from "Secrets of the Lost City of Z" by Anthony Mason

from "Secrets of the Lost City of Z"

by Anthony Mason

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​Since the dawn of the modern age, the notion of a pre-historic world, hidden deep in the jungle and untouched by the passage of time, has captivated our imaginations.

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​Before "Jurassic Park" before "King Kong" there was "The Lost World." Written in 1912 by Sherlock Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Lost World" was in turn largely inspired by the real-life adventures of one remarkable man: Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett.

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David Grann, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, says in his time Fawcett was a larger-than-life figure: "Oh, he really was. I mean, he was the last of these kind of great territorial explorers who would plunge into the blank spots on the map, carrying a machete, essentially, and an almost divine sense of purpose."

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​Grann was researching an article on Conan Doyle when he came across a reference to Fawcett.

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"I had typed Fawcett's name into one of these newspaper databases, and up came all these kind of crazy headlines: Fawcett disappears into the unknown. A movie star kidnapped trying to save Fawcett."

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​"I had never heard of this man, and I quickly discovered there was this legendary figure, "Grann said. "And this enormous mystery that had been eclipsed by history. And it really intrigued me."

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​So Grann started digging. Fawcett, he learned, was an honored member of Britain's renowned Royal Geographical Society.

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​"He would live in the jungle for years at a time without contact with the world, " Grann said. He discovered stories about "how he'd battle anacondas and electric eels, and how he'd emerge with maps of regions that no one had ever came back from."

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​In April 1925, Fawcett set out with just two others-- his 21-year-old son Jack, and Jack's best friend, Raleigh Rimmel-- on what was to be his crowning adventure . . . finding the remains of a lost world he believed existed deep in the in Amazon jungle of South America.

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​Fawcett called his mythical city, simply, "Z".

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​After 30 years as an explorer, Fawcett's survival skills were unrivaled. But this time, he went in . . . and never came out.

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​"Well, we know he got as far as a place called Dead Horse Camp, where he would send these dispatches back for five months," said Grann. "And then after the fifth month, the dispatches ceased. And they were never heard from again."

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​. . . setting off one of the greatest manhunts of the 20th century.

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​George Dyott was the first, taking a film crew with him into the Amazon in 1928 and radioing back regular progress reports.

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​But he never found Fawcett.

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​In 1996 Brazilian financier James Lynch launched a multi-million dollar expedition to finally solve the mystery. But he and his party were kidnapped by tribesmen.

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​They were released only after surrending $30,000 worth of gear.

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​Now, finally, after 85 years, the mystery that has tantalized so many may finally have been solved by perhaps Fawcett's least likely pursuer.

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​Grann turned his jungle adventure into a best-seller, "The Lost City of Z," in which he recounts Fawcett's final days.

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​"We stayed with many of the same tribes that Fawcett stayed with," said Grann. "And to my astonishment, they had an oral history about Fawcett and his expedition."

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​"It describes how Fawcett had insisted on moving eastward, towards the 'River of Death'. And the tribe tried to persuade them not to go in that direction. In that direction were what they referred to as 'the fierce Indians'. And off he marched.

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​"And they could see the fire for five days, rising above the treetops. And then on the fifth day, it went out as if it was snuffed out. And they had no doubt that they had been killed by the Indians."

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​No physical trace of Fawcett has ever been found. But Grann's efforts did bring one revelation to light: Fawcett may have been right about the "lost civilization" after all.

​Paragraph Twenty-Four:

​"In the last few years, archaeologists are now going into this region using high-tech gadgetry that Fawcett could never imagine-- satellite imagery, ground penetrating radars to pinpoint various artifacts," said Grann. "And they are discovering ancient ruins scattered throughout the Amazon."

​Paragraph Twenty-Five:

​"One archeologist has found, in the very area where Fawcett believed he would find Z, 20 pre-Columbian settlements that had roads built at right angles, bridges, causeways, and that a cluster of these settlements that were interconnected had populations of between 2,500 to 5,000 people, which would have made them the size of many medieval European cities at the time."

Multiple Choice

1. How does the author introduce the idea of a hidden, prehistoric city in the jungle?

• He provides details about the precise time in which the city existed.

• He describes what a prehistoric jungle city would have been like. 

• He lists novels and movies that feature examples of such cities.

Multiple Choice

2. How does the author support the claim that the search for Fawcett was "one of the greatest manhunts of the 20th century"?

• By discussing the time, money, and effort put into finding Fawcett.

• By describing the mystery surrounding Fawcett's disappearance

• By describing the high-tech gadgetry used to find Fawcett

Multiple Choice

3. Why does the author include the antecdote about James Lynch's search for Fawcett?

• It illustrates the idea that many people tried unsuccessfully to find Fawcett. 

• It proves that David Grann is a more capable explorer than James Lynch.

• It shows that the tribesmen who kidnapped Lynch also killed Fawcett.

Multiple Choice

4. The author of the passage thinks that Percy Fawcett was " a remarkable man". What does that mean?

• He was not very important to anyone, but the author still found his story exciting.

• He is unique and worthy of notice. He did amazing things.

• He is an average human being who was able to do great things because he was able to speak many languages fluently.

Multiple Choice

5. The author of the passage thinks that Percy Fawcett was " a remarkable man". Which example supports that idea as the central idea?

• "But he never found Fawcett."

• He discovered stories about "how he'd battle anacondas and electric eels, and how he'd emerge with maps of regions that no one had ever came back from."

• And they had no doubt that they had been killed by the Indians."