A lost city is an urban settlement that fell into terminal decline and became extensively or completely uninhabited, with the consequence that the site's former significance was no longer known to the wider world. The locations of many lost cities have been forgotten, but some have been rediscovered and studied extensively by scientists. Recently abandoned cities or cities whose location was never in question might be referred to as ruins or ghost towns. Smaller settlements may be referred to as abandoned villages. The search for such lost cities by European explorers and adventurers in Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia from the 15th century onwards eventually led to the development of archaeology.
Hiram Bingham rediscovered the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911, preceded by Agustín Lizárraga in 1902
Ruins of Ciudad Perdida, a city built by the Tayrona in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
Angkor was rediscovered by Henri Mouhot in 1860.
In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular place. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of cities with surrounding urbanized areas. Settlements may include hamlets, villages, towns and cities. A settlement may have known historical properties such as the date or era in which it was first settled, or first settled by particular people. The process of settlement involves human migration.
The small town of Flora, Oregon, in United States, is unincorporated, but is considered a populated place.
A field landscape of the rural Pajuniemi village in Sastamala, Pirkanmaa, Finland
Taos Pueblo, an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos-speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and lies about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico.
London, a city in the United Kingdom, is a large settlement with a human population of 14 million in its metropolitan area.