Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

Arts & Culture

SECRETS OF THE DEAD: Lost In The Amazon

Niall McCann, explorer/biologist, at Kamukuakua Falls in the Mato Grosso, Brazil. Sacred to the Bakairi Indians, the waterfall is one of the signposts for Colonel Percy Fawcett’s Lost City of Z.
Courtesy of Andy Dittrich
Niall McCann, explorer/biologist, at Kamukuakua Falls in the Mato Grosso, Brazil. Sacred to the Bakairi Indians, the waterfall is one of the signposts for Colonel Percy Fawcett’s Lost City of Z.

Airs Thursday, July 10, 2014 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV

Explore some iconic historical moments while debunking long-held myths and shining new light on past events in the series SECRETS OF THE DEAD. Advances in investigative techniques, forensic science and historical scholarship offer new evidence on forgotten mysteries.

"Lost in the Amazon" - A modern day quest to find the truth behind one of exploration's greatest mysteries: What happened to famed adventurer Colonel 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.

Advertisement

"Lost In The Amazon" 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. The myth becomes reality.

SECRETS OF THE DEAD is on Facebook. Past episodes of this series are available for online viewing.