There are many “lost city” stories in history and mythology. Many lost cities have been told over the years, from the City of the Caesars to Atlantis or the little Irish version of Brazil that everyone insisted was real for several centuries. This shows that there is an irresistible attraction to a great civilization that once existed and its cities, now completely lost in the annals of time and fate.
One such legendary metropolis is the oasis city of Zerzura, said to lie deep in the Sahara desert of Egypt or Libya, a place shimmering white and full of ancient treasures guarded by a contingent of giant soldiers.
Zerzura, the lost oasis city
At first glance, this myth also seems to have a solid foundation. When you search for information about the city, you will find references to Kitab al Kanuz, which is said to be a presumed 15th-century book that describes Zerzura as “a dove-white city” at the end of a valley of palms, vines and flowing wells: “Follow the valley. .. Go to Zerzura City. You will find its door closed. Next to the door you will find a carved bird. Reach your hand to its beak and take a key from it. Open the door with him and enter the city. You will find a lot of wealth and the king and queen will be sleeping in their place of magic sleep. Don’t go near them. Just take the treasure.”
Although the city is said to have been mentioned at such an early period, the first European records of the lost city come from 1835, and these records are like a second-hand story. These records come from the English traveler and writer John Gardner Wilkinson, now often referred to as the “Father of British Egyptology” and reports it was sung by an “Arab looking for a stray camel” (remember the year is 1835). A few days west of Farafra, this Arab said, “is an oasis full of palm trees, springs, and some ruins of uncertain history,” Wilkinson said.
Is Zerzura real?
While the story seems exciting so far, it has some major issues. First of all, Kitab al Kanuz, despite its supposedly venerable history, is not yet a very reliable source. Today it is known almost exclusively as the treasure map of Zerzura, and the piece quoted above is more or less the only existing fragment of it.
We do not have the original or even a copy of this book. The author is also unknown, and the only information about him is the word of a man who once claimed to have a version of the book. Even he was never really convinced of the manuscript and presented it more as a semi-complete field survey by someone who wasn’t so good at his job, rather than presenting it as a lost relic of a mythical city.
After much exploratory research, early 20th-century explorers had hoped that the city could actually exist, but even they admitted it was unlikely. All suspected places for the city turned out to be empty, and explorer WJ Harding King eventually concluded that “it is doubtful whether such a place by that name exists”: “Zerzur means a small bird in Arabic, so Zerzura may mean something like ‘place of little birds’. and it looks a bit fantastic. Zerzura can be a generic name for unexplored or traditional oases.”
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