From my 1/2/24 posting “Z of the Amazon”, about:
Amazonian linguist Roberto Zariquiey, whose home base is the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). His unusual Z-surname caught my attention; it turns out that almost all the Zariquieys in the world come from Spain, or from what is pretty clearly a Spanish settlement, in Peru
I wrote RZ about his name (Z-names are a thing with me; hey, I’m a linguist and a Z-person), expecting that someone with so many academic and language-activist commitments wouldn’t be inclined to spend time satisfying the onomastic curiosity of a stranger (though he’s a linguist and would know about some of my work). In the meantime, origins in Spain and a name with a notable Z and Q in its Spanish spelling had a whiff of the Basque about it, so I searched through lists of common Basque surnames, but without success.
Eventually I got an informative and entertaining response from RZ, confirming my Basque suspicions: Zariquiey is a Basque name, altered from Zariquiegui, the name of a small town. So: a found city of Z (more below).
But then RZ added a fun bonus for me (slightly edited by me):
Are you aware of the story of the City of Z in the Amazon? An English guy, Percy Fawcett, was obsessed with it and actually got lost trying to find it. This book is pretty good: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
Not just a (well-reviewed) book, but an ambitious movie (also well-reviewed, though not a financial success) in addition. And no, I somehow wasn’t aware of them. In any case: a lost city of Z (more below).