The anime and manga series Hunter x Hunter, created by Yoshihiro Togashi, is renowned for its intricate world-building, complex characters, and layered mysteries. Among the most compelling enigmas is the so-called “lost city,” a term fans use to describe the ancient ruins that form the backdrop for the early stages of the Chimera Ant arc. While the series does not explicitly label it a lost city, the decrepit metropolis hidden within the Neo-Green Life (NGL) autonomous region embodies many classic tropes of a forgotten civilization: crumbling architecture, remnants of advanced technology, and an atmosphere of quiet, ominous decay. This article explores the significance of these ruins within Hunter x Hunter’s narrative, examines their symbolic weight, and traces the real-world legends and historical sites that likely inspired Togashi’s creation.

The Forgotten Metropolis of Neo-Green Life

The NGL is introduced as a primitivist nation where technology and synthetic materials are banned. Its inhabitants live in harmony with nature, following a strict code that rejects industrial progress. This ideology, however, masks a deeper history. Before the NGL’s founding, the region was home to a modern society with cities, factories, and research facilities. When the movement took power, those structures were abandoned and left to crumble, swallowed by jungle and time. The ruins that Gon, Killua, and Kite encounter are not prehistoric, but rather the remains of a civilization that deliberately chose self-erasure. This irony—a lost city not because it was ancient but because it was intentionally buried—adds a unique twist to the fantasy trope.

Location and Discovery

The ruins are situated in the dense forests of the NGL, far from the agrarian villages that now dot the landscape. Kite’s team first stumbles upon them while tracking the Chimera Ant queen. The location is remote, accessible only by traversing treacherous terrain, which explains why the NGL’s current residents rarely encounter the old city. It is here that the queen establishes her nest, using the empty buildings as a birthing ground and the remnants of human technology as a source of genetic material for her soldier ants. The choice is strategic: the ruins provide shelter, raw materials, and a convenient hiding place from the NGL’s rangers, who shun anything associated with the old world.

Architecture and Technological Remnants

The visual depiction of the lost city in both manga and anime emphasizes decay and contrast. Crumbling concrete towers are overgrown with vines; rusted vehicles lie half-buried in mud; shattered glass and twisted metal litter the streets. Yet among the debris, Togashi hints at the sophistication of the civilization that once thrived here. Computer terminals, albeit broken, line the walls of underground laboratories. Flickering screens display garbled data, suggesting that some power sources still function. Advanced medical equipment and genetic research tools are found, which later become crucial for the Chimera Ants’ rapid evolution. The presence of such technology in a region that now bans even simple electronics underscores the NGL’s paradoxical heritage: its very foundation rests on a rejection of the knowledge that built it.

Narrative Role and Thematic Resonance

The lost city is more than a setting; it is a narrative engine that drives the Chimera Ant arc’s central conflicts. By giving the ants access to human technology and DNA, it accelerates their evolution into a global threat. Conversely, the ruins serve as a grim reminder of humanity’s own capacity for self-destruction. The NGL’s ideology was a response to the perceived corruption of modern life, yet the hidden laboratories suggest the old civilization was already pursuing dangerous paths—perhaps even experimenting with life forms that could have birthed the very mutation that created the Chimera Ants. This cyclical tragedy is a recurring theme in Togashi’s work: the consequences of unchecked ambition and the illusion of control over nature.

A Stage for Monstrous Evolution

The Chimera Ant queen’s ability to assimilate genetic traits from her prey is uniquely suited to the ruins. She devours small animals and eventually humans, but the real accelerant comes from consuming the remains of scientific experiments stored in the labs. It is implied that the old civilization’s research involved genetic manipulation, perhaps even attempts to create human-animal hybrids. The queen’s offspring, particularly the Royal Guards and Meruem, inherit physical and intellectual traits that far surpass ordinary ants. The city, therefore, becomes a crucible where human curiosity and nature’s adaptability collide, producing a horror that neither the old world nor the new could have anticipated.

The Rejection of Technology and Its Consequences

The NGL’s founders believed that technology bred inequality, violence, and environmental ruin. By erasing all trace of it, they hoped to create a utopia. Yet the existence of the lost city proves that the past cannot be so easily discarded. The ruins are a scar on the landscape, both literal and metaphorical. When the Chimera Ant threat emerges, the NGL’s leadership is paralyzed: their anti-tech dogma leaves them without surveillance, communication, or weapons to combat the invaders. The arc thus poses a critical question: is ignorance a viable defense against the dangers of knowledge, or does it simply create new vulnerabilities? The city, abandoned but still potent, is the physical manifestation of that dilemma.

Real-World Inspirations: Myths of Lost Civilizations

Togashi’s creation of the lost city draws on a deep well of real-world mythology and archaeology. The concept of a highly advanced society that vanished—either through catastrophe, hubris, or deliberate concealment—has fascinated humanity for millennia. Several key legends and historical sites parallel the NGL ruins, and examining them reveals how Hunter x Hunter modernizes these ancient narratives.

Atlantis: The Submerged Utopia

The most famous lost civilization, Atlantis was described by Plato as a naval power that sank into the ocean in a single day and night of misfortune. Its advanced technology and sudden disappearance echo the NGL’s old world, which similarly possessed remarkable scientific capabilities and then was “sunk” by a cultural revolution. Both stories warn of the dangers of moral decay and overreaching ambition. In Hunter x Hunter, the ants’ development within the ruins mirrors the Atlanteans’ supposed corruption—progress without ethics leading to annihilation.

El Dorado and the Lure of Gold

The legend of El Dorado, a city of immeasurable wealth hidden in the South American jungle, shares the theme of a secret metropolis known only through whispers. While the NGL ruins are not made of gold, their value lies in the dangerous knowledge they contain. The way human characters are drawn to them—whether out of curiosity, greed, or a sense of duty—parallels the real-world expeditions that searched for El Dorado, often meeting with disaster. This parallel intensifies the sense of tragic inevitability in the arc.

Ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian Cities

The actual ruins of cities like Uruk in Mesopotamia and Memphis in Egypt reveal civilizations of extraordinary complexity that were eventually abandoned or buried. Their discovery by archaeologists often sparked both wonder and alarm, as modern people struggled to comprehend how such advanced societies could collapse. Togashi transposes this shock into his fictional world: Kite and his companions are professional Hunters, yet the labs they uncover leave them unsettled, highlighting the cognitive dissonance between the NGL’s primitivism and the technological ghosts that remain.

The Dark Continent and Pre-Human Legacies

A deeper layer of inspiration may come from the series’ own expanded universe. The Dark Continent is a vast, uncharted landmass where ancient, non-human civilizations are said to exist. Some fans theorize that the NGL ruins are not solely human in origin; the advanced genetic research could stem from technology left behind by a pre-human species that once inhabited the known world. This idea draws on real-world pseudoscientific theories like ancient astronauts or pre-human advanced cultures, which Togashi often weaves into his narrative to blur the line between science fiction and myth.

Fan Theories and Unanswered Questions

The deliberate ambiguity of the lost city has spawned a wealth of fan speculation. Togashi never provides a complete history of the old civilization, leaving its exact nature, its downfall, and its connection to larger mysteries tantalizingly open. This interpretive space is fertile ground for theories that extend beyond the Chimera Ant arc into the overarching lore of Hunter x Hunter.

Is the Lost City a Relic of the Dark Continent?

The most persistent theory suggests that the NGL ruins are merely a fragment of a much older, continent-spanning civilization that originated in the Dark Continent. The genetic experiments found there could be remnants of the same technology that created the Chimera Ants in the first place—perhaps even the means by which the queen originally mutated. This would tie the seemingly local crisis to the global-scale threats that await in the unexplored world beyond the known map. If true, the lost city functions as a prelude, warning humanity that it is not the first intelligent species to toy with forces it cannot control.

The Connection to Don Freecss’s Journey

Don Freecss, the ancestor of Gon, is a legendary Hunter who wrote a travelogue about the Dark Continent. His writings describe wonders and horrors that echo the technology found in the NGL labs. Some fans propose that Don himself visited the NGL region centuries ago and that the old civilization was built around his discoveries. The ruins would then be a link between the Freecss lineage and the overarching secret of the world, turning the lost city into a waypoint on a grander quest that spans generations. While this remains speculative, it deepens the significance of the setting beyond a simple monster nest.

Why Lost Cities Captivate Us

The enduring appeal of lost cities, whether in Hunter x Hunter or in real-world legends, lies in their dual nature as monuments to human achievement and warnings of impermanence. They remind us that even the mightiest societies can vanish, yet they also tantalize with the hope that some forgotten knowledge might be recovered. Togashi exploits this dichotomy masterfully, using the NGL ruins not just as a backdrop for action but as a thematic mirror that reflects the series’ core questions about power, ethics, and the cost of progress. As fans continue to theorize and await new chapters, the lost city remains a potent symbol of everything that Hunter x Hunter does best: inviting us to look deeper, question everything, and never assume that the surface tells the whole story.