I recently had the pleasure of meeting David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z.  If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s the story of Percy Fawcett and his search for a lost city in the Amazon.  Back in the early part of this century it was a story the made front page headlines for several years.  Many sources label him as the model for Indiana Jones.  The fact that Fawcett disappeared probably only deepened the mystery.

David reviewed the archives, met with Fawcett’s family members and eventually ventured into the Amazon in search of answers.  I won’t spoil the plot, but his research coincides with several new discoveries about the Amazon.

There is no connection to Atlantis mentioned in the book but I include it here because I have always thought there was more to the story than we currently know.  The Amazon has long been thought to have been this inhospitable environment that could never have supported a large civilization.  What research is showing is that much of the landscape is actually artificially created.  Soil has been altered using charcoal.  Forests show signs of having actually being planted.  And parts of the Beni region show signs of raised bed agriculture on a massive scale.  I don’t know if there is an Atlantis connection in the Amazon, but I do know that we don’t know enough about the region.  There are still mysteries there worth exploring.