Mysterious Cities of Gold

This french / japanese animated adventure series of 39 episodes was broadcast around the world under a variety of titles including Les Mysterieuses Cites d’Or and Esteban and the Seven Cities of Gold. It was originally aired in the early eighties and can still be found on numerous children’s television channels and has also been released on DVD in a number of countries. The following plot summary is provided here under GNLU licenece from Wikipedia:

The story is very loosely based on the children’s novel, The King’s Fifth, by Scott O’Dell.

Left to right: Pedro, Sancho and Mendoza

The series is a mix of ancient South American history, archaeology, and science fiction. The characters discover many lost technological wonders of the Mayans, Inca, and Olmecs, including a solar powered ship (the Solaris) and The Golden Condor, a huge solar-powered airship, capable of traveling considerable distances under the sun’s power alone. They are constantly pursued by antagonists Gomez and Gaspard, who are also in search of the Cities of Gold.

The Cities of Gold, of which there are seven, were built by the Emperor of Mu out of fear of a global war which would destroy civilization. Such a war indeed broke out, destroying the Empires of Mu and Atlantis when they used the “weapons of the sun” (implied to be thermonuclear weapons). The Seven Cities of Gold hold copies of books in their “Universal Libraries” as well as powerful artifacts, including the “Great Legacy”, a portable fusion reactor. Other elements of this technology turn up in unexpected places, like the Solaris in Tao’s home island, Esteban’s and Zia’s medallions as keys to the Cities, or Tao’s jar as an important piece of the Great Legacy.

Reminiscences of this ancient story are present in Inca legends written on golden Quipu, which only Zia can read. This triggers an obsessive quest for the Cities of Gold on the part of the Spaniards Mendoza (very loosely based on Pedro de Mendoza), Gomez, Perez and Francisco Pizarro.

	Solar ship Solaris, in conventonal propulsion mode

Esteban seeks his long-lost father and is tied to Mendoza (who rescued Esteban from a sinking ship as a baby): he might know the whereabouts of Esteban’s father and holds half of Esteban’s medallion. Esteban seems to have a magical ability to make the Sun appear, which proves an invaluable asset throughout the series.

Zia also seeks her father, from whom she was taken as a very young girl. She has a medallion similar to the one Esteban carries.

Tao seeks signs of his ancestors; he possesses an encyclopedia about their lost technology and a “mysterious jar which no one can open” (the Great Legacy’s cooling or control rod system).

The Golden Condor
English logo

The Olmecs are descendants of survivors of the global war who hid under their mountain. Only their elite were able to survive, suspended in cryogenic hibernation. The Olmecs do not appear to be human (or if they were Human, it is implied they have horribly mutated from the fallout of the Nuclear war that destroyed their ancestors); they are short, thin and have pointed ears and enlarged frontal bones. Much of their facial characteristics resemble to chimpanzees and they are shown to shriek and scurry like these animals. They are highly intelligent but devious and selfish. Lead by their king, Menator, the Olmecs seek an artifact called the “Great Legacy” in order to power their cryogenic systems, as well as samples of healthy cells from the children to combat their mutations and sterility. Their technology is generally inferior to that of the modern day, with weapons such as spears and swords used. They do however maintain some elements of their advanced technology heritage such as the stasis and medical technology used to keep the elite of the Olmecs in suspended animation until such time as they can be revived, powered by what appears to be a geothermal power system. This power system is destroyed in an escape by the Children and Mendoza, starting a frantic search by the Olmecs for the fusion reactor core (the Great Treasure) hidden in the City of Gold.

They also have a single flying machine that appears to use very similar technology to that of the Golden Condor, however it is armed with some kind of particle beam or focused heat weapon of great power. The more senior of the Olmecs are also very familiar with the technology inside the Mysterious city of Gold, manipulating it easily to liberate their Great Treasure…but in the process setting off automated defense systems which engage and cripple the Olmecs flying machine, forcing them to beat a hasty retreat.

Eventually, the Olmecs succeed, at great cost, in taking control of the Great Legacy, but it begins to melt down without the moderation provided by Tao’s jar. A Chernobyl-like accident is avoided by the personal sacrifice of Esteban’s father who, acting as the High Priest of the Cities, dies replacing the jar.

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