A city becomes "lost" when it is abandoned by its inhabitants and left to decay. This can be the result of war, migration, or natural disaster, but in each case these cities can act as a sort of time capsule, leaving a civilization frozen in history and waiting to be discovered. While many of these cities have indeed been rediscovered, others have never been found and have taken on the status of legend. Whether real or mythical, the following are the ten lost cities that have most captured the imaginations of historians, archeologists, and adventurers.
当一座城市被它的居民遗弃并任其衰落时，它便成了"失落"之城。这可能是因为战争、移民或是自然灾害，但每种情况下这些城市都像某种时空胶囊一样，留下冰封的历史以待后世发现。许多城市确实被重新发现了，而另一些则从未被找到，成为了传奇故事。无论是真实还是虚构，以下这10座城市都激发了历史学家、考古学家以及冒险家们的想象力。

10.The City Of The Caesars
10.凯撒之城（The City Of the Caesars）

Also known as the Wandering City and the City of Patagonia, The City of the Caesars is a mythical city that is believed to have been located on the southernmost tip of South America in the region known as Patagonia. The city has never been found, and at this point it is considered more legend than anything, but in its time it was quite sought after by colonial explorers. It was said to have been founded by survivors of a Spanish shipwreck, and was believed to possess huge amounts of gold and jewels. Over time, a number of legends have formed around the City of the Caesars, with some saying that it was populated by 10-foot tall giants, and others claiming that it was a city of ghosts that could appear and disappear at will.
同样被称为流浪之城（the Wandering City）和巴塔哥尼亚之城（the City of Patagonia），凯撒之城是曾被认为位于南美洲最南端名为巴塔哥尼亚的区域里的神秘城市。这座城市从未被发现，现在多认为它只是一个传说，但在过去曾有许多殖民探险者前往找寻它。据说它由西班牙船只失事的幸存者建立，并且其中有大量的金子和珠宝。久而久之，围绕着凯撒之城有了许多传说，有的说有10英尺高的巨人住在里面，另一些则宣称它是一座可以凭自己意愿出现和消失的鬼城。

9.Troy
9.特洛伊（Troy）

Made famous in the epic poems of Homer, Troy was a once-legendary city located in modern day Turkey. Best known for being the site of the Trojan War, ancient Troy was a strongly fortified city that stood on a hill near the river Scamander. Its coastal location allowed it to be a naval power, and nearby plains provided excellent land for farming. Troy was long considered by many to be the stuff of myth until it was first excavated in the 1870s by Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered that there were actually numerous cities on the site, which over the years had been built on top of one another. Although it was once a towering seat of power, the modern-day Troy excavation site is said to be relatively unimpressive, the result of years of digging and frequent looting by tourists.
成名于荷马史诗，特洛伊是位于现在的土耳其的传说中的城市。古特洛伊以特洛伊战争而闻名，是一座伫立在靠近施曼德河的山上的防御坚固的城市。它沿海的位置使它成为了海上强国，附近的平原也提供了绝佳的耕地。很长一段时间以来，许多人都认为特洛伊只是个神话故事，直到19世纪70年代海因里希·施利曼（Heinrich Schliemann）第一次发掘出了它，他发现这个遗址中实际上有很多城市，多年以来层叠式地建在了一起。虽然特洛伊曾是权力的头把交椅，但它现代的遗迹据说并不十分显眼，长年的挖掘和观光客们频繁的洗劫导致了这个结果。

8.The Lost City Of Z
8.迷失之城Z（The Lost City Of Z）

Supposedly located deep in the jungles of Brazil, the lost city of Z was said to be an advanced civilization with a sophisticated network of bridges, roads, and temples. Speculation about Z began after a document was found in which a Portuguese explorer insisted he had visited the city in 1753, but otherwise no evidence of its existence has ever been uncovered. The city of Z is most famous for attracting the interest of explorer Percy Fawcett, who in 1925 vanished without a trace while in search of it, and over the years a number of other adventurers have died or disappeared while on its trail. In recent years, a city known as Kuhikugu was discovered in the Amazon Rainforest that showed evidence of sophisticated fortifications and engineering, leading many to speculate that it may be the source of the Z legend.
迷失之城Z据推测位于巴西深深的丛林之中，据说有着复杂的桥梁网络、道路和寺庙的先进文明的城市。对Z城的猜测始于人们找到的一份文书，其中一位葡萄牙探险家坚持声称他在1753年到过那座城市，但除此以外没有发现其他证据来证明它的存在。关于Z城最出名的事是它激起了探险家波西·福西特（Percy Fawcett）的兴趣，他于1925年在寻找它时消失得无影无踪，而多年以来许多其他的冒险者在也在寻找它时死亡或是失踪。近年来，一座名为Kuhikugu的城市在亚马逊雨林中被发现，它有着复杂的防御工事和建筑工程，这些证据让许多人猜想这可能是Z城传说的源头。

7.Petra
7.佩特拉（Petra）

Arguably the most beautiful of all the cities on this list, Petra is located in Jordan near the Dead Sea and is believed to have once been the center of the Nabataean caravan trade. Its most striking feature is its exquisite stone architecture, which is carved out of the rocks of the surrounding mountains. This helped make Petra a naturally fortified city when it was established as a capital in 100 B.C., and evidence suggests that it featured many other technological advancements like dams and cisterns, which helped the inhabitants channel the region’s flash floods and store water for use in times of drought. After hundreds of years of prosperity, the city went into decline after the Romans conquered the region, and in A.D. 363 an earthquake destroyed several of its buildings and crippled its infrastructure. Petra was eventually abandoned, and it stood for years in the desert as something of a curiosity before being revealed to the world at large in 1812 by a Swiss explorer.
佩特拉可能是这份名单上最美的一座城市，它位于约旦，靠近死海，被认为曾是纳巴泰人商业贸易的中心。它最鲜明的特点是它精美的石头建筑，由周围山脉上的岩石雕刻而成。这使得佩特拉在公元前100年作为首府修建时即成为一个天生的坚固要塞，还有证据显示它有许多其他的技术进步，例如大坝和蓄水池，这帮助了居民们导开这个地区的洪水并在干旱时储水。在历经上百年的繁荣后，城市在罗马征服了这个区域后衰落了，而在公元363年，一场地震摧毁了它的部分建筑并损坏了它的基础设施。佩特拉最后被遗弃了，它在沙漠中伫立了数年，在1812年被瑞士探险家完全公诸于世之前都是令人好奇的存在。

6.El Dorado
6.黄金国（El Dorado）

One of the most famous of all the legendary cities, El Dorado was a mythical empire supposedly found in the jungles of South America. Literally meaning "The Golden One" in Spanish, the city was said to be led by a powerful king and hold untold riches of gold and jewels. In the time of the conquistadors, the city was a subject of constant fascination, and several disastrous expeditions were launched in search of it. The most famous of these was headed by Gonzalo Pizarro, who in 1541 led a group of 300 soldiers and several thousand Indians into the jungle in search of El Dorado. They uncovered no evidence of the city or its treasures, and after the group was decimated by disease, famine, and attacks by natives, the expedition was abandoned. This model is on display in the Gold Museum, Bogotá, Colombia
黄金国是神话城市中最出名的一个，据说它是由一个传说中的帝国在南美洲的丛林里建立的。黄金国在西班牙语里的字面意思就是"金色"，这个城市据说是由一位极具权力的国王统治着，他拥有无穷的金子和珠宝。在殖民时期，这座城市具有无尽的魅力，好几支探险队都在寻找它的途中损失惨重。其中最出名的一支由冈萨洛·皮萨罗（Gonzalo Pizarro）带领，他于1541年带领了由300士兵和几千印第安人组成的队伍深入丛林寻找黄金国。他们没有发现任何城市或它的宝藏的踪迹，而队伍在疾病、饥荒和当地人的攻击下人数大幅削减，此后远征便被放弃了。这具展出的模型位于哥伦比亚波哥大的黄金博物馆。

翻译：bansu 来源：前十网