Lost city

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For other uses of the term Lost city, see Lost city (disambiguation).

Lost City is a term that is generally considered to refer to a well-populated area which fell into terminal decline, became extensively or completely uninhabited, and whose location has been forgotten. Some lost cities whose locations have been rediscovered have been studied extensively by scientists. Recently abandoned cities or cities whose location was never in question might be referred to as ruins or ghost towns. The search for such lost cities by European explorers and adventurers in the Americas, Africa and in Southeast Asia from the 15th century onwards eventually led to the development of archaeology.[1]

Lost cities generally fall into two broad categories:

  • no knowledge of the city existed until the time of its rediscovery
  • location has been lost but knowledge of its existence has been retained in myths, legends, or historical records.

Contents

[edit] How cities are lost

Cities may become lost for a variety of reasons including natural disasters, economic or social upheaval, or war.

The Arabian city of Ubar (Iram of the Pillars) was abandoned after much of the desert city and its primary water source collapsed into a sinkhole. Once wealthy from trade, the region became lost to modern history and was thought to be only a figment of mythical tales. The city was rediscovered in 1992 when satellite photography revealed traces of the ancient trade routes leading to it.

The Incan capitol city of Vilcabamba was destroyed and depopulated during the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1572. The Spanish did not rebuild the city and the location went unrecorded and was forgotten until it was rediscovered through a detailed examination of period letters and documents.

Troy was a city located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey. It is best known for being the focus of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, the city slowly declined and was abandoned in the Byzantine era. Buried by time, the city was consigned to the realm of legend until the location was first excavated in the 1860's.

Other settlements are lost with few or no clues to their decline. Malden Island, in the central Pacific, was deserted when first visited by Europeans in 1825, but the unsuspected presence of ruined temples and the remains of other structures found on the island indicate that a population of Polynesians had lived there for perhaps several generations some centuries earlier. Prolonged drought seems the most likely explanation for their demise and the remote nature of the island meant few visitors.

[edit] Rediscovery

With the development of archaeology and the application of modern techniques, many previously lost cities have been rediscovered.

The Arabian city of Ubar (Iram of the Pillars) was abandoned after much of the desert city and its primary water source collapsed into a sinkhole. Once wealthy from trade, the region became lost to modern history and was thought to be only a figment of mythical tales. In the early 1980s a group of researchers interested in the history of Iram used NASA remote sensing satellites, ground penetrating radar, Landsat program data and images taken from the Space Shuttle Challenger as well as SPOT data to identify old camel train routes and points where they converged.

Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian Inca site situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru. Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is perhaps the most familiar icon of the Inca World. Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572, as a belated result of the Spanish Conquest. It is possible that most of its inhabitants died from smallpox introduced by travelers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area. In 1911, Melchor Arteaga led the explorer Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu, which had been largely forgotten by everybody except the small number of people living in the immediate valley.

Helike was an ancient Greek city that sank at night in the winter of 373 BC. The city was located in Achaea, Northern Peloponnesos, two kilometres (12 stadia) from the Corinthian Gulf. The city was thought to be legend until 2001, when it was rediscovered in the Helike Delta. In 1988, the Greek archaeologist Dora Katsonopoulou launched the Helike Project to locate the site of the lost city. In 1994 in collaboration with the University of Patras, a magnetometer survey was carried out in the midplain of the delta, which revealed the outlines of a buried building. In 1995 this target was excavated (now known as the Klonis site) and a large Roman building with standing walls was brought to light. The city was rediscovered in 2001 buried in an ancient lagoon.

[edit] Legends

Some cities which are considered lost are (or may be) places of legend such as the Arthurian Camelot, Russian Kitezh, Lyonesse, Ys, the Seven Cities of Gold, Shambhala, El Dorado, and Atlantis. Others, such as Troy and Bjarmaland, having once been considered legendary, are now known to have existed.

[edit] Lost cities by continent

[edit] Africa

[edit] Asia

[edit] Far East Asia

[edit] Southeast Asia

[edit] South Asia

[edit] Central Asia

[edit] Western Asia/Middle East

[edit] South America

[edit] Inca cities

[edit] Other

[edit] North America

[edit] Caribbean

[edit] Montserrat

[edit] Mexico and Central America

[edit] Maya cities

incomplete list – for further information, see Maya civilization

  • Chichen Itza – This ancient place of pilgrimage is still the most visited Maya ruin.
  • Copán – In modern Honduras.
  • Calakmul – One of two "superpowers" in the classic Maya period.
  • Coba
  • Naachtun – Rediscovered in 1922, it remains one of the most remote and least visited Maya sites. Located 44 km (27 mi) south-south-east of Calakmul, and 65 km (40 mi) north of Tikal, it is believed to have had strategic importance to, and been vulnerable to military attacks by, both neighbours. Its ancient name was identified in the mid-1990s as Masuul.
  • Palenque — in the Mexican state of Chiapas, known for its beautiful art and architecture
  • Tikal — One of two "superpowers" in the classic Maya period.
  • Tulum - Mayan coastal city.
[edit] Aztec Cities
[edit] Olmec cities
[edit] Other
  • Hueyatlaco - Oldest city in Mexico.
  • Izapa – Chief city of the Izapa civilization, whose territory extended from the Gulf Coast across to the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, in present day Mexico, and Guatemala.
  • Guayabo – It is believed that the site was inhabited from 1500 BCE (BC) to 1400 CE (AD), and had at its peak a population of around 10,000.

[edit] United States

[edit] Canada

  • L'Anse aux Meadows – Viking settlement founded around 1000.
  • Lost Villages - The Lost Villages are ten communities (Aultsville, Dickinson's Landing, Farran's Point, Maple Grove, Mille Roches, Moulinette, Santa Cruz, Sheek's Island, Wales, Woodlands) in the Canadian province of Ontario, in the former townships of Cornwall and Osnabruck (now South Stormont) near Cornwall, which were permanently submerged by the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1958.
  • Kingdom of Saguenay

[edit] Europe

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ History of Archaeology
  2. ^ http://www.travelchinaguide.com/river/three.htm
  3. ^ http://www.travelchinaguide.com/river/three.htm
  4. ^ Metropolis: Angkor, the world's first mega-city
  5. ^ Lost Cities of the Silk Road
  6. ^ Ancient "Lost City" Discovered in Peru, Official Claims
  7. ^ Lost cities of the Amazon revealed, msnbc.com
  8. ^ Amazon jungle gives up lost city of the 'Cloud People', News.com.au
  9. ^ Teotihuacan, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  10. ^ Charlemagne and the Avars
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