The Long Lost White City | Explorer

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

The legend of CAD Blanca, the White City, has been around for generations of indigenous people in Honduras. The Pech and Tawahka Indians have stories about a white house or a white city. There are all these rumors about seeing the ramparts of a ruined city, always rising in the jungle in the distance, too far to get to. There are also accounts that Charles Lindbergh reported seeing ruins beneath him as he flew the Spirit of St. Louis over eastern Honduras, and that in 1927, he said that he had seen a white city—a white city where people long dead had lived their mysterious lives.

An American hero who might have caught a glimpse of it from the air. And to top it off, a bizarre story from 1940 about a city ruled by a monkey god in the jungle of Honduras. Steve Elkins was hooked.

"I really can't say what it is. I guess it's the mystery. People just like these kinds of things, and it certainly appealed to me. I have an insatiable curiosity—always have. And I guess I'm very persistent too because this has been a very long and difficult road. Everybody in my family and my friends have thought I was crazy for pursuing this for so long. I guess you could say I did become totally obsessed. I think my wife would agree with you 100%."

Other explorers have gone looking for the Lost White City, but Steve is determined to be the one who finds it.

"I love that kind of stuff. I said, 'This is great! Honduras is not an expensive place to go, it's not that far away, so let's do it.'"

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