How the “lost cities” of the Amazon were finally found

And why they were so hard to see
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The Amazon has always been one of the most mysterious places on earth.
When European colonizers arrived in the 16th century, they were captivated by rumors of a golden city, hidden somewhere in the rainforest. Their search for “El Dorado” lasted more than a century, but only resulted in disaster, death, and further conquest of the indigenous people there.
Experts thereafter looked at the Amazon and saw only a desolate jungle; too harsh for extensive agriculture and therefore sparsely populated. They believed that it had always been this way.
Until recently.
Beginning in the late 20th century, archaeologists began looking more closely at the forest floor. Working with the indigenous people who still remained there, they excavated long ditches and mounds. After mapping them, they could see that these were the markings of large settlements; walls, moats, plazas, and roads that connected even more settlements. And they were all over the Amazon.
Further reading:
The Lost City of Z, David Grann
Exploration Fawcett: Journey to the Lost City of Z, Percy Fawcett
The works of Michael Heckenberger; anthro.ufl.edu/2013/09/29/hec...
Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon www.nature.com/articles/s4158...
The geoglyph sites of Acre, Brazil: 10 000-year-old land-use practices and climate change in Amazonia www.cambridge.org/core/journa...
Predicting pre-Columbian anthropogenic soils in Amazonia royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
The Lore of Lost Cities - Imagining The Lost City Of Z www.forbes.com/sites/davidand...
Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon’s Lost World
www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/wo...
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[@Vox]

Thanks for watching. This video is part of our series, Atlas. Catch more episodes of Atlas at our playlist here:

[@Ulas_Aldag]

I've read about that the Americas were once home to a third of the human population, prior to the discovery of columbus and that most of the people died before they could even make contact with the colonists themselves because the diseases traveled faster then the conquistadors. Thats why most the land was already empty when the settlers arrived. So mind blowing to learn about those lost settlements now

[@ExothermicRxn]

As an archaeologist, it’s wonderful to see appropriate credit given to the Indigenous communities of the Amazon as well as archaeologists like Mike Heckenberger (a lovely person and excellent scientist). I’m glad you’ve included some of the key recent publications on findings of urbanism and complexity in the Amazon. One of my friends is currently doing research on large-scale tree domestication and management over the last several centuries in the region (Victor Lery Caetano Andrade, in case you want to read his papers) and there’s more and more research on improving our understanding. Very cool!

[@jml732]

It's still painful to watch, that every time I see a satellite map of Brazil, the Amazon forest shrinks a tiny bit more

[@tayloraverett1841]

You failed to mention that “El Dorado” was eventually discovered, the zipa (leader) of the Muisca people in Colombia was ritualistically covered in gold dust, and then bathed in Lake Guatavita and offered treasures as sacrifice in a ceremony to honor their deity. Settlers later tried to drain the lake to retrieve the gold, which nearly ruined it. The Muisca are the origin of the myths of El Dorado (in Spanish, “el dorado” just means “the golden one”, so it can mean a person, a city, anything covered in gold).

[@mastermax2792]

What really interests me is how sustainable these settlements and people were. They worked together with the Amazon to create some of the most fertile soil ever, their buildings avoided the destruction of of the rainforest and even made use of the rainforest in their cities. It’s truly a thing of wonder to be done all those years ago, whilst now we deplete and destroy nature whenever we construct anything.

[@baroncalamityplus]

That's pretty amazing. Also shows how large civilizations can vanish quickly from disease and the earth swallows up what remained.

[@khalilahd.]

I love Vox because I never know what I’m going to learn about but I’m never disappointed. I didn’t even know the history of explorations in Amazon and now all of a sudden I have a better understanding lol. Great way to start my day 😊

[@31_rifkywisnuwardana25]

Just imagine how many cultures and traditions were lost because of smallpox.

[@PremierCCGuyMMXVI]

There is so much history of the Americas that have been lost overtime, hopefully we uncover more and get a more complete picture of the history of the pre-European Americas.

[@lesussie2237]

It's important to mention that terra prata & the Mesoamerican chinampas were a form of intensive agriculture that relied on careful soil management. intensive Amerindian agriculturalists basically "designed" the soil to be perfect for agriculture. For terra prata, the addition of limestones stabilized the pH, broken charcoal added carbon content & absorbed water, and broken clay pieces allowed the soil to hold on to nutrients better, preventing erosion, making these soils the most fertile agricultural land in the world at the time (better than the floodplains of Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Indus). These unique high-output & sustainable methods of agriculture developed in the Americas have sadly mostly been lost though there are some remnants left. These artifacts in the Amazon may allow us to reverse-engineer the process

[@magic-maro]

Most of the people uncontacted by modern society live in the Amazon. Given the sheer complexity of life in the Amazon rainforest, human habitation is even more fascinating.

[@LorenzoCarai]

Wow i've never heard of these settlements before. It makes me wonder how those civilizations worked, managing to survive in the middle of the biggest rainforest ever and if they ever came in contact with each other or with other coastal civilizations.

[@mOn1k3r]

The amount of culture and history that has been lost just keeps growing. I hope we are able to recover what has lost to time and human action

[@isacj81]

As a Brazilian, it blows my mind to imagine that we once were home to a great uncharted and complex civilization. Thanks so much for educating me, Vox ;)

[@LLCL2012]

This video really blew my mind, as a Colombian I thought that it was going to explain how the real "el dorado" was actually Lake Guatavita. But learning about those interconnected amazon cities was amazing, I have always wondered about the pre-Columbian history of the Americas since most of the history lessons I was taught were from the European point of view.

[@ViniciusSC10]

“He was here, deep in the Amazon forest”

[@Luma1606]

Love seeing high quality archaeology content from Vox, as an archaeology student from Vienna it really helps to bring a broader perspective on the topic!

[@kenster8270]

In Calçoene in the Brazilian state of Amapá there's a mysterious archeological site sometimes nicknamed "the Stonehenge of the Amazon" because it's believed to have been an astronomical observatory.

[@Game_Hero]

RIP Fawcett, died searching what he believed in, sticking true to his convictions until the end, I don't even have half the courage he has to treck long periods of time in the Amazon like he did.