HONDURAS

The lost city of "Ciudad Blanca"

In the eve of the 16th century, a great trading Mayan/Nahua city was flourishing in what is known today as the Mosquito Coast, in NorthEastern Honduras. This city was known by the native Central American peoples, from as far as Panama and Mexico. This city was first referred to under the double name of Xucutaco (Nahuat) and Hueitapalan (Mayan) by Hernán Cortés already in 1526. Cortés himself affirms that he was informed of the existence of this city shortly after he reached the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in 1519. After Cortés was told, Xucutaco-Hueitapalan was an impressive city, comparable in population and in wealth with Mexico/Tenochtitlan itself. After Hernán Cortés had to give up heading to it, the city protected by the impenetrable rainforest of the "La Mosquitia" was ignored by the Spanish conquistadores. With time, Xucutaco-Hueitapalan was left to the jungle by its inhabitants, apparently already in the middle of the 16th century. Nevertheless, indigenous people still remembered it as the legendary White City ("Ciudad Blanca").

The region has long been a site of human occupation and has many archaeological sites. The "Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia" (IHAH) is conducting studies in the region. The village Las Crucitas del Río Aner is established over one of the largest and most impressive archaeological sites (G. Lara-Pinto and G. Hasemann, 1991: "Leyendas y arqueología: ¿ Cuántas ciudades blancas hay en la Mosquitia ?" In Murphy, V. (ed.), "La Reserva de la Biósfera del Río Plátano", Ventanas Tropicales, Tegucigalpa (Honduras). pp. 16-19) . It is believed that the fabled Ciudad Blanca awaits discovery within the area. Additional archaeological research in the region may confirm the surmise that its peoples were an important link between major pre-Columbian cultures in North America and South America. (Projet NASDA: JERS-1#675, 11-12-1997).