La Ciudad Blanca, the White City
For centuries, explorers searched the Honduran rainforest for a lost White City. In 2015, lasers from an aircraft found ruins beneath the trees.
What was reported
The Mosquitia region of eastern Honduras is one of the largest rainforests in Central America. Since the time of the Spanish conquest, stories spoke of a lost 'White City' hidden in its jungle, sometimes called the City of the Monkey God. Several explorers claimed to have found it, without proof.
In 2012, a team flew over the forest using lidar, a laser-scanning technique that can map the ground beneath trees, and found the outlines of plazas, mounds and earthworks.
Explanations offered
In 2015, archaeologists reached the site on foot and found the remains of a large pre-Columbian settlement, with stone sculptures, belonging to a little-known culture that flourished about 1,000 years ago. It was not a single 'White City', but a real lost civilisation, one of many in the region.
- When
- Legend for centuries; ruins found in 2015
- Where
- La Mosquitia, Honduras
- Witnesses
- Explorers, then archaeologists
- Status
- Partly confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.