Secrets of the Dead

Lost In The Amazon

This program is a modern day quest to find the truth behind one of exploration's greatest mysteries: what happened to famed adventurer Col. Percy Fawcett, who went looking for a city of gold -- the Lost City of "Z" -- in the Amazon in 1925 and disappeared in the jungles of Brazil forever? New archaeological digs, the science behind the discovery of "newly found" jungle cities and clues collected over the years reveal the fate of Fawcett. The program unravels the truth of what really happened to Fawcett and shares surprising finds that are causing experts to re-think the image of a pristine uninhabited Amazon rainforest: a place that before Columbus, may have had large populations living in sophisticated towns and cities. Fawcett may have actually discovered these ruins fueling his fervor to find the city of gold. Cutting between stylized dramatic Fawcett recreations, old films and archival photos, interviews with family members of Fawcett, jungle villagers and scientists at ancient Indian archaeological sites -- the truth about Fawcett and new understandings of life in pre-Columbian America emerge. Trekking along the paths that Fawcett followed, the search for clues ends at a Xinguano-Kuikuro village in the heart of the Mato Grosso: where a new archaeological discovery may reveal the true location of the Lost City of Z.