The Silent City of Alaska
Travellers in Alaska told of a great city appearing in the sky above a glacier every summer, with towers and spires, and a photographer said he had captured it.
What was reported
In the 1880s, stories spread of a mirage seen above the Muir Glacier in Alaska around the summer solstice: a large city of buildings and spires floating in the sky. Some said it was a reflection of a real city far away, perhaps Bristol in England; others, that it was a lost city of the north.
A photographer named Willoughby claimed to have photographed it, and prints of his 'Silent City' were sold to tourists. Expeditions went to see it, and some claimed success.
Explanations offered
The photograph was soon shown to be a picture of Bristol, England, apparently passed off as a mirage. Real mirages of distant mountains and coasts, the Fata Morgana, do occur over cold Alaskan waters and may have given the legend a basis. The Silent City became a popular tourist tale.
- When
- Reported from the 1880s
- Where
- Muir Glacier, Glacier Bay, Alaska, USA
- Witnesses
- Explorers, miners and tourists
- Status
- Mirage and hoax
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.
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