lost civilization
Forgotten ancient empire
A lost civilization is an ancient society believed to have achieved significant advancement before vanishing from history—through catastrophe, decline, or mysterious disappearance.
The term covers both historical cultures rediscovered by archaeology the lost civilization of the Maya and legendary places like Atlantis whose existence remains unproven.
Lost civilizations figure prominently in pseudohistory, adventure fiction, and conspiracy theories about ancient knowledge suppressed or forgotten.
- AtlantisMythical sunken island
- AnasaziAncient Southwestern cliff-dwelling people
- MayaAncient Mesoamerican people
- LemuriaTheorized lost continent
- ThuleFarthest north land
excavation · Çatalhöyük · carbon dating · Stone Age · Shangri-La · stratigraphy · Minoan · Mu · Göbekli Tepe · Fertile Crescent · Olmec · oral traditions · Easter Island · Nazca Lines · Sumerians · buried · buried treasure · time capsule
- Atlanteantrident, Poseidon, Neptune, Aquaman, Namor
- Lost Worldjungle expedition, dinosaurs, ancient ruins, pterodactyl, explorers
- adventureadventure, quest, quests, exploration, explorers
- Middle EastIraq, Baghdad, Cairo, Iran, Jordan
- legendary historyfounding myth, founding myths, legendary kings, origin story, origin stories
- alternate historiesalternate history, counterfactual, divergent timeline
lost civilizationrecorded history
Past preserved through documentation
Western civilization · classical antiquity · ancient Rome · ancient Greece · ancient Egypt