Lost city (fiction)
For other uses of the term Lost city, see Lost city (disambiguation).
In the popular imagination lost cities are real, prosperous, well-populated areas of human habitation that have fallen into terminal decline and been lost to history. Most real lost cities are of ancient origins, and have been studied extensively by archaeologists. Abandoned urban sites of relatively recent origin are generally referred to as ghost towns.
Fictional lost cities have been created by many authors as the setting for stories and myths throughout the ages. These include:
- Atlantis - a supposed mid-Atlantic island and city described by Plato
- Brigadoon - From the musical of the same name
- El Dorado - The famous city of gold
- Lemuria - a supposed Indian-Pacific land
- Camelot - the seat of King Arthur
- Charn - from The Chronicles of Narnia
- NĂºmenor-from The Lord of the Rings
- Opar - from the Tarzan novels
- Kutchemes, Python, Xuthal and Xuchotl - from the Conan the Barbarian stories
- R'lyeh, Sunken city referenced in many of the works of H. P. Lovecraft, where the godlike being Cthulhu is buried
- Sarnath, City described in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Doom that Came to Sarnath"
- Skull Island from the King Kong movies
- Ys legendary submerged city off the coast of Brittany
- Xak Tsaroth - from the Dragonlance novels
See also
- Lost World (genre)
- Lost city
- Ghost town
- Mythical place