History is replete with legends of lavish cities that have been lost to the sands of time, but some of these sites could be more than mere myths.
A compilation by YouTube user Dark5 looks at five of these much-discussed locations and examines the possibility that they could someday be discovered or may have even already been found.
Bearing exotic names like 'Shambhala' and the 'City of the Monkey God,' these alleged splendorous sites often proved to be the downfall of ambitious explorers who went looking for treasure, but found only their own demise.
And although these tales of lost cities are often dismissed as folklore, there appear to be indications that perhaps they are more deeply rooted in fact rather than fiction.
For instance, the Kingdom of Sangueney was revealed to French colonialists by a captured Iroquois chief, who told them that there was a city in Canada ruled by Nordic-looking people and rich with gold.
Over the years, experts argued that the story of the city was probably misinformation fabricated by the imprisoned Native American.
However the discovery in 1960 of a Viking city in Newfoundland, believed to have been constructed an astounding 500 years before Columbus arrived on the continent, lent credence to the possibility that Sangueney was real.
Modern technology allowing for unprecedented exploration of otherwise inaccessible locations has also provided newfound hope that these sites could someday be found.
This may prove to be the case for the infamous 'Lost City of Z,' said to exist somewhere in the Amazon, after aerial images appeared to show a mysterious and undiscovered complex of buildings on the border between Brazil and Bolivia.
Advocates for the reality of these lost locations need only point to the famed city of Troy which once would have been included in the list, but was proven to exist by archaeologists in the 1800's.
Check out the complete video to learn more about these sites you can't visit on your summer vacation but perhaps your ancestors did.
Coast Insiders looking to learn even more about these lost cities can listen to author Dr. Bob Curran discuss his book Lost Lands & Forgotten Realms on the 7/25/2008 edition of C2C.
Not a Coast Insider yet? Sign up today.