Unexplained
What happened to the men who set out to find the mysterious location..?
He stood on the edge of a vast, unexplored piece of territory.
A jungle the size of the USA that had never been mapped or charted.
And from that last remote outpost, Percy Fawcett wrote to his wife.
We hope to get through this region in a few days, he wrote. You need have no fear of any failure.
Next morning, Percy set off with his small group of companions – his son Jack, 22, and his friend Raleigh Rimmel.
They were never heard from or seen again. It was May 1925. The Mato Grosso jungle spread across thousands of miles of the Amazon, covering huge parts of Brazil and Bolivia.
And Percy was convinced that somewhere in that dense, humid wilderness was the City of Z.
As early as 1753, a Portuguese explorer had written about a city in the middle of the jungle.
It was said to be full of tall buildings and monuments covered in silver, with wide streets and boulevards leading to squares and plazas.
If anyone could locate it, Percy could.
Percy had been a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, worked for the Royal Geographical Society mapping parts of Bolivia. He’d found the source of Brazil’s huge Rio Verde river.
He’d fought anacondas, lived for months on end in the wilds with no contact with the outside world, and befriended Amazon tribespeople.
No-one knew the Amazon like Percy.
He estimated the expedition would last a year. He, his son and friend would be the first people to locate the mysterious City of Z.
But two years on, Percy, Jack and Raleigh still hadn’t returned.
Perhaps there’d been an accident. Perhaps the men had got lost.
Some believed that Percy might have been killed by tribespeople living in the jungle, despite his background.
Before long, another expedition was launched by journalist Albert de Winton. No-one knew if it would be a rescue mission, or to recover Percy and his companions’ remains.
But Albert and his team were never seen again, either.
Over the years, a total of 13 expeditions went into Mato Grosso, determined to find what had happened to Percy, Jack and Raleigh.
Thirteen expeditions and 100 men in total.
None of them returned.
How can 100 men go missing in the jungle?
Did they all have accidents, or get lost? Were they all killed by tribespeople?
Or did they set off knowing that they’d never be coming back – staying in the depths of the Amazon jungle
He’d fought anacondas, lived in the Amazon wilds...
because they wanted to?
Had they planned to set up home in the City of Z?
Before he set off, Percy Fawcett had talked of his ‘grand scheme’.
And, after he disappeared, Percy’s private papers showed pictures he’d drawn of a she-god, a spirit guide, luring him into the jungle, telling him to find the City of Z.
Could Percy’s real mission have been to worship the mysterious goddess?
Percy is said to have believed his son was a god, too. That Jack should be worshipped.
Did Percy hope to set up a secret community based on his unusual beliefs? A cult that could thrive in the jungle, far from prying eyes and judgement? If so, did those 100 explorers follow Percy to join the secretive community?
For Percy, maybe the City of Z wasn’t just a real place, but an idea, a philosophy. Somewhere he and his followers could practise their beliefs in safety.
The vast forest of Mato Grosso remains unmapped and uncharted today.
But somewhere in the wilds of the jungle, could Percy’s community still be thriving?
He and his team might have been eaten by jaguars. They may have been attacked by tribespeople.
Or they just might have set up a new way of life…
Did Percy hope to set up a secret community?