aside from that, many have, over the years, wondered and speculated, what sort of fates
Colonel Fawcett and the rest of his team exactly met when they vanished without a trace.
And so, in this video, let’s take the time to talk about the real story behind “The
Lost City of Z.”
First of all, who is Colonel Fawcett?
Born on August 18th, 1867 in Torquay, Devon, Percy Harrison Fawcett was the son of an India-born
British aristocrat who was a member of the Royal Geographical Society.
By 1886, he became a commissioned officer of the Royal Artillery and was assigned to
serve in Ceylon, then a British colony which we now know as Sri Lanka.
There she met his wife Nine Agnes Paterson and their union in 1901 resulted to the birth
of their two sons.
While he was in Ceylon, Fawcett was fascinated with exploring archaeological ruins.
At some point, he also went to search for rumored hidden treasures.
This interest led to an opportunity of lifetime when he was offered by the Royal Geographical
Society the daunting task of mapping the uncharted areas in South America.
Accepting this offer was the beginning of a decorated but dangerous career for Fawcett.
From then on, he dedicated his life to mapping unexplored jungles, which earned him the reputation
of being among the most iconic archaeologists and one of the last great cartographers from
the 20th century.
He was even awarded the Gold Medal by the Royal Geographical Society, which was a highly-coveted
recognition among explorers.
Needless to say, Fawcett was a brave man, and more importantly, he was a survivor.
With very limited resources to work with, he courageously embarked on journeys to uncharted
territories and these missions often did not have a defined end date.
He would be gone for months and even years at a time, and during these missions, he rarely
made contact with the world outside.
He starved and faced hostile threats from animals and tribesmen who did not welcome
the presence of a foreign stranger.
But despite the odds, he emerged from these deadly expeditions with new maps of different
regions in the Amazon wilderness that used to be completely obscure to modern civilizations.
Because of these expeditions to vast, unexplored jungles, Fawcett began to entertain the possibility
that lost civilizations could still be discovered somewhere in the Amazon.
It ultimately became an obsession of his to uncover one, and he referred to the lost civilization
he was searching for as the city of “Z.”
But what and where exactly is the city of “Z” that Fawcett was trying to find?
And why did he feel so confident that he would discover this hidden community within the
Amazon rainforest?
Well, the strongest reason is the fact the such an incredible feat had already been done
before.
Christopher Columbus, for one, is credited for bringing the existence of the Americas
and its native communities to the attention of European colonizers.
And even centuries following the discovery of the New World, many still believed that
there is so much of it left to be explored and understood, particularly the vast rainforest
of the Amazon.
There were even speculations that a magical kingdom of unimaginable wealth was safely
concealed in this region, waiting for someone daring and smart enough to find it and lucky
enough to live to tell about it.
For Fawcett, his drive to discover his own “New World” was strengthened by the rediscovery
of Peru’s lost Inca City of Machu Picchu in 1911.
By 1912, he had already come up with the theory that supports the existence of his so-called
city of “Z.”
This undiscovered place supposedly had streets and structures made of silver and gold, far
different from the communities and settlements that existed beyond where it hid.
In 1920, Fawcett would come across a document he felt proved the rumors he heard as well
as his own beliefs.
Referred to as “Manuscript 512,” this document was the written work of a Portuguese
explorer from the 18th century and was under the safekeeping of the National Library of
Rio De Janeiro.
The author of the document claimed that he discovered a walled city somewhere in the
Amazon’s Mato Grosso region.
Many things were peculiar about this city, but among the most notable ones are probably
the author’s description that the multi-storied buildings of the city were carved with letters
that resembled the Greek alphabet and his claim that the city’s residents were white-skinned
Indians.
While mainstream archaeologists shut down the likelihood that a large city of that scale
can be found within the jungles of the Amazon, Fawcett thought differently.
And so, the 57-year-old British explorer took it upon himself to prove its existence.
Fawcett’s first attempt to find “Z” was in 1921.
However, before they could go far enough into the jungle, they faced physical and emotional
hardships that inevitably demoralized the team and derailed the expedition.
The next time around, Fawcett decided it would be best if he went to search for the fabled
city all on his own.
He disappeared for around three months but when he returned, he was still unable to provide
undisputable proof that the city of “Z” was real.
Around this time, Fawcett’s achievements as an explorer were already known all over
the world, with the media regularly chronicling his adventures.
In 1925, people was made very much aware of his plans to return to the wilderness of the
Amazon to search for the mysterious and mystical city he failed to find in his previous attempts.
For what would become his final expedition, Fawcett was accompanied by his son Jack, who
was already 21-years-old at the time, his friend and colleague Raleigh Rimell, and two
Brazilian companions.
There was much hope for this mission as it was supported by the public, approved by the
Royal Geographical Society and funded by the prominent Rockefeller family.
Around the end of May 1925, Fawcett and his team found themselves at the border of an
unfamiliar and unexplored territory.
Before they crossed the southeastern stream of the Amazon’s Upper Xingu River, their
Brazilian travel companions were made to turn back, and those who remained chose to finish
the rest of the journey on their own.
The last known location of Fawcett and his team was in a place called the Dead Horse
Camp, and for the next few months, he sent back dispatches to advise them of their location
and progress.
However, after the fifth month, Fawcett stopped sending back dispatches.
In the beginning, the loss of contact was not a cause for concern as people were informed
of the fact the mission was planned to last for a year or so.
At the time, people didn’t think that Fawcett, who always seemed to survive against great
odds in the mighty jungle, was not going to make it out alive this time around.
Two years after the group’s last message, the Royal Geographical Society declared Fawcett
and his team as officially lost.
Many explorers attempted to retrace their path but Fawcett’s own conscious choice
to keep his planned route a secret, made it impossible for any expert adventurer to do
so.
Part of the reason why he was so secretive was to lessen the likelihood that someone
else would discover the city of Z before he could.
Another is his belief that rescue efforts would prove futile in the event of his disappearance
and would most likely lead to more unexplained disappearances and unwanted deaths.
And his fear for the latter, as it turned out, was not misguided.
After several decades, no one was able to find the remains of Fawcett and his team.
Even more tragic is the fact that around a hundred explorers also vanished in their effort
to follow Fawcett’s trail.
Until now, the lost city of Z as Fawcett described it has yet to be found.
And aside from intelligent extrapolation and conjecture, no one really knows for certain
what fates Fawcett, his son and his colleague faced while inside the brutal wilderness of
the Amazon.
Nonetheless, there is still a lot of reasons left to hold out hope that we will eventually
be able to put these questions to rest.
Thanks to our exponential technological advancement, we have uncovered
numerous archaeological sites and artifacts in the mysterious territories of South America