WHAT HAPPENED TO PIONEERING EXPLORER PERCY FAWCETT?

When the British geographer disappeared in the Amazon jungle 100 years ago today, he was trying to find an ancient lost city. But two years later, the Royal Geographical Society declared him missing instead... and the strange case has baffled historians and filmmakers ever since

- By Karen Rockett

IT HAS been described as “the greatest exploration mystery of the 20th century”, with “the David Livingstone of the Amazon” at its heart. One hundred years ago today, a British explorer vanished during an expedition to find an ancient lost city which he and others believed was hidden in the Amazon rainforest.

Percy Fawcett — a geographer, cartographer, archaeologist and explorer of South America — disappeared at the end of May 1925, along with his eldest son, 21-year-old Jack, and one of Jack’s friends, Raleigh Rimmel.

They had been looking for the Lost City of Z, a civilisation intertwined with the legendary El Dorado. After reading ancient legends and historical records, Fawcett had become convinced Z must lie somewhere in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil.

But the three men were never to return and their bodies were never found.

It is estimated that 100 would-be rescuers died in more than 13 separate expeditions sent to discover Fawcett’s fate. Rumours emerged that the lost party had been killed by cannibals.

In one of the last letters he wrote before he left England, Fawcett revealed he was concerned about the dangers of his mission and the effect failure might have on his loved ones at their home in Stoke Canon near Exeter.

“Physical death has no real terrors for me. I am only anxious about the family — and I know if I fail, it probably means death,” he wrote.

What happened on Fawcett’s ill-fated last expedition has long fascinated historians and filmmakers.

In 2016, The Lost City of Z starring Charlie Hunnam as Fawcett, Tom Holland as his son Jack and Sienna Miller as his long-suffering wife Nina was released to critical acclaim in cinemas. The film was co-written by journalist David Grann, an authority on Fawcett, who wrote 2009’s The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.