Jason Antic

One of the strangest stories of the discovery of an ancient ruin is that of the Victorian explorer and circus performer William Leonard Hunt. He claimed to have discovered a lost, ruined city in Southern Africa's Kalahari Desert. But no one else has ever been able to find it.pic.twitter.com/7P18oRDiVs

Born in New York to strict disciplinarian parents, Hunt moved to Canada in the year 1843, at the age of 5. One day, he snuck away from home and saw a troupe of traveling performers passing through his town. This began a lifelong infatuation with the circus.pic.twitter.com/Mb3nkL2wYp

Hunt began secretly practicing to become a performer himself, and trained to be a tightrope walker and strongman, finally taking on the stage name "The Great Farini". Hunt took part in a number of famous tightrope walks, including over the Niagara Falls in 1860.pic.twitter.com/XFKbG8RazF

He even invented a device to propel a human being through the air from a cannon, creating one of the first ever "human cannonball" shows. But in later life, Hunt tired of the bright lights of show business. At the age of 43, he decided he wanted to become an explorer.pic.twitter.com/w0hxkPkpLE

He set his sights on doing something that no European had ever done before. He would cross the vast Kalahari desert of Southern Africa on foot. His expedition set off into the enormous uncharted wastes in the year 1881, led by local guides. ( UK National Archives)pic.twitter.com/dKzM3Wr0Zz

The Kalahari Desert is a large sandy savanna, extending for 900,000 km², and which today covers much of Botswana, parts of Namibia and regions of South Africa. Its name comes from the Tswana language, and means “great thirst”.pic.twitter.com/9Py9KjScOV

Hunt believed that he would find enormous diamonds lying in the sands here. And in that respect, he was disappointed. But he did succeed in becoming the first known European ever to survive crossing the great desert on foot.pic.twitter.com/9ee1s7qIyN