Case file · Folklore / legend
Kuhikugu: the real 'Z'?
In 2008 archaeologist Michael Heckenberger and Kuikuro colleagues published evidence that the upper Xingu once held networks of fortified towns linked by roads, home to perhaps tens of thousands of people before 1500.
2008 CE · -12.56, -53.11 · status: explained
The account
The largest site, Kuhikugu, has been suggested as the kind of settlement behind the stories Fawcett heard. The towns were earthworks and wood, not stone cities.
The sceptical view
It vindicates the idea of large Amazonian societies, not Fawcett's mystical lost city.
Connections in the atlas
- Lidar finds the Casarabe towns
- The 1996 Fawcett expedition held in the Xingu
- Percy Fawcett vanishes seeking 'Z'