Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City
Treasure hunters following a trail of stone steps found a lost city in the Colombian jungle, centuries older than Machu Picchu.
What was reported
In 1972 treasure hunters in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in northern Colombia, followed a long flight of stone steps up through the forest and found a city of terraces, plazas and paths on a mountain ridge. Gold and pottery from it soon appeared on the black market.
Archaeologists reached it in 1976. The city, called Teyuna by the region's Indigenous peoples, was built by the Tairona around 800 AD, some 650 years before Machu Picchu.
Explanations offered
The Kogi, Arhuaco and Wiwa peoples, descendants of the Tairona, say they knew of the city all along and still visit it as a sacred place. Today it's reached by a trek of several days through the jungle, managed together with local communities.
- When
- Found in 1972
- Where
- Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia
- Witnesses
- Treasure hunters, then archaeologists
- Status
- 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.