Lost city Inca site situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru. Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is perhaps the most familiar icon of the Inca World. Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572, as a belated result of the Spanish Conquest. It is possible that most of its inhabitants died from smallpox introduced by travelers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area. In 1911, Melchor Arteaga led the explorer Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu, which
Lost City of the Kalahari Lost City of the Kalahari The Lost City of the Kalahari is a historical mystery of exploration and archaeology dating to the end of the 19th century. The history reports the existence of a ruined city found in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. In 1885, the Canadian Guillermo Farini (pseudonym of William Leonard Hunt) was one of the first westerners to cross the unexplored portion of the Kalahari. On his return to Europe, he published a book detailing his experiences which included descriptions of unusual rock formations which he believed to be ruins of hitherto unknown buildings. Farini subsequently