Paititi, the Lost Inca City
Some believe the Incas carried their treasure to a hidden jungle city when the Spanish came. Explorers are still looking.
What was reported
Paititi is a legendary lost Inca city said to lie in the rainforest east of the Andes, on the borders of Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. In the legend, the Incas fled there with their treasures after the Spanish conquest.
Explorers have searched for it since the 16th century, and in 2001 a Jesuit document from around 1600, found in archives in Rome, was reported to describe a rich jungle city called Paititi. Expeditions into Peru's Madre de Dios region and Bolivia continue.
Explanations offered
No lost city has been confirmed. Archaeologists have found Inca outposts and other sites in the eastern lowlands, and some think Paititi preserves memories of real trading centres. The forest is vast, remote and little explored, so the legend endures.
- When
- Sought since the 1500s
- Where
- Madre de Dios, Peru
- Witnesses
- Spanish chroniclers and generations of explorers
- Status
- Never found
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.