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lost city

{{Short description|Human settlement that has become uninhabited}}

{{Other uses}}

{{More citations needed|date=August 2010}}

File:Peru Machu Picchu Sunrise.jpg rediscovered the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1902.]]

File:Lost City Ruins.jpg, a city built by the Tayrona in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia]]

A lost city is an urban settlement that fell into terminal decline and became extensively or completely uninhabited, with the consequence that the site's former significance was no longer known to the wider world. The locations of many lost cities have been forgotten, but some have been rediscovered and studied extensively by scientists. Recently abandoned cities or cities whose location was never in question might be referred to as ruins or ghost towns. Smaller settlements may be referred to as abandoned villages. The search for such lost cities by European explorers and adventurers in Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia from the 15th century onward eventually led to the development of archaeology.{{cite web|website=infoplease|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0856675.html |title=History of Archaeology}}

Lost cities generally fall into two broad categories: those where all knowledge of the city's existence was forgotten before it was rediscovered, and those whose memory was preserved in myth, legend, or historical records but whose location was lost or at least no longer widely recognized.

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How cities are lost

Cities may become lost for a variety of reasons including natural disasters, economic or social upheaval, or war.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/24/world/cities-destroyed-by-natural-disasters/index.html|title=Cities nearly obliterated by natural disasters|first=Holly|last=Yan|date=24 August 2016|website=CNN|access-date=6 April 2023}}

The Incan capital 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.{{Cite book|url={{GBurl|id=JKnZCwAAQBAJ|q=1572|pg=PA1}}|title=Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time|last=Adams|first=Mark|date=2012|publisher=Plume|isbn=978-0-452-29798-2|pages=306|via=Google Books}}

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 1860s.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Troy |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Anthropology |year=2006 |publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc. |location=Thousand Oaks, CA}}

Other settlements are lost with few or no clues to their abandonment. For example, Malden Island, in the central Pacific, was deserted when first visited by Europeans in 1825, but the remains of temples and other structures on the island indicate that a population of Polynesians had lived there for perhaps several generations in the past. Typically this lack of information is due to a lack of surviving written or oral histories and a lack of archaeological data as in the case of the remote and fairly unknown Malden Island.

Rediscovery

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

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.{{Cite book|url={{GBurl|id=bBHrWwtr_pYC|q=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}}|title=Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas|last1=Burger|first1=Richard L. (C. J. MacCurdy Professor and Current Chairman of the Council on Archaeological Studies)|author-link1=Richard L. Burger |last2=Salazar |first2=Lucy C.|date=2004|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-09763-8|via=Google Books}} Nevertheless, Peruvian explorer and farmer Agustín Lizárraga predated this discovery by 9 years, having found the Inca site on July 14, 1902. He left a charcoal inscription bearing the words "A. Lizárraga 1902".{{Cite book |last=Heaney |first=Christopher |title=Cradle of gold: the story of Hiram Bingham, a real-life Indiana Jones and the search for Machu Picchu |date=2011 |publisher=MacMillan |isbn=978-0-230-11204-9 |location=New York}}

Helike was an ancient Greek city that sank at night in the winter of 373 BCE. 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.{{Cite journal |jstor = 30133726|title = Recurrent Submergence and Uplift in the Area of Ancient Helike, Gulf of Corinth, Greece: Microfaunal and Archaeological Evidence|journal = Journal of Coastal Research|volume = 24|issue = 1A|pages = 110–125|last1 = Alvarez-Zarikian|first1 = Carlos A.|last2 = Soter|first2 = Steven|last3 = Katsonopoulou|first3 = Dora|year = 2008|doi = 10.2112/05-0454.1|s2cid = 140202998}}{{cite web|author=Paul Kronfield |url=http://www.helike.org/paper.shtml |title=Helike Foundation - Discoveries at Ancient Helike |publisher=Helike.org |access-date=2009-11-12}}

Lost cities by continent

= Africa =

== Rediscovered ==

=== Egypt ===

===== Maghreb =====

  • Carthage – initially a Phoenician city in Tunisia, destroyed and then rebuilt by Rome. Later served as the capital of the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa, before being destroyed by the Arabs after its capture in 697 CE. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Dougga, Tunisia – Roman city located in present-day Tunisia. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Leptis Magna – Roman city located in present-day Libya. It was the birthplace of Emperor Septimius Severus, who lavished an extensive public works program on the city, including diverting the course of a nearby river. The river later returned to its original course, burying much of the city in silt and sand. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Timgad, Algeria – Roman city founded by the emperor Trajan around 100 CE, covered by sand in the 7th century. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Aoudaghost, Mauritania – wealthy Berber city in medieval Ghana.

=== Horn of Africa ===

=== Subsaharan Africa ===

== Uncertain or disputed ==

== Undiscovered ==

= Asia =

== Central Asia ==

=== Rediscovered ===

=== Undiscovered ===

== East Asia ==

=== Rediscovered ===

== Undiscovered ==

=== Uncertain or disputed ===

== South Asia ==

=== India ===

==== Rediscovered ====

====Uncertain or disputed====

  • Kumari Kandam – a fictional lost continent south of India.{{Cite web|url={{GBurl|id=HKwzAwAAQBAJ|pg=PA91}}|title=Encyclopedia of Imaginary and Mythical Places|first=Theresa|last=Bane|date=March 8, 2014|publisher=McFarland|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url={{GBurl|id=elYyJuYuAhwC|pg=PP1}}|title=The Lost Land of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories|first=Sumathi|last=Ramaswamy|date=September 27, 2004|publisher=University of California Press|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url={{GBurl|id=vMDgGwAACAAJ}}|title=Historical Method in Relation to Problems of South Indian History|first=Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta|last=Sastri|date=June 9, 1941|publisher=University of Madras|via=Google Books}}

==== Undiscovered ====

=== Nepal ===

=== Pakistan ===

==== Rediscovered ====

==== Undiscovered ====

  • Naga Puram – located in Pakistan's Sindh province, a city of the Indus Valley civilization. The city was on the banks of the Ghaghara River.{{Cite book |last=Durant |first=Will |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/23249604 |title=The story of civilization |date=1963 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |others=Ariel Durant |isbn=0-671-54800-X |edition=1st |volume=I: Our Oriental Heritage |location=New York |pages=394 |oclc=23249604}}

=== Sri Lanka ===

==== Rediscovered ====

== Southeast Asia ==

=== Rediscovered ===

File:Siem Reap Reflections (CAMBODIA-REFLECTION-ANGKOR WAT) VI (1070423631).jpg was rediscovered by Henri Mouhot in 1860.]]

  • Angkor, Cambodia – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/metropolis-angkor-the-worlds-first-megacity-461623.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080923054500/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/metropolis-angkor-the-worlds-first-megacity-461623.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 23, 2008|title=Metropolis: Angkor, the world's first mega-city|website=Independent.co.uk}}
  • Ayutthaya, Thailand – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Mahendraparvata, Cambodia
  • Sukhothai, Thailand – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Wilwatikta, Indonesia – capital city of Majapahit Kingdom, now in Trowulan, Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia.

=== Undiscovered ===

=== Uncertain or disputed ===

  • Kota Gelanggi, Malaysia
  • Ma-i, Philippines – was a sovereign polity that pre-dated the Hispanic establishment of the Philippines and notable for having established trade relations with the Kingdom of Brunei, and with Song and Ming dynasty China. Its existence was recorded both in the Chinese Imperial annals Zhu Fan Zhi (諸番志) and History of Song.

== Western Asia ==

=== Rediscovered ===

=== Undiscovered ===

==== Uncertain or disputed ====

= Europe =

== Austria ==

  • Noreia – the capital of the ancient Celtic kingdom of Noricum. Possibly in southern Austria or Slovenia.

== Bosnia and Herzegovina ==

== Bulgaria ==

  • Perperikon – the megalith complex had been laid in ruins and re-erected many times in history – from the Bronze Age until Middle Ages.
  • Seuthopolis – an ancient Thracian city, discovered and excavated in 1948. It was founded by king Seuthes III around 325 BC. Its ruins are now located at the bottom of the Koprinka Reservoir near the city of Kazanlak.

== Croatia ==

  • Heraclea somewhere in the Adriatic on the Croatian coast. Exact location unknown.

== Denmark ==

  • Høgekøbing
  • Ræveleje
  • Serridslev
  • Sønderside{{cite web | url=https://videnskab.dk/kultur-samfund/arkaeologer-finder-spor-fra-druknet-middelalderhavn-hvordan-kunne-den-forsvinde-saa-pludseligt/ | title=Arkæologer finder spor fra druknet middelalderhavn: Hvordan kunne den forsvinde så pludseligt? | date=5 February 2024 }}

== Finland ==

== France ==

  • Quentovic – In 842, the ancient port of Quentovicus was destroyed by a Viking fleet.
  • Thérouanne – In 1553, the city was razed, the roads broken up and the fields ploughed and salted by command of Charles V.

== Germany ==

== Greece ==

  • Akrotiri – on the island of Thera, Greece.
  • Chryse Island – in the Aegean, reputed site of an ancient temple still visible on the sea floor.
  • Helike – sunk by an earthquake in the 4th century BC and rediscovered in the 1990s.
  • Mycenae
  • Pavlopetri – underwater off the coast of southern Laconia in Peloponnese, is about 5,000 years old, and is the oldest submerged archaeological town site.

== Hungary ==

  • Avar Ring – central stronghold of the Avars, it is believed to have been in the wide plain between the Danube and the Tisza.[http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=morris&book=french&story=avars Charlemagne and the Avars].

== Iceland ==

  • Gunnbjörn's skerries - a group of islands between Iceland and Greenland that were briefly settled before being destroyed in a volcanic eruption.

== Italy ==

  • Acerrae Vatriae – a town of the Sarranates mentioned by Pliny the Elder as having been situated in an unknown location in Umbria.
  • Castro – a city in Lazio, capital of a Duchy ruled by the Farnese family. It was destroyed by a Papal army in 1649.
  • Luni
  • Paestum – Greek and Roman city south of Naples; three famous Greek temples.
  • Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae – all buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and rediscovered in the 18th century.
  • Sybaris, Italy – ancient Greek colonial city of unsurpassed wealth utterly destroyed by its arch-rival Crotona in 510 BC.
  • Tripergole – ancient Roman spa village on the eastern shores of the Lucrine Lake in the Campi Flegrei. The village and most of the lake were buried by tephra in 1538 during the volcanic eruption that created Monte Nuovo. The exact location of the village and its associated hot springs can no longer be identified.

== Lithuania ==

== Netherlands ==

== Norway ==

  • Kaupang – In Viksfjord near Larvik, Norway. Largest trading city around the Oslo Fjord during the Viking age. As sea levels retreated (the shoreline is 7m lower today than in 1000) the city was no longer accessible from the ocean and was abandoned.

== Poland ==

== Portugal ==

  • Ammaia - Roman villa Abandoned between the 5th and the 9th century AD.
  • Conímbriga – early trading post dating to the 9th century BC. Abandoned in the 8th century AD.

== Romania ==

== Russia ==

  • Bolghar – important Silk Road city on the Volga river, razed by the Tatar.
  • Ilimsk – a small town in Siberia. Flooded by the Ust-Ilimsk Reservoir in the mid-1970s.
  • Kitezh – mythical city beneath the waters in central Russia.
  • Mangazeya – a trading colony on the Pomors' Northern Sea Route, was abandoned in the 17th century after the Northern Sea Route was banned. Mangazeya was considered lost until it was re-discovered by archaeologists in 1967.{{cite web |last1=Watkins |first1=Thayer |title=Mangazeya: A 16th Century Arctic Trading City |url=http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/mangazeya.htm |publisher=San José State University |access-date=8 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021125045505/http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/mangazeya.htm |archive-date=25 November 2002 |url-status=dead}}
  • Peremyshl – town that was founded in 1152.
  • Tmutarakan – a trading town of Rus' Khaganate

== Serbia ==

  • Stari Ras – one of the first capitals of the medieval Serbian state of Raška, abandoned in the 13th century.

== Slovakia ==

  • Myšia Hôrka (near Spišský Štvrtok) – 3500 years old town (rediscovered in the 20th century) and archaeological site.

== Spain ==

  • Amaya – either the capital or one of the most important cities of the Cantabri. Probably located in what nowadays is called "Amaya Peak" in Burgos, northern Spain.
  • Cypsela – drowned Ibero-Greek settlement in the Catalan shore, Spain. Mentioned by Greek, Roman and Medieval chroniclers.
  • Reccopolis – one of the capital cities founded in Hispania by the Visigoths. The site was incrementally abandoned in the 10th century.
  • Tartessos – a harbor city or an economical complex of small harbors and trade routes set on the mouth of the Guadalquivir river, in modern Andalusia, Spain. Tartessos is believed to be either the seat of an independent kingdom or a community of palatial cities devoted to exporting the mineral resources of the Hispanic mainland to the sea, to meet the Phoenician and Greek traders. Its destruction is still a matter of debate among historians, and one modern tendency tends to believe that Tartessos was never a city, but a culture complex.

== Sweden ==

== United Kingdom ==

== Ukraine ==

= North America =

== Canada ==

=== Rediscovered ===

  • L'Anse aux Meadows – Viking settlement founded in 1021 AD. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • 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.

===Undiscovered===

== Caribbean ==

=== Rediscovered ===

== Mexico and Central America ==

=== Maya cities ===

Incomplete list – for further information, see Maya civilization

==== Rediscovered ====

  • Calakmul – One of two superpowers in the classic Maya period. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Chichen Itza – This ancient place of pilgrimage is still the most visited Maya ruin. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Coba
  • Copán – In modern Honduras. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Naachtun – Rediscovered in 1922, it remains one of the most remote and least visited Maya sites. Located {{convert|44|km|mi|abbr=in}} south-south-east of Calakmul, and {{convert|65|km|mi|abbr=in}} 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. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Tikal – One of two major powers in the classic Maya period. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Tulum – Mayan coastal city.

=== Olmec cities ===

==== Rediscovered ====

=== Totonac Cities ===

==== Rediscovered ====

  • Teotihuacan – Pre-Aztec Mexico.[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/teot/hd_teot.htm Teotihuacan], The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

=== Other ===

==== Rediscovered ====

  • 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 – In Costa Rica. It is believed that the site was inhabited from 1500 BCE to 1400 CE, and had at its peak a population of around 10,000.

== United States ==

=== Rediscovered ===

  • Ajacán Mission – an attempt by Spain to found a mission in Virginia in the mid-16th century. The entire party of 30 was massacred by Native Americans in February 1571. Only one survivor was left.
  • The cities of the Ancestral Pueblo (or Anasazi) culture, located in the Four Corners region of the Southwest United States – The best known are located at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde.
  • Etzanoa – located in Arkansas City, Kansas. City of the Wichita culture. It was home to around 20,000 people at its height, and it was inhabited from c. 1450–1700 AD.
  • Fort San Juan (Joara) - a Spanish fort build by the Pardo expedition in 1567. Destroyed by Indians one year later. Rediscovered in 2016.
  • Bethel Indian Town, New Jersey – Lenape settlement which disappeared as the Lenape were pushed west.
  • Cahokia – Located near present-day St. Louis, Missouri. At its height Cahokia is believed to have had a population of between 40,000 and 80,000 people, making it amongst the largest Pre-Columbian cities of the Americas. It is known chiefly for its huge pyramidal mounds of compacted earth. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Pueblo Grande de Nevada a complex of villages, located near Overton, Nevada
  • Roanoke Colony
  • Sarabay – a Mocama settlement in northeast Florida, mentioned in both French and Spanish documents dating to the 1560s.{{cite web |url=https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/06/archaeologists-uncover-lost-indigenous-ne-florida-settlement-of-sarabay/139419 |title=Archaeologists uncover lost Indigenous NE Florida settlement of Sarabay |website=Heritage Daily |date=8 June 2021 }}

= South America =

== Inca cities ==

=== Rediscovered ===

== Other ==

=== Rediscovered ===

=== Status Unknown ===

Undiscovered and fictional lost cities

= Legendary =

  • Ai – important city in the Hebrew Bible
  • Arthurian Camelot – the legendary castle of King Arthur
  • Atlantis – mythical lost continent, mentioned in two of Plato's works, Timaeus and Critias
  • Aztlán – the ancestral homeland in Aztec mythology
  • Ciudad de los Cesares (City of the Caesars, also variously known as City of Patagonia, Elelín, Lin Lin, Trapalanda, Trapananda, or Wandering City) – a legendary city in Patagonia, never found
  • Dvārakā – An ancient city of Krishna, submerged in the sea.
  • El Dorado – a mythical city of gold in the Americas
  • Iram of the Pillars – this may refer to a lost Arabian city in the Empty Quarter, but sources also identify it as a tribe or an area mentioned in the Quran{{cite book|last=Glassé|first=Cyril|url={{GBurl|id=focLrox-frUC&q=Iram+of+the+Pillars|pg=PA26}}|title=The New Encyclopedia of Islam|author2=Huston Smith|publisher=AltaMira Press|year=2003|isbn=0-7591-0190-6|edition=Revised|page=26|via=Google Books}}
  • Kitezh, Russia – legendary underwater city which supposedly may be seen in good weather
  • Lemuria – An ancient, now sunken, land in the Pacific Ocean
  • Libertatia, Madagascar – (Also known as Libertalia) was a pirate colony founded in the 17th century by pirate Captain James Misson (occasionally spelled "Mission") that is still disputed by historians today.
  • Lost City of Z – a city allegedly located in the jungles of the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, said to have been seen by the British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett some time before World War I{{cite news|title=Lost cities of the Amazon revealed|work=NBC News|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3077413}}
  • Lyonesse – a stretch of land from Cornwall, England, into the Celtic Sea
  • Otuken – legendary capital city of Gokturks in Turkic mythology
  • Paititi – a legendary city and refuge in the rainforests where Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru meet{{cite news|date=January 2008|title=Ancient 'Lost City' Discovered in Peru, Official Claims|work=National Geographic|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080116-lost-city.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117073334/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080116-lost-city.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 17, 2008}}
  • The Seven Cities of Gold
  • Shambhala – Mythical kingdom said to be located in Tibet
  • Sodom and Gomorrah
  • Vineta – legendary city somewhere at the Baltic coast of Germany or Poland
  • Ys – legendary city on the western coast of France

That some cities are considered legendary does not mean they did not in fact exist. Some that were once considered legendary are now known to have existed, such as Troy and Bjarmaland.

= Fictional =

See also

{{portal|Civilizations}}

References

{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Cities

Category:Lists of cities