Case file · Folklore / legend
Gran Pajatén 'lost city'
In 1965 the American explorer Gene Savoy publicised Gran Pajatén, a cloud-forest site of round stone buildings with friezes on the Amazon slope of the Peruvian Andes, as a 'lost city'.
1965 CE · -7.63, -77.27 · status: explained
The account
Local people had known of it before; it belongs to the Chachapoya culture and is now protected in Río Abiseo National Park.
The sceptical view
A real archaeological site, which has since been studied scientifically; the 'lost city' framing was press language.