The truth about the discovery of an underground city of 'reptilians' in Los Angeles

In 1934, G. Warren Shufelt told the Los Angeles Times that he had discovered the remains of an ancient reptilian civilization beneath Los Angeles, USA.

Deep in the heart of Los Angeles' financial district, hundreds of meters below the massive downtown buildings that house banks and corporate offices, lies another city remembered only in American urban legends, an underground world built by a strange race that disappeared thousands of years ago.

At least that's what mining engineer G. Warren Shufelt claimed in the Los Angeles Times on January 29, 1934. According to journalist Jean Bosquet, Shufelt was digging in downtown Los Angeles in search of this ancient underground civilization.

The Lizardmen are said to have lived in an underground city for over 5,000 years. They are highly technologically advanced and have connections to the Mayans. After fleeing a historic meteorite disaster, the Mayans moved to live along the Pacific coast and it was here that they came into contact with this strange creature that seemed to come from another planet. Stories of the Lizardmen are still told in Hopi mythology. They are highly intelligent and possess advanced technology.

Lizard Man

Shufelt first heard of the city in a Hopi (Native American Indian) legend about the "lizard people," an ancient race that was nearly wiped out after a meteor shower hit the southwestern United States around 3000 B.C. — Arizona's famous Winslow Crater is said to have been the site of the meteor shower.

According to Hopi legend, the lizard people built 13 underground settlements along the Pacific coast to protect the tribe from future disasters. These underground cities housed thousands of families, along with food reserves.

According to the story, the lizard people used a 'chemical solution' to melt the solid bedrock to drill tunnels and chambers for their underground shelter. In addition to providing shelter for their people in case of disaster, the tunnels were also built to house giant gold tablets that told the story of the tribe, the origin of humanity, and the history of the world since its creation.

In 1933, the Los Angeles Times published Shufelt's search for the lizard man's treasure, and another newspaper, the Associated Press, spread the news across the United States. The underground city was said to be shaped like a lizard, stretching from Elysia Park to what is now the Los Angeles Central Library.

The Story of a Hopi Native

An old Hopi Indian chief,  "Little Green Leaf," told Shufelt that the lizard people's underground city center was located below present-day downtown Los Angeles.

In 1933, after surveying the area, Shufelt purchased Banning's vacant lot at 518 North Hill Street, which he said was the treasure chamber beneath. Shufelt said he located the gold in the crypt below with the help of a "radio X-ray machine." 

This was a device he built himself to survey the underground for oil, gold, and other valuable resources, and it helped Shufelt map the location and extent of the underground tunnels. He said the underground city was shaped like a giant lizard, with the head near Chavez Ravine (the current location of Dodger Stadium) and the tail tapering below the Central Library.

Map detailing the extent of the underground city in Los Angeles. Published in the Los Angeles Times in the 1930s. Shufelt claimed to have found the exact location of a 1,765-square-meter underground complex with 16 gold-hiding rooms. Shufelt discovered the structures beneath Fort Moore Hill in Los Angeles using his X-ray machine.

The "Key Room" , a room containing a map of the city and a catalog of gold tablets, was located beneath the current site of Times-Mirror Square . Shufelt also claimed to have traced passageways extending to the area around the Southwest Museum and said that ventilation tunnels extended westward, opening onto the Pacific Ocean.

Despite all the detailed maps and diagrams of the underground city filled with treasure, Shufelt never found it. Newspapers speculated that the treasures were gold brought here by the Spanish during the American colonial period. But the deeper he went, the more difficult it became to excavate because of the mud and thick rocks. Some experts said it should have been about 1,000 feet deep, but Shufelt could only dig 230 feet, and he still found no tunnels or treasure.

After years of causing a stir in Los Angeles, Shufelt's magical X-ray machine and detailed map of the lizard people's underground city disappeared without a trace, adding to the mystery of the whole strange story. And over time, the incident was quickly forgotten.