A group of archaeologists led by Marty Pärsinen of the University of Helsinki, working in the Brazilian state of Acre, announced the discovery of an unknown civilization. You don't hear this every day - a whole new civilization! However, in the general context of the archaeological study of the Amazon, this news does not sound as sensational as it might seem.

Few shards

Pärsinen's group excavated the famous geoglyphs - geometric patterns on the ground formed by ditches and trenches. These patterns are so huge that they can only be seen from the air. Among the finds of archaeologists are many clay shards. Since these shards are the only artifacts left to us from the ancient culture of the Amazon (there is no stone there), the local civilizations have to be classified according to the types of ceramics. The shards found by Parcinen are unlike any previously found, and this is enough to claim the discovery of an unknown civilization.

The thing is that such discoveries in the Amazon are not so rare. The entire history of the Amazonian civilizations is the history of the fight against the forest. It took a man incredible efforts to clear a site in the forest and adapt it to his needs, but as soon as people left this site, the forest swallowed it up in a matter of years. This is exactly what happened with geoglyphs. They were fenced areas (either fortifications, or ritual complexes), they were created approximately from the 1st to the 13th century AD. When people left them (some - after the arrival of Europeans, some - even before that), the areas very quickly overgrown with forest.

Geoglyphs were discovered only in the 1970s, when the Amazon jungle began to be cut down on an industrial scale, so that whole hectares of land appeared from under the cover of the forest and giant geometric patterns caught the eye of people who flew over these expanses on airplanes. Over the past thirty-odd years, hundreds of geoglyphs have been found throughout the Amazon basin, especially in its western part (including in the state of Acre), and their total number is believed to be in the thousands. How many more unknown types of ceramics are hidden by the forest, one can only guess.

The deforestation of the Amazon continues: new pastures are appearing and emerging at the site of deforestation in the state of Acre, Brazil is strengthening and strengthening its status as one of the largest producers of beef in the world, and environmentalists are still criticizing and criticizing the authorities and businessmen for the destruction of the unique Amazonian ecosystem. Discovery of traces of ancient civilizations - side effect this process, and it gave rise to unexpected consequences for all: the theory that the Amazonian forests are not at all as wild and untouched as they are usually thought of.

Nomads

The Amazonian land is barren: while the forest grows on it, it fertilizes itself, so to speak, but as soon as the forest is cut down, the rains wash away humus and minerals from the soil in just a couple of years, and anything stops growing on it. But if you leave the site, then the forest absorbs it, and after a few years you can again be engaged in agriculture for a couple of years. Early european descriptions testify that in the XVII-XVIII centuries the Amazonian Indians were engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture: a section of the forest is cut down and set on fire, then an agricultural community lives on it for several years, and when the soil is depleted, the community moves to another site, then to a third, and so on. The next generation can again whip and set fire to the first site - the forest has already restored the soil there.

This is, in fact, a nomadic civilization. It leaves almost no traces in which archaeologists could dig. The fact that the ancient Amazonian Indians built something that has survived to this day in the form of geoglyphs, and intensively used clay vessels, is a great luck. Geoglyphs are most likely not traces of permanent settlements: there are no human remains, and the first sign of settledness is a cemetery.

"Black earth"

However, studies of the last two decades indicate that in ancient times the civilized life of the Amazon was not limited to these semi-nomadic tribes. Throughout the basin of the great river, relatively small (an average of 20 hectares) areas of extremely fertile soil, the so-called "black earth" (in Portuguese - terra preta), have been discovered in huge quantities. Ancient ceramics are invariably found on these sites - that is, people once lived here.

Black Earth is an amazing phenomenon. This is exactly the kind of soil about which they say: stick a stick in it and it will bloom. "Black earth" is extremely rich in ash, humus, nitrogen, phosphorus and other minerals, it is teeming with micro-life. The thickness of this extremely fertile layer of earth reaches two meters, it is not washed out by rains and is capable of fairly rapid regeneration (up to a centimeter per year).

The most striking thing is that the "black earth" is not a natural phenomenon at all. It was created by people. For centuries, for millennia, they fertilized the soil, did not let the forest on it - and grew enviable crops that could feed a very impressive - up to a million people in the entire Amazon basin - population.

Ancient Amazonia

In 1542, fifty Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco de Orellana, marched on a brigantine along the entire course of the Amazon. The chaplain of the detachment, the Dominican monk Gaspar de Carvajal, left a colorful description of this expedition, in which he argued that at every step travelers came across native settlements and even cities, roads and other attributes of a highly developed and populous civilization. Almost no one believed the tales of de Orellana and brother Gaspard: obviously, they exaggerated the wealth of the country in order to show off, as well as to get money for a new expedition.

Less than half a century later, the Amazon was already almost deserted: many Indians were exterminated or driven into slavery by the Spaniards, and for most of them it was fatal to meet previously unknown diseases like smallpox, to which they, unlike Europeans, did not have immunity.

The discovery of geoglyphs, the elucidation of the origin of the "black earth" and other archaeological discoveries of the second half of the twentieth century rehabilitated de Orellana and Gaspard's brother, at least in part. great woman and archaeologist Betty Meggers found burials in magnificent clay urns in the lower Amazon, completing the picture of the intricately organized culture that flourished in the Amazon in the first one and a half thousand years of our era.

This culture, presumably, consisted of several urban centers, connected by roads, and many smaller settlements. Each such settlement, as a rule, was a ring of wooden houses, forming a spacious square, in the center of which there was a communal house - this form of villages has survived to this day among the Indian tribes in the Amazon basin, by some miracle survived to our time. And where we now see geoglyphs, there were, apparently, some ritual sites.

This culture, as already mentioned, has left relatively few archaeological traces - enough to judge its scope, but not enough to judge its character. The finds of the Pärsinen group (they were not made in the "black earth" and this is also interesting) among the geoglyphs of the state of Acre are valuable already in that they supplement our knowledge of the scale of ancient civilization, although nothing new is reported about the purpose of the geoglyphs.

There is, however, one particularly bold interpretation of the latest discoveries in the Amazon. According to her, the most important trace left ancient civilization, - this is ... the Amazonian selva itself. Many centuries of slash-and-burn agriculture, artificial selection of fruit trees, animals and even fish, the creation of the "black earth" - all this has made the most famous forest on the planet a work of human hands, almost to the same extent as of wild nature. So the Amazon can be called not only a forest, but also a garden. True, this garden has been in desolation for the last five hundred years. It must be admitted that it is very picturesque.

Since the beginning of human history, the jungle and forests have fascinated people. Who knows what wonders and horrors lurk in those shady depths of mangrove forests and verdant jungles? It is home to the prehistoric beasts that still roam the rivers of the Amazon and the treasures left behind by ancient civilizations. We are now living in an era of fast scientific advances, and new discoveries are made almost every day. The world seemed to have become much smaller in size compared to the jungle, forests and deep waters that were imaged and scanned by satellites. Nevertheless, we still do not know all the secrets that our planet is tearing away from us. Here are 10 interesting mysteries that scientists cannot yet solve.

Rings in the Amazon jungle

The Brazilian Amazon is filled with ancient ring-shaped ditches that were formed long before the jungle existed. It happened about a thousand years ago! Archaeologists still cannot understand who, why and why created them. Some believe that they were used as ancient burial sites, but there is no more convincing evidence for this theory. Others believe they are UFO tracks. Even the fact that they are similar to the Nazca lines still does not help scientists to figure out the origin of these ditches.

Marikoksi

South America has its own version of how Bigfoot named Marikoksi appeared. These creatures look like huge monkeys, their height is about 3.7 meters. They seem primitive, but they are quite smart and know how to use simple tools and weapons. The first acquaintance with Marikoxi took place in 1914, when Colonel Percival H. Fawcett, a British explorer, was studying the jungles of South America. The creatures were extremely hostile and did nothing but grumble. Colonel Fawcett and his expedition had to fire cannons into the ground to scare Marikoxi away. In 1925, Fawcett and his expedition disappeared in search of the lost city. Many believe that they starved to death or were killed by Marikoksi.

Sentinel people

The Sentineles have been living on North Sentinel Island for over 60,000 years. These people are extremely unfriendly and reject all attempts to communicate with the civilized world. While their existence is a mystery in itself, scientists were truly shocked when the local people survived the 2004 tsunami, as many of the Andaman Islands were destroyed. The tribe followed exactly its own path! But as the helicopter flew over the island in search of survivors, a guard man ran out with a spear and yelled for the helicopter to leave. But how this tribe could survive remains a mystery!

Prehistoric stone balls

Hundreds of these huge stone boulders can be found throughout the Costa Rican jungles. Who left them there and why? Scientists still cannot understand how prehistoric people could create these perfectly shaped balls and still use only ancient tools. Moreover, how did they transport them through the jungle, through thick and dense trees? Some boulders are up to 2.4 meters in diameter! This is one of the most intricate jungle mysteries that still remain unsolved.

Boiling river

In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon there is a river that kills everything with its waters. Temperatures can go up to 93 degrees Celsius, making her drive uninhabitable. There is no information about the origin of this river, but some people believe that it happened after a mistake made by the drilling company, which destroyed the geothermal system and released hot gases from the depths of the Earth directly into the river. Locals consider this place sacred and often gather on the banks for rituals and simply singing songs.

Lost city of giants

Back in 2012, an expedition went to Ecuador to find the lost city. Accompanied by a group of natives, the explorers did indeed find many massive structures that have been dubbed the "Lost City of the Giants." Along with the 79 meter high pyramids, they found many oversized instruments that were too large for humans to use. Many of them are skeptical about these findings, but some scientists believe that this is proof that giants once roamed the Earth.

Giant head in Guatemala

In the 1950s, the jungle of Guatemala gave archaeologists a huge stone head. Found by Dr. Oscar Padilla, the head looked directly into the sky, the face had Caucasian features ( big nose and thin lips), which was impossible, since in those days there was no contact with Caucasian people in that area. Later, the head was destroyed under strange circumstances, but archaeologists are absolutely sure that it was created by ancient civilizations. Hector E. Maggia, an expert from Guatemala, stated that the head does not have the characteristics of the Maya or any other ancient civilization. It was definitely built by some very ancient civilization that we might not even know about!

The disappearance of Michael Rockefeller

Michael Rockefeller, a 23-year-old Harvard researcher, was fascinated by the travel and origins of the tribes. He disappeared in 1961 while traveling in the jungle of New Guinea. While Michael and his partner Rene Wassing were on the water, their boat capsized and they found themselves under water. Michael thought he could get to the mainland, swim 16 kilometers to shore. His last words were: "I think I can do it." And that was the last time he was seen alive. Many believe that Michael Rockefeller drowned on the way to the shore, others think that he was eaten by cannibals of one tribe in New Guinea. In any case, his whereabouts are still unknown.

Otherworldly objects in the Amazon forest

Back in 2011, a group of researchers stumbled upon the lost city of the monkeys. Hidden deep in the Honduran jungle of La Mosquitia, it was abandoned by the Aztecs over 500 years ago. A carnivorous disease that was perceived as a curse drove everyone out of the city, but even worse is the fact that the ancient plague is still alive! One of the explorers was Douglas Preston, a renowned writer who even published a book about his jungle adventures. During the expedition, he and his team almost lost their faces! They had contracted a carnivorous disease and needed immediate medical careotherwise their faces would have turned into a large round ball. During excavations, they were also attacked. poisonous snakes and ultimately had to live in a city that had many artifacts. It was too dangerous to continue with your work! But a keen person is not afraid to do what he loves!

The legend of Atlantis tells of a lost land that disappeared without a trace in the depths of the sea. In the cultures of many peoples, there are similar legends about cities that disappeared under water, in the sands of the desert or overgrown with forests. Consider five lost cities that have never been found.

Percy Fawcett and the Lost City of Z

Ever since Europeans first arrived in the New World, there have been rumors of a golden city in the jungle, sometimes referred to as El Dorado. Spanish conquistador Francisco Orellana is the first to venture along the Rio Negro River in search of a legendary city.

In 1925, 58 year old explorer Percy Fawcett delved into the jungles of Brazil in order to find a mysterious lost city, which he named Z. Fost's team and himself disappeared without a trace, and this story became the reason for numerous publications. The rescue operations failed - Fossett was never found.

In 1906, Fawcett was invited by the Royal Geographical Society of England, which sponsored scientific expeditions, to explore part of Brazil's border with Bolivia. He spent 18 months in the state of Mato Grosso, and during his expeditions, Fawcett became obsessed with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe lost civilizations in the region.

In 1920, at the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, Fawcett came across a document called Manuscript 512. It was written in 1753 by a Portuguese explorer. He claimed that in the Mato Grosso region, in the Amazon rainforest, he found a walled city that resembles ancient Greek.

The manuscript described a lost city with multi-storey buildings, billowing stone arches, wide streets leading to a lake, where the explorer saw two white Indians in a canoe.

In 1921, Fawcett embarked on the first of his expeditions in search of the lost city of Z. His team endured many hardships in the jungle, surrounded by dangerous animals, and people were exposed to serious illnesses.

ABOUTdean from Percy's routes

In April 1925, he made one last attempt to locate Z. This time he prepared himself well and received more funding from newspapers and communities, including the Royal Geographical Society and the Rockefellers.

In the last letter delivered home by a member of his team, Fawcett wrote a message to his wife, Nina: "We hope to get through this area in a few days ... Don't be afraid of failure." This turned out to be his last message to his wife and the world.

Although Fawcett's Lost City of Z has not been found, in recent years ancient cities and traces of religious sites have been discovered in the jungles of Guatemala, Brazil, Bolivia and Honduras. New terrain scanning technologies offer new hopes that City Z will be found.

Lost city of Aztlan - the birthplace of the Aztecs

The Aztecs - a powerful empire of ancient America - lived in the territory of today's Mexico City. It is considered to be the epicenter of Aztec culture on the missing island of Aztlan, where they created civilization before their migration to the Valley of Mexico.

Skeptics regard the Aztlan hypothesis as a myth, similar to Atlantis or Camelot. Thanks to legends, images of ancient cities live, but it is unlikely that they will be found. Optimists dream of glee at the discovery of legendary cities. The search for the island of Aztlan stretches from western Mexico all the way to the deserts of Utah. However, these searches are unsuccessful, because the location of Aztlan remains a mystery.

Unusual map of 1704 by Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri. The first publicly published version of the legendary Aztec migration from Aztlan.

According to Nahuatl legend, seven tribes lived in Chicomostok - "the place of the seven caves." These tribes represented seven groups of Nahua: Acolua, Chalca, Mexica, Tepaneca, Tlahuica, Tlaskalan and Xochimilca (sources name variants of names). Seven tribes with similar languages \u200b\u200bleft the caves and settled together near Aztlan.

The word Aztlan means “land to the north; the land from which the Aztecs came. " According to one theory, the inhabitants of Aztlan became known as the Aztecs, who later migrated from Aztlan to the Valley of Mexico.

The Aztec migration from Aztlan to Tenochtitlan is a turning point in Aztec history. It began on May 24, 1064, the first solar year of the Aztecs.

The seekers of the homeland of the Aztecs, in the hope of finding the truth, undertook many expeditions. But ancient Mexico is in no hurry to reveal the secrets of Aztlan.

The Lost Land of Lioness - a city at the bottom of the sea

According to the legend of King Arthur, Lioness is the birthplace of the protagonist from the story of Tristan and Isolde. This mythical land is now called the "Lost Land of Lioness." She is believed to have sunk into the sea. Although Lyonesse is mentioned in legends and myths, it is believed that he sank into the sea many years ago. It is difficult to determine the line between fiction and reality of hypotheses and legends.

Lioness is a large city surrounded by one hundred and forty villages. He disappeared on November 11, 1099 (although some accounts say 1089, and some speak of the 6th century). Suddenly the land was flooded by the sea, people drowned.

Although the story of King Arthur is a legend, Lyonesse is considered a real place adjacent to the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall, England. In those days, the sea level was lower.

Scilly is the westernmost and southernmost point of England and the southernmost point of Great Britain.

Fishermen from the Isles of Scilly report that they removed pieces of buildings and other structures from their fishing nets. Their words are not supported by evidence and are criticized.

The tales of Tristan and Isolde, the final battle between Arthur and Mordred, the legend of the city swallowed up by the sea, the stories of Lioness prompts you to find the ghost town.

The search for Eldorado - the lost city of gold

For hundreds of years, treasure hunters and historians have searched for the lost golden city of El Dorado. The idea of \u200b\u200ba city filled with gold and other riches tempted people from different countries.

The number of those wishing to find the greatest treasure and ancient miracle is not decreasing. Despite numerous expeditions to Latin America, the golden city remains a legend. No traces of its existence were found.

The origins of Eldorado originate in the stories of the Muisca tribe. After two migrations - one in 1270 BC. and another between 800 and 500. BC. - the Muisca tribe occupied the Cundinamarca and Boyaca areas of Colombia. According to the legend in El Carnero by Juan Rodríguez Freile, the Muisca performed rituals for each new king using gold dust and other treasures.

The new king was brought to Lake Guatavita and covered with gold dust naked. The retinue, led by the king on a raft with gold and precious stones, went to the center of the lake. The king washed away gold dust from the body, and the retinue threw pieces of gold and precious stones into the lake. The meaning of this ritual was to make a sacrifice to the Muisca god. For the Muisca, Eldorado is not a city, but a king, who was called "the one who is gilded."

Although the meaning of "el dorado" is primordially different, the name has become synonymous with the lost city of gold.

In 1545, the conquistadors Lazaro Fonte and Hernán Pérez de Quesada wanted to drain Lake Guatavita. Gold was found along the shores, which fueled treasure hunters' suspicions about the presence of treasures in the lake. They worked for three months. The workers passed the water in buckets along the chain, but did not drain the lake to the end. They didn't make it to the bottom.

In 1580, Antonio de Sepúlveda made another attempt. And again, gold items were found on the shores, but the treasures were hidden in the depths of the lake. There were other searches in Lake Guatavita. The lake is estimated to contain $ 300 million in gold.

However, the search was stopped in 1965. The Colombian government has declared the lake a conservation area. However, the search for Eldorado continues. The legends of the Muisca tribe and the ritual sacrifice in the form of treasures over time turned into the current story of Eldorado, the lost city of gold.

Dubai's Lost in the Desert: A Buried Story

Dubai maintains an image of an ultra-modern city with stunning architecture and effortless opulence. However, forgotten cities are hidden in the deserts. History shows how the early inhabitants of the sands adapted and overcame dramatic climate change in the past.

Lost city - the legend of Arabia - medieval Julfar. Historians knew about its existence from written records, but could not find it. Homeland of the Arab sailor Ahmed ibn Majid and supposedly for the fictional sailor Sinbad, Julfar flourished for a thousand years, until it turned into ruins and disappeared from human memory for two centuries.

Julfar was known in the Middle Ages as a thriving port city - the center of trade in the southern part of the Persian Gulf. It was located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, north of Dubai, but its actual location was discovered by archaeologists in the 1960s. Traces found at this site date back to the 6th century. The inhabitants of the port conducted regular trade with India and the Far East.

The X-XIV centuries were a golden age for Julfar and Arab long-distance trade, when Arab sailors regularly traveled half the way around the world.

The Arabs swam into European waters long before the Europeans managed to swim across the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf. Julfar has played an important role in the naval adventures of the Persian Gulf for over a thousand years. Arab merchants considered daunting 18-month sea voyages to China commonplace. The range of products will surprise modern merchants.

Julfar attracted constant attention from rival powers. In the 16th century, the Portuguese took control of the port. Already 70 thousand people lived in Julfar.

A century later, the city was captured by the Persians, but in 1750 they lost it. Then he fell into the hands of the Kawazim tribe from Sharjah, which was entrenched in the neighborhood, in Ras al-Khaimah, which they continue to rule to this day. And old Julfar gradually fell into decay, until its ruins, located among the coastal sand dunes, were not forgotten.

Today most of Julfara, in all likelihood, remains hidden under the sands north of Ras al-Khaimah.

Recent finds in the Amazon have given rise to new speculations that an ancient Indian civilization once existed here.

In the fall of 2010, due to drought, the water level in the Rio Negru River, the left tributary of the Amazon, fell to a record low in the last 100 years. This disaster had only one positive result: images of people and snakes previously covered by water were found on the exposed rocks. According to Eduardo Nevis, president of the Brazilian Archaeological Society, the drawings are between 3,000 and 7,000 years old. “It was believed that there was nothing in the Amazon. It is not true!" - he declared. It seems that the find will once again raise in all its acuteness the question of the "disappeared civilization" of the Amazon.

After the conquistadors encountered the developed states of the Aztecs and Mayans, they naturally turned their curious gaze to the gigantic and completely unexplored area of \u200b\u200bthe Amazonian jungle. News of cities rich in cinnamon and gold to the east of the Andean mountains prompted Francisco Orellana to move down the Amazon in 1541. In 196 days, he crossed the entire continent and sailed to the Atlantic. According to the chronicler of this expedition, the monk Gaspar de Carvajal, the Spaniards often came across traces of some infrastructure, such as roads full of barns, etc., but they were interested in something else. As for the treasures, the chronicler's information is somewhat inconsistent: the discoverers allegedly saw "cities shining with whiteness", in one place "there was a villa where there were many ... dishes, bowls and candlesticks made of excellent porcelain, which cannot be found anywhere else in the world." All these things were "covered with glaze and painted in all sorts of colors, strikingly bright, and, moreover, the drawings and paintings on them are so exquisite that one wonders how natural experience allowed these people to produce and decorate all these things, so similar to ancient Roman" ... However, such descriptions are in complete contradiction with the usual diary entries of Carvajal, from which it follows that the conquistadors carried out all observations mainly from the side of their brigantines, carried away by the frenzied current of the great and incredibly wide river, and made landfall only near tiny villages, fearing collisions with superior forces of the Indians. Only one news of the chronicler about the treasures gives the impression of at least partial authenticity: on June 26, 1542, the Spaniards heard from a captive Indian about the ruler Karipun, "who owns silver without counting." It is characteristic, however, that the Europeans did not even think of checking his message: by that time, the travelers had already dreamed of only one thing - how to stay alive!

The stories of other conquistadors are even more fantastic. Here is the story of one of them: “We saw a city of colossal dimensions at close range. The buildings were in a close and strict order, and in the middle there was a house that was immeasurably superior to the rest. They asked the guide: "Whose house is this, so remarkable and outstanding among all the others?" He replied that this was the house of a ruler named Kvarik, who had several golden statues as tall as a boy, as well as a woman of gold - their goddess. However, there are other rulers nearby who surpass him in the number and luxury of such items. " But why has no one ever brought a single trophy from these expeditions?

Gradually, European science rejected all the news about the Amazonian civilization, declaring them fairy tales, designed to inflame the imagination of potential sponsors. This skepticism was shaken by the end of the 19th century for various reasons. Firstly, Schliemann unearthed Troy, and secondly, various occultists and theosophists began to look around the world for traces of Atlantis, Shambhala and other centers of secret wisdom. At the intersection of the new European openness and the new European mysticism, there appeared the figure of the most colorful Englishman, Percy Fawcett, who combined a sincere belief in secret revelations and the practicality of a pioneer colonizer. In 1906, he explored the selva in the region of the Brazilian-Bolivian borderland and there he heard stories from the Indians about the lost city of gold, a forgotten fragment of a lost civilization, which Fawcett christened Z. world, will be the discovery of ancient South American cities. Such cities exist, and I will prove it. " The Colonel spent two decades and innumerable efforts to find the mysterious city. In the spring of 1925, Fawcett and two of his companions disappeared into the jungle without a trace. Eight years later, his compass was discovered by the Mato Grosso Indians.

Together with the British explorer, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe Amazonian civilization disappeared again for a while. It was revived in the 1980s by archaeologist Anne Roosevelt, the great-granddaughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was himself a great Amazon enthusiast and published the 1914 bestseller Through the Wilds of Brazil. She dug up the foundations of dwellings on the Marajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon, discovered traces of developed agriculture, which allegedly could feed up to 100,000 people, and very sophisticated ceramics. She also opened a cave near the city of Santarem, full of rock paintings that resembled people and animals. In a cave and settlement located nearby, on the banks of the river, Roosevelt found pottery, which, according to her, is seven and a half thousand years old. If so, then Amazonia was the first region in the New World where ceramics appeared. Roosevelt's findings spawned a new wave of research, many of which yielded sensational results: in the lower reaches of the Amazon, in the Xingu delta, man-made canals, ancient roads and well-planned villages were allegedly discovered. And in the very heart of the selva, near the city of Manaus, at the confluence of the Amazon and the Rio Negro, they found the remains of gardens with partially cultivated plants like forest avocado, as well as fields of artificial black soil. Thanks to the drought, stones with petroglyphs were found here this fall.

A new wave of enthusiasm for the lost civilization of the Amazon is evident in David Granne's recent book, The Lost City of Z. A Tale of a Deadly Obsession with the Amazon, and the movie about Fawcett, starring Brad Pitt, ends in Hollywood. There is an obvious confusion between the two levels of conversation. What serious archaeologists argue about is really quite interesting - the finds recent years allow to build new theories of the settlement of South America, provide food for curious hypotheses of the origin of civilization in unfavorable natural zones. However, an ordinary person, just like the once conquistador, wants something completely different: cities, palaces, kings. And, most importantly, gold! It is not for nothing that the name of the fabulous country that has been searched for for several centuries is Eldorado. Rock painting, Neolithic economy, primitive ceramics - all this is infinitely far from the city of Z, born of Fawcett's dreams. But, as luck would have it, all reports about astronomical observatories found in the selva were not confirmed by facts. On the contrary, quite recently it was precisely proved that the giant hills scattered in different parts of the Amazon and considered until recently to be man-made (albeit unclear purpose) structures were actually created by nature. The same thing was found out about what was sometimes mistaken for the ruins of cities in the middle of the rainforest: columns, arches, and walls - all these figures are the result of weathering. It's funny that the myth of El Dorado, born in the imagination of the conquistadors inflamed with greed, then ennobled by Fawcett's mysticism, then giving impetus to the purely scientific enthusiasm of archaeologists, is now used mainly to appease Indian nationalism. Indeed, if in Russia it is possible to rush with the idea of \u200b\u200b"Arkaim's civilization", then why is Latin America worse? There will be even more national inferiority complexes.

It seems that now only historians do not know that humanity has been living on our planet for several hundred thousand years. Evidence of this is constantly increasing, but scientists pretend that they are deaf-blind and dumb, and even cannot read ...

We have already reported previously obtained scanty information about many cities found on the seabed. Today, a little more information has appeared that will make it possible to clarify one more piece of the mosaic of the great past of earthly civilization. Very brief information about new finds of underwater cities has been published. Scientists immediately announced that they were several thousand years old ... Meanwhile, quite a lot of evidence has already been found that about 13 thousand years there was a big war ago, followed by a terrible planetary catastrophe. It was this catastrophe that caused the destruction of a highly developed earthly civilization, which built thousands of colossal structures, many of which went under water. Moreover, the level of knowledge and technology in those BEFORE flood times was such that we will have to grow up to it for a very, very long time. Additional information You can read about this interesting period in the life of earthlings in the 2nd volume of the book by Academician N.V. Levashov "Russia in crooked mirrors" and on the website "Food for Ra" ...

Ancient cities discovered in the depths of water

Billy Roberty

Possible connection between the old and new worlds

The ancient Egyptian civilization existed for so long that today it seems mystical. Pyramids and temples, with their hieroglyphic depictions of a civilization that flourished in the past, have a mysterious, almost magical appeal. It is hard to believe that people of a highly developed society walked the streets of this ancient state.

In January 2002, it was announced that a civilization had been discovered that would appear to the people who built the pyramids as old as the pyramids appear to us. According to Indian oceanographers, archaeological remains of the lost city were found underwater at a depth of 36 meters (120 feet) in the Bay of Cambay, off the west coast of India. Carbon analysis showed the city to be 9,500 years old.

Underwater city near Japan

One of the greatest discoveries in the history of archeology was made in the summer of 2000 near Japan. There, at the bottom of the ocean, the well-preserved remains of the ancient city stretch for 311 miles.

In the coastal waters of the island of Okinawa, divers have found eight scattered fragments of the city. Expanding their search, they found other structures nearby. Long streets, majestic boulevards, grandiose staircases, magic vaults, giant blocks of impeccably cut and fitted stone opened up to their eyes - all this harmoniously merged into a single architectural ensemble, the likes of which they had never seen before.

In September of that year, a giant pyramidal structure was discovered 300 miles south of Okinawa, 100 feet under water. It turned out to be part of a ceremonial center, consisting of wide walking alleys and pylons. The colossal structure is 400 feet long.

Underwater city discovered off the coast of Cuba

In the summer of 2001, researchers discovered near the Guanahabiba Peninsula (off the western coast of Cuba) at a depth of 2,310 feet, where, according to their version, a group of megalithic structures is located on an area of \u200b\u200babout 20 square kilometers.

On closer inspection, scientists saw a huge plateau with orderly stone structures (which turned out to be pyramids), rectangular buildings and roads. Researchers believe that the underwater "city" was built at least 6,000 years ago, when the area was above water. They hypothesized that this part of the land was plunged into the depths as a result of an earthquake or volcanic activity.

The researchers emphasize that their interpretation of this discovery is preliminary, and further research and analysis is required before an official statement can be made. Thus, the publication of this discovery is just a matter of time.

These messages completely contradict the position of most Western historians and archaeologists, who (since this does not fit into their theory) have always denied, ignored or concealed the facts that testify to the fact that humanity appeared on planet Earth much earlier than it is commonly believed. It is now becoming apparent that human civilization is much olderthan many believed.

These discoveries will force Western archaeologists to rewrite history.

Ancient cities discovered on the Amazon

In the September 19, 2003 issue of Science (Science), archaeologists at the University of Florida and their colleagues reported that they had found the remains of a pre-Columbian road system that networked large settlements in central Brazil, in the upper Hingu River, a southern tributary Amazon.

Researchers have found traces of wide, curb-lined roads, squares and manicured parks, which indicate that the people who lived here have significantly changed their habitat. These ancestors of the modern Hingu Indians dug canals around their settlements, built bridges and ditches in wetlands, and cultivated large tracts of land. This refutes the opinion that Europeans were the first to cultivate the Amazon territory.

It was also not confirmed that the environment at that time was too hostile, and people did not organize large settlements. In fact, archaeologists estimate that the area's population was in the tens of thousands during its heyday.

The first written evidence associated with a subgroup of Hingu Indians, the Cuikuro, dates back to 1884. But according to their own oral history, the cuikuro first met Europeans in 1750. After that, their civilization was destroyed by slavery and epidemics. By the 1950s, only 500 Hingu Indians remained.

The head of the research team, Michael Heckenberger, said that by now they have discovered nineteen settlements, of which at least four were large centers. The settlements are built according to the cuikuro cosmology. For example, roads and other structures were oriented towards the sun or the stars, due to which, in Heckenberger's words, a kind of "ethnocartography" was created.

Satellite photographs show the patterns that make up the settlements in the area. They also show that the vegetation now covering the area is very different from older forests, which means that the land was either cleared or cultivated in the past.

The Upper Hingu is the largest area of \u200b\u200bAmazonian forest still owned by Aboriginal people. The Cuikuro Indians still use many of the surviving bridges, ditches and canals where settlements are located on swampy soil.

Recent discoveries have dispelled the myth that it was originally a wilderness.

The question now is how to preserve the remaining Amazon? Should the "primitive" savagery be preserved, untouched by human activity? Or design a landscape that helps Aboriginal life?

Perhaps both approaches should be considered, since the Amazonian jungle is as diverse as all places on Earth.

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