NARRATOR: We have looked for it deep in the Amazonian jungle...
we've followed South America's most dangerous rivers...
..to the continent's most remote mountains...
El Dorado: A lost city, brimming with riches...
A place said to be made of gold...
A place that has inspired
generations of explorers and conquerors.
More than 500 years after Christopher Columbus
discovered America, El Dorado remains one of history's
most famous and controversial myths.
Over the centuries, the myth has evolved,
and theories on its location have changed.
To discover it, thousands of adventurers have faced
the most hostile places in South America.
FERN RIDDELL: What could be more logical than a dense, dangerous,
and almost impenetrable jungle
to safeguard a legendary and fabulous treasure?
NARRATOR: Where do the first mentions of El Dorado arise?
And what do they refer to?
Which civilization might have had enough wealth
to build a city of gold?
- The Muiscas reserved gold for their gods.
And since the gods are everywhere, the Muiscas put gold everywhere
NARRATOR: Is there somewhere out there...
traces of such a city...
and what clues could help researchers locate it?
VIRGINIE GIROD: (speaking in French)
NARRATOR: To untangle the truth from the fiction,
we assembled a team of five international experts:
anthropologists, historians, and archaeologists.
Together, they conducted the investigation.
Thanks to their testimonies, reconstructions,
and a methodical exploration of the places where El Dorado
was sought, we're going to walk in the footsteps
of the first conquistadores who dared to set out in search of it.
- Every time they discover a treasure,
they're convinced there's an even bigger one somewhere else.
- Who knows what else is buried deep in the Amazon?
NARRATOR: Fantasy or reality, an investigation into El Dorado,
an obsession, and the most coveted treasures in history.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: El Dorado, or "The Golden One".
It's the name given to a place hidden somewhere in South America
that's said to be made of gold.
A mythical city that gave rise to one of
the bloodiest treasure hunts in history.
- (soldiers yelling) - (horse whinnies)
NARRATOR: This legend originated in 16th-century Colombia.
Even today, 500 years later, in Bogota, the country's capital,
the existence of El Dorado is still the subject of many theories.
The famous Gold Museum houses more than 35,000 gold objects -
ornaments, necklaces, bracelets -
all dating from pre-Columbian times, before Christopher Columbus
and the first Spanish settlers arrived in the Americas.
These precious relics are proof of the wealth of the people
that lived in the region at the time.
An abundance of gold that fuelled the legend
of this mysterious city of gold.
A place that no-one has yet managed to locate.
To investigate its existence, we have to go back
to the origins of the myth...
- (suspenseful music)
NARRATOR: ..to the time of the first great maritime expeditions
of the 15th century, and one in particular
launched by the man who was to become one of
the greatest explorers in history: Christopher Columbus.
- (speaking in French)
NARRATOR: To secure this patronage,
Christopher Columbus used the lure of gold,
relying on the tales told by Marco Polo during
his travels in Asia at the end of the 13th century.
- During his visit to Burma, Marco Polo recounted his fascination
with the golden pagodas in Buddhist temples.
- (dramatic music)
- Columbus convinced his patrons of the existence of similar treasures
to be found on his voyage, and launched his first expedition
on August 3rd, 1492.
NARRATOR: Two months after his departure, on 12 October 1492,
Christopher Columbus landed not in Japan as he had expected,
but in the Caribbean: first in the Bahamas, then in Cuba,
and finally on the island of Hispaniola, present-day Haiti.
- (suspenseful music)
NARRATOR: He looked for gold immediately,
but found only a few gold mines with very limited yields.
Undaunted he was convinced that great sources of gold existed,
he just had to keep looking.
- Christopher Columbus subscribed to ancient beliefs that gold,
like silver or precious stones,
obeyed specific laws well known to alchemists.
Gold was considered a living thing, and to grow, it depended on the sun.
So, it was logical to look for gold in the hottest regions
of the planet: the intertropical zones on either side of the equator.
NARRATOR: The stories told by Christopher Columbus gave rise
to what quickly became known as the "myth of the cities of gold".
According to the explorer, these cities must exist,
and that place must be in America.
- It wasn't yet El Dorado, but the "cities of gold"
Columbus spoke of were a beginning.
This was the fertile ground for the seed of the El Dorado myth,
which, in a few years, would become an obsession for the conquistadores,
including Hernan Cortes.
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: Almost 30 years after Christopher Columbus' expedition,
and still on behalf of the Spanish crown,
Hernan Cortes set off in search of new riches
that were increasingly coveted in Europe.
Leaving Cuba in February 1519, by April he landed in Veracruz
on the coast of what is now Mexico,
right in the heart of Aztec territory,
one of the most advanced civilisations in the Americas.
Its leader was Moctezuma II.
The Aztec people had occupied the region for several centuries.
They built cities with religious temples and majestic palaces,
the remains of which can still be seen today.
The capital of the empire was called Tenochtitlan,
which is now Mexico City.
Hernan Cortes and his men arrived there in November 1519.
- They were welcomed with great pomp by Emperor Moctezuma the Second,
who gave them a tour of his sumptuous palace.
NARRATOR: During their visit to the palace,
the conquistadores were captivated by one room in particular.
This episode is recounted by Bernal Diaz del Castillo,
a travelling companion of Hernan Cortes.
(reads out quote)
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: It was the first time that the Spanish had been confronted
with such a large quantity of gold in the New World.
And according to the only existing accounts of the Spaniards' arrival
in Aztec territory, Hernan Cortes and his men
were soon obsessed with this treasure of Emperor Moctezuma II.
- All sources claim that Moctezuma II graciously offered it
to Cortes as a sign of goodwill, peace, or perhaps submission.
But these accounts come from the point of view of the conquistadores.
One thing is certain: the situation quickly deteriorated.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: While the first contacts between the Aztecs
and the Conquistadors were friendly, curiosity soon gave way
to mistrust, and war soon followed.
In the spring of 1521, after several months of fierce fighting,
the city of Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish invaders,
precipitating the end of the Aztec empire.
- (sombre music)
NARRATOR: It was a bloody period during which the booty
that Hernan Cortes is said to have recovered simply vanished.
Even today, the mystery of this disappearance remains unsolved.
But the contemporary accounts of Hernan Cortes' men
confirmed the certainties of Christopher Columbus.
The existence of abundant riches amassed by Amerindian civilisations
is no longer in any doubt...
..and the quest to discover possible gigantic cities of gold continued.
After Hernan Cortes' expedition to the Aztec empire in
Central America, Francisco Pizarro, another famous conquistador,
was taken in by the myth and began a quest further south.
Setting out from Panama, in 1532, he landed in what is now Peru
and entered Inca territory,
which was one of the largest kingdoms in America.
It stretched over 3,500 kilometres down the Pacific coast
and 800 kilometres across the Andean mountain range.
Pizarro and his men decided to carry out a surprise attack
on the town of Cajamarca,
one of the largest Inca cities in the region.
- (suspenseful music)
GIROD: (speaking in French)
- (horse neighs) - (soldiers yelling)
GIROD: (speaking in French)
- (indistinct chatter)
NARRATOR: The episode is recounted by the Spanish historian
Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo in his work
On the History of the Conquest of the Americas.
(reads out quote)
- According to historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo,
the Inca emperor pledged to deliver more than six tons of gold
and twice as much silver.
For weeks, precious metals were delivered
from every corner of the Empire!
A treasure estimated at over 350 million euros!
Pizarro and his men sent a fifth of the hoard back to Spain
and split the rest.
NARRATOR: But in a worrying trend, the conquistadores
reneged on their agreement...
..and ended up murdering Atahualpa.
- (sombre music)
NARRATOR: And the treasure they recover in Cajamarca
will prove to them just how rich the region is.
Their thirst for gold has not been sated.
They are now more convinced that the region could well be home
to the famous El Dorado, dreamt of by Christopher Columbus.
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: In November 1533, they reached Cuzco,
one of the oldest Inca cities,
located in the south of present-day Peru.
- Once again, Pizarro and his men were struck by the riches of
the Incas, especially the literally dazzling Temple of the Sun.
The most sacred site in the empire, dedicated to the Sun God Inti,
was considered to be the centre of the world!
The temple is part of a larger religious complex called
the Qorikancha, which in Quechua, the language of the Incas,
means "enclosure of gold".
NARRATOR: The walls of the Qorikancha were adorned with
a gold cornice, and the interior was said to be studded with emeralds.
In this sanctuary dedicated to the greatest Incan divinities,
the buildings glistened with a thousand lights.
Their walls, both inside and out,
were covered with 700 sheets of gold.
A large gold disc was centrally located
and reflected the sun's rays.
But the temple also contained something even more special:
a jewel-encrusted gold statue, the Punchao.
- The Punchao, which can mean "daylight" or "dawn",
was one of the most important Inca idols.
It represents their supreme deity, the sun god Inti.
From his royal headband stream rays of sunlight,
and from his body, lions symbolise humanity, the world of the living,
and snakes symbolize the afterlife, the world of the dead.
NARRATOR: Inside the Qorikancha,
a sumptuous garden was dedicated to the god Inti.
Everything was made of gold and silver.
There were sculptures of llamas, jaguars, monkeys, and birds.
There were jars encrusted with precious stones,
all set in the middle of a cornfield.
BELLINGER: Part of this fabulous treasure had already
been stripped to buy the freedom of the Inca emperor Atahualpa.
- (tense music)
BELLINGER: When Pizarro and his men arrived in Cuzco,
they plundered what remained,
and desecrated the mummies of the Inca emperors.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: The capture of Cuzco by the Spanish was one of the events
that precipitated the fall of the Inca empire.
Peru's gold reserves, plundered by the conquistadores,
were soon exhausted.
And it was around this same time that a new legend
began to circulate to the north of the Inca territory,
among the conquistadors stationed in Quito,
the capital of what is now Ecuador.
In his book, the historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo
recounts that the conquistadors had heard that in the dense forests
around Bogota, in what is now Colombia,
there was a man called "El Dorado".
"The Golden One", a king who was permanently covered in gold.
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: (reads out quote)
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: A golden king with such riches that he could cover himself
in gold every morning.
At the time, the legend was enough to make the conquistadors dream,
and again, they decided to launch an expedition to find this land
and this city of gold that still evaded them.
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: The expedition was launched in 1536.
It was led by Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada.
From the Atlantic coast of Colombia,
he set off up the Magdalena River towards the interior,
accompanied by around 800 men and 3,500 indigenous people.
- (birdsong) - (suspenseful music)
McMAHON: A swampy area seriously hindered their progress
and the expedition soon turned tragic.
The torrential rains made the food rot,
and Quesada and his men were reduced to eating their horses,
and then the corpses of starving natives!
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: One year later, only 179 of the 800 Spaniards
involved in the expedition managed to reach the Colombian highlands
near present-day Bogota.
The survivors entered a territory inhabited by the Chibchas,
also known as Muiscas,
a region where gold seems to flow freely.
- (dramatic music)
BELLINGER: The Muiscas were a confederation of
pre-Columbian tribes living in central Colombia,
on the eastern branch of the Andes Mountain range.
Far less well known than the Aztec, Maya, or Inca civilizations,
the Muiscas were nevertheless a very prosperous civilization.
For almost 1,000 years, they flourished between
the 7th and 17th centuries CE.
- (dramatic music)
BELLINGER: For the Muiscas, gold wasn't a currency.
It had no economic value, only religious significance.
Gold symbolized the sun, fertility and power.
The Muiscas reserved gold for their gods.
It was used as an offering.
And since the gods are everywhere, the Muiscas put gold everywhere,
in countless sanctuaries and even in the homes of modest families.
This astounded the conquistadors,
who assumed the Muiscas had access to vast stores of it.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: An object found in 1969
and preserved in Bogota's Gold Museum
seems to make the link with the legend of the famous El Dorado,
the golden king sought by the conquistadors.
This unique piece has been dubbed "the Muisca raft".
- This artefact, made between the 11th and 16th centuries,
is a true work of art, probably requiring
long and painstaking work.
The object has no joints; everything has been melted together.
The gold, copper, and silver alloy is so masterful that
they were able to obtain different colours.
A closer look reveals 11 figures
standing on what appears to be a raft,
hence the name of this work.
The most important figure is in the centre.
Clearly taller, and wearing elaborate jewellery,
the others seem to be his entourage.
He is certainly a cacique, the tribal chief.
NARRATOR: On their arrival in Muisca territory,
the conquistadors also learned of the existence of a ritual,
some details of which seem to correspond to the accounts given
in Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo's book on the Golden King.
- (dramatic music)
- Each time a new cacique, or a tribal chief, came to power,
an enthronement ritual took place at dawn on Lake Guatavita,
some 60 km north of the capital.
NARRATOR: This ceremony is recounted in detail by
the 17th Century Spanish chronicler Juan Rodríguez Freyle,
who lived in the Bogota region for several years.
(reads out quote)
- (tense music)
BELLINGER: The tribal chief would take his place on a raft,
escorted by his greatest warriors.
And when they reached the middle of the lake, at sunrise,
and light illuminated his golden body, he would plunge in,
while offerings to this water dwelling god
were thrown in after him, including large quantities of gold!
NARRATOR: Could El Dorado be a man and not a place?
Could the chief of the Muisca tribe represented on the raft
be the "Gilded One"?
Is the ritual practised on Lake Guatavita
the inspiration for El Dorado?
Despite the similarities between the two stories,
it is still impossible to say for sure.
But at the time, these stories of men covered in gold
aroused the curiosity of the greedy conquistadors.
They tried to dig up the bottom of the lake in search of the treasures
that had been thrown into the water during the Muisca's ceremonies.
GIROD: (speaking in French)
NARRATOR: Lake Guatavita lies at the heart of a crater.
It measures 800 metres in diameter, and in places is 50 metres deep.
To drain it, Sepulveda decided to break through the ridge
surrounding the lake to allow the water to flow naturally
into a canal built into the side of the mountain.
The work took over 10 years, and it seems to be working.
As the water level drops, gold and emeralds appear.
- (dramatic music)
McMAHON: Sepulveda is convinced the lake hides huge treasure.
But just as the workmen reach a depth of only seven metres,
disaster strikes. The walls of the canal give way
under the pressure of the water, which rushes down the slope
swallowing everything in its path.
Hundreds of Muisca workers drown.
NARRATOR: The remains of this tragic episode can still be seen today
in a hollow on the ridge surrounding the lake.
Further attempts were made to drain the lake up until
the middle of the 20th century, but to no avail.
But for the first Spaniards that arrived in the region,
the ritual practised on Lake Guatavita was proof that
the Muiscas' gold resources were immense...
..inexhaustible even.
And they were determined to plunder it all.
RIDDELL: Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada continued explore Muisca territory
and made two record-breaking finds.
NARRATOR: In the northern part of the Muisca's territory,
Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada managed to steal
4.6 tonnes of gold from a local chief.
Shortly afterwards, in Tunja, they seized 190,000 gold pesos
and almost 2,000 emeralds, worth 38 million euros today!
McMAHON: But that's still not enough for the conquistadors.
Every time they discover a treasure,
they're convinced there's an even bigger one somewhere else.
- (tense music)
McMAHON: When the region's great Muisca chief refuses to reveal
the source of his people's gold, Quesada tortures him to death.
- Given the abundance of gold, the conquistadores were convinced
that there were gold mines in the area.
And they wouldn't take no for an answer.
- (eerie music)
- In the space of a few decades, the conquistadors' insatiable quest
for wealth brought this civilization to its knees.
In addition to pillaging, massacring, and raping,
they imported diseases to which the Muiscas had no natural immunity.
They tragically died in the thousands.
- (insects chirping) - (eerie music)
NARRATOR: And despite the sacrifices and years of searching,
the conquistadors never found the gold mines from which
the riches of the Muiscas were extracted.
There was a simple reason for this:
the gold didn't come from the region.
ALTAWEEL: But there were no gold mines to be found
because the Muiscas didn't have one.
The gold had been traded for their salt, their real treasure.
- (dramatic music)
ALTAWEEL: You can live without gold, but not without salt.
The Muiscas had a monopoly on it,
exchanging it for gold to honour their gods.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: The conquistadores did not find El Dorado in Muisca territory.
But the abundance of riches they plundered from there
would spread to all the colonists in South America.
GIROD: (speaking in French)
NARRATOR: The Spanish then turned their attention to another region
west of the Pacific coast.
A previously unexplored territory which could also be full of
unsuspected riches, and perhaps home to the famous El Dorado
that everyone hopes to discover.
In February 1541, a mission led by the explorer Francisco de Orellana
set off from Quito towards the interior of the continent.
The men managed to cross the Andes amidst extreme conditions
and reach the Napo river.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: But while many members of the expedition
died during the journey, Orellana decided to continue
his quest to trace the river's source.
After several long weeks, he and 57 of his men
came upon an immense river which would later be christened...
the Amazon.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: Their journey was to continue for many long months,
but these gold hungry adventurers managed to cross this hostile
and totally unknown environment.
After travelling 4,800 kilometres, the few remaining survivors
finally reached the Atlantic Ocean on the 24th of August 1542.
They became the first Europeans to traverse the South American
continent from west to east.
The lure of gold was proving a powerful motivator.
It was a feat that raised new hopes about the other cities of gold
that had not yet been located.
When Francisco de Orellana returned from his expedition,
he told of an incredible discovery he had made during his journey.
McMAHON: In the heart of the Amazon rainforest,
Orellana claims to have come across a population that
lived in large, fortified cities, and practiced agriculture.
His testimony was corroborated a few years later
by the Brasiles, Indians from Brazil who travelled in
the opposite direction, from east to west.
During their journey, they claimed to have encountered
large settlements on the shores of a lake
called the "Land of the Omaguas".
Its inhabitants were highly skilled in working precious metals,
which they exchanged for common tools.
- (insects chirping) - (birdsong)
RIDDELL: Even then, stories of the Amazon
fascinated and frightened us.
But for explorers, it all made sense.
What could be more logical than a dense, dangerous,
and almost impenetrable jungle
to safeguard a legendary and fabulous treasure?
NARRATOR: The Amazon rainforest quickly became a new obsession.
The Spanish settlers were prepared to do anything to return
and discover whether the land of the Omaguas
could be the El Dorado they had been looking for.
- (dramatic music)
GIROD: (speaking in French)
NARRATOR: The expedition was made up of 300 conquistadors,
hundreds of Indians, and several dozen slaves.
McMAHON: After building boats to sail upriver,
Governor Ursua and his men embarked on the Rio Maranon
on September 26th, 1560.
But trouble followed.
Ursua was authoritarian, to say the least,
ignored the opinions of his men, worked them mercilessly...
So, trouble was definitely brewing.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: Murders between companions, lost boats, mutiny...
In the heart of the Amazon rainforest,
the expedition quickly turns into a fiasco.
Governor Pedro de Ursua is murdered by his own men,
who end up killing each other.
And not a single discovery will be recorded during the course
of the adventure. The quest for El Dorado will continue
the darkest passions of the conquistadors.
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: After searching for El Dorado in Aztec territory,
within the vast Inca empire,
on the high plateaux of Colombia occupied by the Muisca Indians,
or in the heart of the Amazon rainforest among the Omaguas,
European adventurers now turned their attention to another region
that was yet to give up all its secrets: the Guianan Plateau.
This immense area covers western Venezuela and the territories
that would later become Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
In the heart of this area flows the Orinoco, an immense river,
rising in what is now the Venezuelan rainforest
and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.
- (dramatic music)
GIROD: (speaking in French)
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: It was now the turn of an Englishman, Sir Walter Raleigh,
who became one of the most fervent supporters of the theory
that El Dorado was to be found in the region.
On his return from his first expedition to the Americas in 1595,
he wrote a book with an edifying title: The Discovery
of the Great, Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guyana, With a Report
of the Great Gold City of Manoa, Which the Spaniards call El Dorado.
In it, Walter Raleigh accurately described everything
he had heard about the region during his trip.
(reads out quote)
Over the pages, the English explorer tells,
with great conviction, of the riches to be found in the region.
Like many before him, he needed to convince the British crown
to entrust him with the mission of discovering Manoa
and the lake called Parime,
around which El Dorado is said to lie.
And by fanning the flames of greed,
Sir Walter Raleigh will achieve his goal.
BELLINGER: In 1616, the Crown of England commissioned
Walter Raleigh to explore the Orinoco River,
between Venezuela and Guyana, in search of gold.
By now, the Spanish attempts to find El Dorado
were well known in England, and interest in the resources
of the American continent was growing.
But Raleigh was warned not to provoke a war with Spain.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: On the 7th of November 1617,
the British explorer landed on the island of Trinidad in search
of the gold he had promised to bring back to the King of England.
But the expedition was to be a total failure.
Not only did Walter Raleigh make no discoveries,
but his expedition sparked off a conflict with the Spanish colonists.
He was forced to return to England, where he was arrested
and beheaded on the 29th of October 1618.
BELLINGER: Paradoxically, despite his failures,
Walter Raleigh helped to burnish the European notion of El Dorado,
even though his was the last great expedition to look for it.
All that remains is the legend which, like a chimera,
evolves and sometimes changes name and location,
merging with other legendary cities of gold.
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: In the 18th century, reason and rationality
overtook fantasy and myth.
The conquistadores gave way to Enlightenment scientists
looking for facts and evidence.
Among them was Charles Marie de la Condamine,
a French encyclopaedist and astronomer.
ALTAWEEL: In 1743, de la Condamine
took part in a major scientific expedition to the Amazon equator
to determine whether the earth was
perfectly spherical or flattened at the poles.
His account would become a veritable goldmine
of information on the region.
NARRATOR: On his return, Charles Marie de la Condamine
published details of the discoveries made during his mission.
Zoology, botany, medicine, hydrography and astronomy...
..the pages are packed with information on the area.
He was also one of the very first to survey the Amazon River
and its tributaries, but even he wasn't immune to myth
and included an investigation on where the famous
El Dorado might be hiding.
(reads out quote)
In his book, the French scientist mentions
the existence of an Amazonian tribe called the Manaos,
who extracted gold from a river called the Yquiari,
and who lived in a region where there was a lake called Para-hi.
(reads out quote)
While Charles Marie de la Condamine does not state with certainty
that El Dorado is just a myth, he does make it clear that
the information that spread among the Conquistadores
may have been distorted, and that the golden city of Manoa
and Lake Parime may in fact never have existed.
- (suspenseful music)
RIDDELL: In his view, El Dorado was the product of European greed
combined with the mischief of the Amazon's indigenous peoples,
who, to avoid being massacred, sometimes led the Europeans
on a nice little boat trip,
dangling the promise of El Dorado in front of them.
NARRATOR: Despite this age of reason, and the scepticism
of scientists of an El Dorado teeming with riches,
the thirst for gold only continued to grow
and soon spread throughout the Americas.
- (stirring music)
ALTAWEEL: In the 19th century,
major gold veins were discovered in North America.
This gold was generally found in rivers
through a process call panning.
Gold beaters use a pan to separate the sand from the gold,
leaving behind larger flakes or nuggets of gold, if they're lucky.
- (dramatic music)
McMAHON: On January 24th, 1848, James Marshall,
an American carpenter, discovered a gold nugget
in a small stream near his sawmill on the banks of the American River.
The news soon spread,
even to the front pages of the major East Coast newspapers.
The President of the United States, James Knox Polk,
makes the gold discovery official in a speech to Congress.
- (suspenseful music)
NARRATOR: Gold was discovered in North Carolina, Georgia,
and California, triggering what came to be known as the gold rush.
Within a few years, hundreds of thousands of gold seekers
from all over the world flocked to the American West.
But while California became the "new El Dorado",
South America was abundant with veins of gold
that seekers would rediscover centuries later.
ALTAWEEL: Until 1820, before the discovery of other
major gold deposits around the world,
Brazilian gold accounted for nearly 80% of world production.
From the very end of the 19th century,
and especially in the 20th, new magnetic methods
revealed numerous gold mines in South America.
Many are in Mexico and Peru.
This is hardly surprising, given that the Aztecs
and Incas reigned in these two territories.
Archaeological digs and analysis of the gold objects
reveal that the Incas most certainly exploited
some gold mines in the Andes as early as the second half
of the 15th century, just before the conquistadors arrived.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: The discovery of gold mines in these regions
of South America reminded the world of the wealth
of pre-Columbian civilisations,
and how it was plundered by the conquistadores.
Many explorers continued to believe in the existence of
lost cities containing fabulous treasures.
And in 1839, the discovery of a mysterious document
in the archives of the National Library of Brazil
re-launched this age-old investigation.
Its name: Manuscript 512.
- This ten-page text, whose author is unknown, recounts how, in 1753,
Portuguese gold seekers discovered a "lost city" in the middle of
the Amazon rainforest in what is now the province of Bahia.
It describes the city's architecture as reminiscent
of the Greco-Roman cities of antiquity, with their triple arches,
obelisks, and statues of men wearing laurel wreaths.
NARRATOR: The author of the manuscript gives
a detailed description of the abandoned town
and recounts what the Portuguese gold diggers discovered there.
(reads out quote)
Rocks encrusted with silver and gold...
details that were sure to whet the appetite.
- (suspenseful music)
RIDDELL: The authenticity of this manuscript has been
the subject of much debate among scholars,
and cannot be considered a reliable historical source.
Its unknown author and picturesque writing style
raises a lot of questions.
Some think it could be a variation on the myth of El Dorado.
Nevertheless, naive adventurers and greedy fortune hunters
will always believe the story and forever search for the lost city.
NARRATOR: In 1925, the British explorer Percy Fawcett,
one of the greatest explorers of the 20th century,
was convinced he could find the abandoned city
mentioned in manuscript 512 in the heart of the Amazon jungle.
- (insects chirping) - (animals calling)
NARRATOR: According to him, it is located in the Serra do Roncador,
the "Snoring Mountain"...
..a mountain range in the eastern part of the state
of Mato Grosso in Brazil...
..at the source of the Xingu river.
In his notes, he refers to it as "Z".
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: The story of his expedition will be told
in a film entitled The Lost City of Z.
- (music quickens)
NARRATOR: But Percy Fawcett never found the lost city...
..and never returned from the jungle.
He was allegedly murdered by local tribesmen
and his body has never been found.
- (sombre music)
NARRATOR: In the decades that followed,
other adventurers have tried their luck.
All in vain.
- (tense music)
NARRATOR: Ever since Christopher Columbus arrived
in the Caribbean in 1492, the location of a possible El Dorado
has been the subject of countless debates,
and has aroused the hopes and desires of thousands of adventurers.
More than five centuries later,
the American continent has been explored from top to bottom,
and no lost city teeming with riches has yet been discovered.
- (birdsong)
- (mysterious music)
NARRATOR: But thanks to new detection methods,
archaeologists are continuing to carry out research in the region.
- In 1999, two researchers from the Ibero-American Institute
in Finland spotted strange geometric shapes known as geoglyphs
in the upper Amazon basin,
on the border between Brazil and Bolivia.
Four years later, satellite detection helped them
to refine their observations.
- (curious music)
ALTAWEEL: They counted no less than 281 giant geoglyphs
stretching over a region of more than 250 km.
NARRATOR: According to scientists, these are the remains of a gigantic
pre-Columbian city that thrived between the 3rd and 13th centuries.
The foundations would have been built from networks
of trenches 11 metres wide and several metres deep,
bounded by one-metre-high embankments.
This mysterious city could have housed up to 60,000 inhabitants.
By way of comparison, the inhabitants of medieval towns
in Europe at that time generally numbered between 5,000 and 10,000.
- The settlement's precise geometry
indicates that they were fine builders.
The city also boasted a carefully designed road network.
The two researchers believe that more than 2,000 structures
remain hidden beneath a thick curtain of jungle.
The extraordinarily fertile soil there suggests that the inhabitants
could grow rich and diversified crops,
one the hallmarks of great civilizations.
- (dramatic music)
ALTAWEEL: In a region further south, on the banks of the river Xingu,
archaeologists have uncovered a complex comprising 20 towns
and villages, spread over some 20,000 square kilometres.
That's the same size as Israel, and home up to 50,000 inhabitants!
And this may just be the beginning.
Who knows what else is buried deep in the Amazon?
- (dramatic music)
NARRATOR: Recent discoveries in Amazonia prove that our knowledge
of the civilisations that developed in America long before
the arrival of Europeans is still very much a work in progress,
and that many mysteries still lurk in the forests
or in the mountains.
The myth of El Dorado and the quest for gold and treasure,
lost to the jungles of America will continue to inspire
generations of adventurers for a long time to come.
Subtitles by Sky Access Services