Ciudad Perdida was "found" in 1972,
[1] when a group of
local treasure looters found a series of stone steps rising up the mountainside
and followed them to an abandoned city which they named "Green Hell"
or "Wide Set". When gold figurines and ceramic urns from this city
began to appear in the local black market, archaeologists headed by the
director of the Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia reached the site in 1976
and completed reconstruction between 1976-1982.
Members of local tribes—the Arhuaco, the Koguis and the Wiwas—have stated
that they visited the site regularly before it was widely
