El Dorado

El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions – before diving into a sacred lake to wash it off. The legend was first recorded in the 16th century by Spanish colonists in the Americas; they referred to the king as el Dorado, the Golden One, a name which eventually came to be applied to the city itself.

The legend is inspired by the culture of the Muisca, an indigenous people who inhabited a plateau in the Andean Mountains range in present-day Colombia. Each time a new leader or Zipa was crowned, his body was covered in gold dust and offerings were transported along to the depths of the lake, invoking the goddess who inhabited Lake Guatavita. This ritual is known as the Muisca Golden Ceremony.

The Muisca were skilled goldsmiths; they made frequent use of golden objects in their religious ceremonies, and also manufactured ornaments and jewellery for trade with the neighbouring tribes. Early European settlers, searching for the source of the gold they found among the lowland peoples, made several attempts to reach the plateau. The first to succeed was Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada in 1537. Quesada and his men conquered the territory of the Muisca in the name of Spain, and looted large quantities of gold from their palaces and temples.

The Lake Guatavita was later drained by Spanish and British conquerors in order to find its treasures. Gold objects known from this place, which lend legitimacy to the legend of El Dorado, were found, such as the Siecha raft and the popularly known Muisca raft. Some of the pre-Columbian gold objects recovered from Lake Guatavita are on exhibited at the Gold Museum in Bogotá.

Shortly after this, the legend of El Dorado began to spread among the European colonists. In the decades that followed, the city was sought for in various places across the continent. Antonio de Berrio, Quesada's heir, believed that El Dorado lay within the Guianas, and tried on three occasions to forge a path into the uncharted highlands. Before he could make a third attempt, he was taken captive by Sir Walter Raleigh, who then launched his own expedition into the Guianas.

Raleigh likewise failed to reach his goal, but a later survey by his lieutenant, Lawrence Kemys, brought back some local information regarding a great lake called Lake Parime that supposedly lay somewhere further inland. This lake, considered a prime candidate for the location of the golden city, became the object of further searches, and was included in maps throughout the 17th century. Over time, as the area became better charted, the existence of the lake was thrown into doubt. In the early 19th century, Alexander von Humboldt conclusively declared Lake Parime to be a myth, bringing an end to the popular belief in El Dorado.

Nevertheless, the subject has had a lasting cultural impact. The mystery surrounding the lost city and the supposed wealth of its inhabitants have influenced creative media since the time of Voltaire, who included a trip to El Dorado in his 18th-century satire ''Candide''. More recently, the search for El Dorado has furnished plotlines for films and video games such as ''Outer Banks'', ''The Road to El Dorado'', ''Paddington in Peru'', and ''Uncharted: Drake's Fortune'', and has provided a motif for numerous musical artists, including Aterciopelados and Shakira. Provided by Wikipedia