Level 4 Reading 9B

Reading 9B

LURE OF THE LOST CITY El Dorado. Atlantis. The Lost City of Z. Tales of fabled places have drawn generations of explorers to the most remote locations on Earth. Usually they return empty-handed—if they return at all. But sometimes the pursuit of myth can lead to real discoveries. On February 18, 2015, a helicopter carrying a team of explorers headed toward the mountains of La Mosquitia, a remote area of Honduras. Below, farms gradually gave way to steep slopes, some covered with unbroken rain forest. The pilot headed for a V-shaped gap in a distant ridge. Beyond it lay a valley surrounded by mountains: a landscape of emerald and gold. There were no signs of human life—not a road, a trail, or a column of smoke. The pilot descended, aiming for a clearing along a riverbank. The team had come to explore a region long thought to contain "Ciudad Blanca”— a city built of white stone, known as the Lost City of the Monkey God. One of the team members was an archeologist named Chris Fisher. Fisher didn't believe in the legend, but he did believe that the valley—known simply as T1—contained a secret. In fact, somewhere in this valley, he believed, were the ruins of a real lost city, abandoned for at least half a millennium. The White City of Honduras The Mosquitia region of Honduras and Nicaragua contains vast areas of dense vegetation, swamps, and rivers. It also hides a number of dangers: deadly snakes, hungry jaguars, and insects carrying potentially deadly diseases. Over time, the myth of La Mosquitia's White City became part of the Honduran national consciousness. By the 1930s, it had also captured the imagination of the American public. Several expeditions were launched to find it, including three by the Museum of the American Indian in New York City. The first two came back with rumors of a lost city containing a giant statue of a monkey god. The museum's third expedition, a group led by a journalist named Theodore Morde, landed in Honduras in early 1940. Morde emerged from the jungle five months later with boxes of artifacts, claiming he had found evidence of an ancient walled city. He would not reveal the location for fear of looting but promised to return the following year. He never did; he died in 1954. The city—if there was one—remained unidentified. In the 1990s, a documentary filmmaker named Steve Elkins became fascinated by the legend of the White City. He spent years studying reports from explorers, archeologists, and geologists. He then studied satellite photographs of three valleys, which he labeled T1, T2, and T3 (T stands for "target"). The images, however, were inconclusive, and he realized he needed a better way to see through the dense jungle canopy. Then, in 2010, Elkins learned of a new technology called lidar (light detection and ranging)— a way to explore the valleys from aircraft flying above the jungle. Lidar works by bouncing hundreds of thousands of pulses of infrared laser beams off the ground below. Scanning the three valleys cost a quarter of a million dollars, but the initial results were astonishing. In an attempt to investigate the myth of the White City, Elkins had apparently uncovered two real ancient cities in valleys T1 and T3. To help interpret the data, he turned to Chris Fisher, a specialist on Mesoamerica.

Discoveries in the Jungle This is how, in February 2015, Fisher and his team came to be in the dense jungle of La Mosquitia. Besides Fisher, who had extensive experience with lidar imagery, the team included two other archeologists, a group of scientists, and Elkins's camera crew. The team set out from base camp, cutting a trail through the jungle with machetes. They faced plenty of challenges—snakes,insects, mud, and constant rain. Although the area was remote, they were not alone. Animals wandered around them or gathered in the trees above, seemingly unafraid. "I've never seen anything like it," one team member noted. "I don't think these animals have ever seen human beings." After climbing above the floodplain, they arrived at the base of a steep, jungle-covered highland—the edge of the presumed city. "Let's go to the top," Fisher said. Holding onto vines and tree roots, the explorers continued up the muddy slope. At the summit, Fisher pointed out the outline of a building. There was evidence of construction—probably an earthen pyramid The team later identified one of the citys plazas, or large public spaces— an area of rain forest as level as a soccer field. Straight-edged mounds on three sides revealed the remains of walls and buildings. By the following afternoon, the group had mapped three more plazas and many mounds. But it appeared that the river was rising, so they prepared to leave. Suddenly, one of the cameramen called out: "Hey, there are some weird stones over here." At the base of the pyramid, the team found the tops of dozens of beautifully carved stone sculptures: the head of a jaguar, large jars carved with snakes, and objects that looked like seats or tables. All the artifacts were in perfect condition, apparently untouched since they had been left centuries before. There were 52 objects above ground—and probably many more below the surface. In the days that followed, the team recorded each object using a 3-D scanner. Nothing was touched, nothing removed. Further expeditions to the area are now being planned with the support of the Honduran government. There is still much to learn about the former inhabitants of La Mosquitia. Whether or not the White City is real or myth, the search for it has led to riches.

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