Manuscript 512

Manuscript 512 (Portuguese: Manuscrito 512) is a ten-page manuscript of dubious veracity and unknown authorship that relates to the discovery of a "lost city" in Bahia, Brazil by a group of bandeirantes in 1753. Originally found in 1839 at the National Library of Brazil, where it is kept to this day, the document tells of a group of Portuguese adventurers who searched for the legendary mines of Muribeca, traveling for about ten years in Brazil's jungle. During their journey, the adventurers discovered the abandoned settlement of a lost city whose architecture, monuments, and artifacts recall Greco-Roman style. The manuscript is one of the most famed documents of the National Library's collection and some Brazilian historians consider it "the greatest myth of national archaeology", while others praise its vivid and picturesque writing style. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Manuscript 512 was the object of intense debate and instigated many expeditions by adventurers and investigators, notably Sir Richard F. Burton, who published the work Highlands of Brazil in 1869, and Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, who disappeared on one of his "Lost City of Z" expeditions through inner Brazil, resulting in several attempts to find him. The "lost city" described in the manuscript inspired several articles, films and novels, such as José de Alencar's As Minas de Prata (1865), Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1886), and Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1912). In addition, the character Indiana Jones may have been inspired by the events surrounding Colonel Fawcett. Access to the original document is very restricted, but a digitized version is currently available online.