El Dorado, legendary country of South America Encyclopedia > History > Latin America and the Caribbean > Latin American History El Dorado El Dorado (ĕlˈdəräˈdō, –rāˈ–) [ key ] [Span., = the gilded man], legendary country of the Golden Man sought by adventurers in South America. The legend supposedly originated in a custom of the Chibcha people of Colombia who each year anointed a chieftain and rolled him in gold, which he then ceremonially washed off in a sacred lake, casting offerings of emeralds and gold into the waters at the same time. This custom had apparently disappeared long before the coming of the conquistadors, but the tales lived on and grew into a legend of a land of gold and plenty. Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana set out in quest for it, the latter drifting down the length of the Amazon River in the process. From the middle of the 16th cent. a series of adventurers searched for El Dorado and its fabulous variants—Omagua, the Land of Cinnamon, or the golden land of Manoa. El Dorado passed into European literature and found its way to the maps.

The conquistadors of Venezuela and New Granada— Federmann , Benalcázar , and Jiménez de Quesada —all searched for El Dorado. Perhaps best known to English-speaking peoples is the expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595. The location of the mythical land shifted as new regions were explored, and similar legends appeared in W United States. Cabeza de Vaca told of the Seven Cities of Cibola; interest in these treasure-laden cities reached a peak with the stories of Fray Marcos de Niza and culminated in a tremendous but fruitless expedition under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado . El Dorado is used figuratively to mean any place of fabulous wealth, a utopian dream, or the land of desire. See A. F. Bandelier, The Gilded Man (1893, repr. 1962); G. Arciniegas, The Knight of El Dorado (tr. 1942); R. Silverberg, The Golden Dream (1967); V. S. Naipaul, The Loss of El Dorado (1970). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Eldorado | Article about eldorado by The Free Dictionary Eldorado | Article about eldorado by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia . El Dorado (ĕl`dərä`dō, –rā`–) [Span.,=the gilded man], legendary country of the Golden Man sought by adventurers in South America. The legend supposedly originated in a custom of the Chibcha Chibcha , indigenous people of the eastern cordillera of the Andes of Colombia. Although trade with neighboring tribes was common, the Chibcha seem to have evolved their culture in comparative isolation. ..... Click the link for more information. people of Colombia who each year anointed a chieftain and rolled him in gold, which he then ceremonially washed off in a sacred lake, casting offerings of emeralds and gold into the waters at the same time. This custom had apparently disappeared long before the coming of the conquistadors, but the tales lived on and grew into a legend of a land of gold and plenty.

Gonzalo Pizarro Pizarro, Gonzalo , c.1506–1548, Spanish conquistador, brother of Francisco Pizarro. A lieutenant of his brother in the conquest of Peru, Gonzalo aided in the defense of Cuzco (1536–37) against the Inca Manco Capac, subdued Charcas (present Bolivia), and fought ..... Click the link for more information. and Francisco de Orellana set out in quest for it, the latter drifting down the length of the Amazon River in the process. From the middle of the 16th cent. a series of adventurers searched for El Dorado and its fabulous variants—Omagua, the Land of Cinnamon, or the golden land of Manoa. El Dorado passed into European literature and found its way to the maps. The conquistadors of Venezuela and New Granada— Federmann Federmann, Nikolaus , 1501–42, German adventurer in Venezuela and Colombia. In the service of the Welser brothers, Augsburg bankers to whom Charles V had granted rights in Venezuela, Federmann first landed at Santa Ana de Coro in 1530. .....

Click the link for more information. , Benalcázar Benalcázar or Belalcázar, Sebastián de , c.1479–1551, Spanish conquistador. After accompanying Columbus on his third voyage (1498), Benalcázar served in Darién and Nicaragua ..... Click the link for more information. , and Jiménez de Quesada Jiménez de Quesada, Gonzalo , c.1499–1579, Spanish conquistador in Colombia. Chief magistrate of Santa Marta, he was commissioned to explore the Magdalena in search of El Dorado. ..... Click the link for more information. —all searched for El Dorado. Perhaps best known to English-speaking peoples is the expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh Raleigh or Ralegh, Sir Walter , 1554?–1618, English soldier, explorer, courtier, and man of letters. Early Life As a youth Raleigh served (1569) as a volunteer in the Huguenot army in France. ..... Click the link for more information. in 1595.

The location of the mythical land shifted as new regions were explored, and similar legends appeared in W United States. Cabeza de Vaca told of the Seven Cities of Cibola; interest in these treasure-laden cities reached a peak with the stories of Fray Marcos de Niza Marcos de Niza , c.1495–1558, missionary explorer in Spanish North America. A Franciscan friar, he served in Peru and Guatemala before going to Mexico. There he headed an expedition (1539) planned by Antonio de Mendoza, who had been excited by Cabeza de Vaca's stories of ..... Click the link for more information. and culminated in a tremendous but fruitless expedition under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de , c.1510–1554, Spanish explorer. He went to Mexico with Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and in 1538 was made governor of Nueva Galicia. ..... Click the link for more information. . El Dorado is used figuratively to mean any place of fabulous wealth, a utopian dream, or the land of desire. Bibliography See A. F.

Bandelier, The Gilded Man (1893, repr. 1962); G. Arciniegas, The Knight of El Dorado (tr. 1942); R. Silverberg, The Golden Dream (1967); V. S. Naipaul, The Loss of El Dorado (1970). El Dorado (ĕl dərā`də), city (1990 pop. 23,146), seat of Union co., S central Ark; inc. 1845. The discovery of oil in 1921 made it the oil center of the state. The city has oil refineries, chemical plants, and poultry-packing houses, as well as diverse manufactures. El Dorado a country rich in gold and jewels that was sought by the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th and 17th centuries in South America, mainly in the basin of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. According to the legend that had reached the conquistadores, the ruler of El Dorado sprinkled himself with gold dust every morning and washed it off in the waters of a sacred lake.

The legend and the name of the country stem from the custom that existed among the Chibcha (Muisca) of consecrating their rulers in Lake Guatavita (Colombia). In a figurative sense, “El Dorado” means a land of fabulous wealth. REFERENCE El Dorado | Article about El Dorado by The Free Dictionary El Dorado | Article about El Dorado by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia . El Dorado (ĕl`dərä`dō, –rā`–) [Span.,=the gilded man], legendary country of the Golden Man sought by adventurers in South America. The legend supposedly originated in a custom of the Chibcha Chibcha , indigenous people of the eastern cordillera of the Andes of Colombia. Although trade with neighboring tribes was common, the Chibcha seem to have evolved their culture in comparative isolation. ..... Click the link for more information. people of Colombia who each year anointed a chieftain and rolled him in gold, which he then ceremonially washed off in a sacred lake, casting offerings of emeralds and gold into the waters at the same time.

This custom had apparently disappeared long before the coming of the conquistadors, but the tales lived on and grew into a legend of a land of gold and plenty. Gonzalo Pizarro Pizarro, Gonzalo , c.1506–1548, Spanish conquistador, brother of Francisco Pizarro. A lieutenant of his brother in the conquest of Peru, Gonzalo aided in the defense of Cuzco (1536–37) against the Inca Manco Capac, subdued Charcas (present Bolivia), and fought ..... Click the link for more information. and Francisco de Orellana set out in quest for it, the latter drifting down the length of the Amazon River in the process. From the middle of the 16th cent. a series of adventurers searched for El Dorado and its fabulous variants—Omagua, the Land of Cinnamon, or the golden land of Manoa. El Dorado passed into European literature and found its way to the maps. The conquistadors of Venezuela and New Granada— Federmann Federmann, Nikolaus , 1501–42, German adventurer in Venezuela and Colombia.

In the service of the Welser brothers, Augsburg bankers to whom Charles V had granted rights in Venezuela, Federmann first landed at Santa Ana de Coro in 1530. ..... Click the link for more information. , Benalcázar Benalcázar or Belalcázar, Sebastián de , c.1479–1551, Spanish conquistador. After accompanying Columbus on his third voyage (1498), Benalcázar served in Darién and Nicaragua ..... Click the link for more information. , and Jiménez de Quesada Jiménez de Quesada, Gonzalo , c.1499–1579, Spanish conquistador in Colombia. Chief magistrate of Santa Marta, he was commissioned to explore the Magdalena in search of El Dorado. ..... Click the link for more information. —all searched for El Dorado. Perhaps best known to English-speaking peoples is the expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh Raleigh or Ralegh, Sir Walter , 1554?–1618, English soldier, explorer, courtier, and man of letters.

Early Life As a youth Raleigh served (1569) as a volunteer in the Huguenot army in France. ..... Click the link for more information. in 1595. The location of the mythical land shifted as new regions were explored, and similar legends appeared in W United States. Cabeza de Vaca told of the Seven Cities of Cibola; interest in these treasure-laden cities reached a peak with the stories of Fray Marcos de Niza Marcos de Niza , c.1495–1558, missionary explorer in Spanish North America. A Franciscan friar, he served in Peru and Guatemala before going to Mexico. There he headed an expedition (1539) planned by Antonio de Mendoza, who had been excited by Cabeza de Vaca's stories of ..... Click the link for more information. and culminated in a tremendous but fruitless expedition under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de , c.1510–1554, Spanish explorer. He went to Mexico with Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and in 1538 was made governor of Nueva Galicia. .....

Click the link for more information. . El Dorado is used figuratively to mean any place of fabulous wealth, a utopian dream, or the land of desire. Bibliography See A. F. Bandelier, The Gilded Man (1893, repr. 1962); G. Arciniegas, The Knight of El Dorado (tr. 1942); R. Silverberg, The Golden Dream (1967); V. S. Naipaul, The Loss of El Dorado (1970). El Dorado (ĕl dərā`də), city (1990 pop. 23,146), seat of Union co., S central Ark; inc. 1845. The discovery of oil in 1921 made it the oil center of the state. The city has oil refineries, chemical plants, and poultry-packing houses, as well as diverse manufactures. El Dorado a country rich in gold and jewels that was sought by the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th and 17th centuries in South America, mainly in the basin of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers.

According to the legend that had reached the conquistadores, the ruler of El Dorado sprinkled himself with gold dust every morning and washed it off in the waters of a sacred lake. The legend and the name of the country stem from the custom that existed among the Chibcha (Muisca) of consecrating their rulers in Lake Guatavita (Colombia). In a figurative sense, “El Dorado” means a land of fabulous wealth. REFERENCE El Dorado Legend -- National Geographic Space The scene depicted in this ancient artwork, on display at the Gold Museum in Bogota, Colombia, shows the origin of the El Dorado myth. Legend tells of a Muisca king who would cover himself in gold dust during festivals, then dive from a raft into Lake Guatavita. Photograph by Mauricio Duenas/AFP/Getty Images By Willie Drye The lust for gold spans all eras, races, and nationalities. To possess any amount of gold seems to ignite an insatiable desire to obtain more. Through the centuries, this passion gave rise to the enduring tale of a city of gold.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Europeans believed that somewhere in the New World there was a place of immense wealth known as El Dorado. Their searches for this treasure wasted countless lives, drove at least one man to suicide, and put another man under the executioner's ax. "El Dorado shifted geographical locations until finally it simply meant a source of untold riches somewhere in the Americas," says Jim Griffith, a folklorist in Tucson, Arizona. But this place of immeasurable riches hasn't been found. The origins of El Dorado lie deep in South America. And like all enduring legends, the tale of El Dorado contains some scraps of truth. When Spanish explorers reached South America in the early 16th century, they heard stories about a tribe of natives high in the Andes mountains in what is now Colombia. When a new chieftain rose to power, his rule began with a ceremony at Lake Guatavita. Accounts of the ceremony vary, but they consistently say the new ruler was covered with gold dust, and that gold and precious jewels were thrown into the lake to appease a god that lived underwater.

The Spaniards started calling this golden chief El Dorado, "the gilded one." The ceremony of the gilded man supposedly ended in the late 15th century when El Dorado and his subjects were conquered by another tribe. But the Spaniards and other Europeans had found so much gold among the natives along the continent's northern coast that they believed there had to be a place of great wealth somewhere in the interior. The Spaniards didn't find El Dorado, but they did find Lake Guatavita and tried to drain it in 1545. They lowered its level enough to find hundreds of pieces of gold along the lake's edge. But the presumed fabulous treasure in the deeper water was beyond their reach. Raleigh's Quest English courtier Sir Walter Raleigh made two trips to Guiana to search for El Dorado. During his second trip in 1617, he sent his son, Watt Raleigh, with an expedition up the Orinoco River. But Walter Raleigh, then an old man, stayed behind at a base camp on the island of Trinidad. The expedition was a disaster, and Watt Raleigh was killed in a battle with Spaniards.

Eric Klingelhofer, an archaeologist at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, says Walter Raleigh was furious at the survivor who informed him of Watt's death and accused the survivor of letting his son be killed. "The man goes into his cabin on the ship and kills himself," says Klingelhofer, who is trying to find the site of Raleigh's base camp on Trinidad. Raleigh returned to England, where King James ordered him beheaded for, among other things, disobeying orders to avoid conflict with the Spanish. The legend of El Dorado endures because "you want it to be true," says Jose Oliver, a lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. "I don't think we've ever stopped seeking El Dorado." So where is this lost city of gold? In his 1849 poem "El Dorado," writer Edgar Allan Poe offers an eerie and eloquent suggestion: "Over the Mountains of the Moon, down the Valley of the Shadow, ride, boldly ride…if you seek for El Dorado." The Legend of El Dorado The Legend of El Dorado The Mysterious Lost City of Gold 1656 Map of Northern South America.

The Legend of El Dorado El Dorado was a mythical city supposedly located somewhere in the unexplored interior of South America. El Dorado was allegedly unimaginably rich, with fanciful tales told of gold-paved streets, golden temples and rich mines of gold and silver. Between 1530 and 1650 or so, thousands of Europeans searched the jungles, plains, mountains and rivers of South America for El Dorado, many of them losing their lives in the process. El Dorado never existed except in the fevered imaginations of these seekers, so it was never found. Aztec and Inca Gold The El Dorado myth had its roots in the vast fortunes discovered in Mexico and Peru. In 1519, Hernán Cortes captured Emperor Montezuma and sacked the mighty Aztec Empire, making off with thousands of pounds of gold and silver and making rich men of the conquistadors who were with him. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance In 1533, Francisco Pizarro discovered the Inca Empire in the Andes of South America.

Taking a page from Cortes' book, Pizarro captured the Inca Emperor Atahualpa and held him for ransom, earning another fortune in the process. Lesser New World cultures such as the Maya in Central America and the Muisca in present-day Colombia yielded smaller (but still significant) treasures. The Seekers of El Dorado Tales of these fortunes made the rounds in Europe and soon thousands of adventurers from all over Europe were making their way to the New World, hoping to be part of the next expedition. Most (but not all) of them were Spanish. These adventurers had little or no personal fortune but great ambition: most had some experience fighting in Europe's many wars. They were violent, ruthless men who had nothing to lose: they would get rich on New World gold or die trying. Soon the ports were flooded with these would-be conquistadors, who would form into large expeditions and set off into the unknown interior of South America, often following the vaguest rumors of gold. The Birth of El Dorado There was a grain of truth in the El Dorado myth.

The Muisca people of Cundinamarca (present-day Colombia) had a tradition: kings would coat themselves in a sticky sap before covering themselves in gold powder. The king would then take a canoe to the center of Lake Guatavitá and, before the eyes of thousands of his subjects watching from shore, would leap into the lake, emerging clean. Then, a great festival would begin. This tradition had been neglected by the Muisca by the time of their discovery by the Spanish in 1537, but not before word of it had reached the greedy ears of the European intruders in cities all over the continent. "El Dorado," in fact, is Spanish for "the gilded one:" the term at first referred to an individual, the king who covered himself in gold. According to some sources, the man who coined this phrase was conquistador Sebastián de Benalcázar . Evolution of the Myth of El Dorado After the Cundinamarca plateau was conquered, the Spanish dredged Lake Guatavitá in search of the gold of El Dorado. Some gold was indeed found, but not as much as the Spanish had hoped for.

Therefore, they reasoned optimistically, the Muisca must not be the true kingdom of El Dorado and it must still be out there somewhere. Expeditions, composed of recent arrivals from Europe as well as veterans of the conquest, set out in all directions to search for it. The legend grew as illiterate conquistadors passed the legend by word of mouth from one to another: El Dorado was not merely one king, but a rich city made of gold, with enough wealth for a thousand men to become rich forever. The Quest for El Dorado Between 1530 and 1650 or so, thousands of men made dozens of forays into the unmapped interior of South America. A typical expedition went something like this. In a Spanish coastal town on the South American mainland, such as Santa Marta or Coro, a charismatic, influential individual would announce an expedition. Anywhere from one hundred to seven hundred Europeans, mostly Spaniards, would sign up, bringing their own armor, weapons and horses (if you had a horse you got a larger share of the treasure).

The expedition would force natives along to carry the heavier gear, and some of the better-planned ones would bring livestock (usually hogs) to slaughter and eat along the way. Fighting dogs were always brought along, as they were useful when fighting bellicose natives. The leaders would often borrow heavily to purchase supplies. After a couple of months, they were ready to go. The expedition would head off, seemingly in any direction. They would stay out for any length of time from a couple of months to as long as four years, searching plains, mountains, rivers and jungles. They would meet natives along the way: these they would either torture or ply with gifts to get information about where they could find gold. Almost invariably, the natives pointed in some direction and said some variation of "our neighbors in that direction have the gold you seek." The natives had quickly learned that the best way to be rid of these rude, violent men was to tell them what they wanted to hear and send them on their way. Meanwhile, illnesses, desertion and native attacks would whittle down the expedition.

Nevertheless, the expeditions proved surprisingly resilient, braving mosquito-infested swamps, hordes of angry natives, blazing heat on the plains, flooded rivers and frosty mountain passes. Eventually, when their numbers got too low (or when the leader died) the expedition would give up and return home. Prev El Dorado facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about El Dorado Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained COPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. El Dorado Europeans of the sixteenth century presumed that somewhere deep in South America was a vast city called El Dorado that contained unimaginable mineral riches. Several Spanish conquistadors made perilous, often deadly journeys to find it. Sir Walter Raleigh (1554–1618), the English raconteur, explorer, and visionary, claimed in a book he published in 1596 that he knew the whereabouts of El Dorado. But in spite of such valiant efforts, El Dorado seems to persist only as a symbol of the rapacious greed with which the English and Spanish beheld the New World. Europeans first learned of El Dorado through word-of-mouth tales that circulated among South America's indigenous peoples.

There was a small grain of truth to the story: high in the eastern range of the Andes, in what is now Colombia , lived the Chibcha people. Geographically isolated, they mined gold and emeralds freely, and built a highly stratified and developed society. When they anointed a new priest-chief, they covered the man in balsam gum, and then blew gold dust all over his body through cane straws until he resembled a statue of pure gold. The new priest-chief then ceremonially bathed in Lake Guatavita, a sacred place to the Chibcha. This practice ended around 1480 when they were subdued by another tribe. But the story of the "gilded one" became part of the oral folklore traditions in South America, and in its retellings, the tale took on added dimensions: the gilded one supposedly ruled over a vast kingdom where nearly everything was made from gold, silver, or precious stone. Spanish colonization of Latin America began not long after the end of this practice. Francisco Pizzaro (c.

1475–1541), who conquered the powerful Inca civilization in the 1530s in what is today Peru , saw the technically advanced and lavishly prosperous city of Cuzco that the tightly organized indigenous culture created. He believed that the continent held enormous mineral wealth, and he took bags of gold and stacks of silver bars back to Spain from his plunder of the Inca. Not long after the conquest, a messenger from an unknown Indian tribe appeared in Peru with a message for the Inca emperor, unaware the empire had been defeated. Interrogated by the Spanish, he told them he came from the Zipa people in the Bogota region, but knew of another kingdom, high in the mountains to the east, a tribe so rich that they covered their chief in gold. The Spanish, who had already heard about the Chibcha, became increasingly certain that El Dorado, their translation of "the gilded one," really existed. Adding to the mystery was a rumor that a renegade Inca faction had managed to escape the violent Spanish conquest and had fled to the mountains. Supposedly they had migrated into the Amazon River jungle. There, according to folklore, was an empire richer than that of the Inca.

The Spanish assumed that the rebels took large amounts of mineral wealth with them, and that this fugitive empire was flourishing some-where in what is today Venezuela . Between 1536 and 1541, the Spanish sent out five major expeditions in search of El Dorado. After the journeys proved fruitless, the Spanish became certain that El Dorado must lie in the northern part of the continent into which they had not yet ventured—the jungle basin between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. Meanwhile, another mysterious appearance of a man who spoke of a city of gold he called "Manoa" only fueled their desire. His name was Juan Martinez, and he had been a munitions master on board a Spanish ship exploring the Caroni River that branched off from the Orinoco at San Thome. His group headed deeper into the jungle, but the journey was aborted when its gunpowder stores exploded. Martinez was left behind in an open canoe as punishment for the accident. He claimed to have met friendly Indians, who blindfolded him for days and led him to their kingdom, called Manoa, where everything in the royal palace was made of gold.

Martinez said that riches had been given to him as a departing gift, but they had been stolen by Indians on his way back. This story was told to Sir Walter Raleigh in England around 1586. Raleigh had established an ill-fated colony in North America on Roanoke Island and had fallen out of favor with Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603). Wishing to restore his reputation and status at court, he set sail for South America. After arriving in March of 1595, Raleigh and his party spent weeks sailing along the Orinoco River, but found nothing but a massive Spanish anchor, which had been lost when Martinez's ship had exploded. Raleigh brought back to England exotic flora and fauna and some blue-tinged rocks that hinted at great ore deposits. But when Raleigh told his extraordinary tales of the jungle, his enemies ridiculed him, claiming that he had been hiding in Cornwall the entire time. In response, he wrote a book, The Discovery of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guyana with a Relation to the Great and Golden City of Manoa.

The book was absorbing, but the English expedition had not ventured into any parts of the Orinoco that the Spanish had not already explored. Raleigh claimed that the city of Manoa was on Lake ParÌma, behind a mountain range. He provided a map so remarkably accurate that most atlases of South America showed the mythical lake for the next 150 years. Raleigh also wrote of a tribe of headless, club-wielding warriors with eyes and mouths on their torsos. That brought further discredit to his book, but it sold well, even in translation. Raleigh's claims failed to interest Queen Elizabeth I or potential investors who might finance a further search for El Dorado. After the monarch died in 1603, Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London by her successor, King James I (1566–1625), on charges of treason. Convinced in the very least that vast gold mines existed close to the Orinoco River, Raleigh continually petitioned for release; only when dire financial straits fell on Great Britain did the king allow Raleigh a second chance. Raleigh's 1618 expedition battled the Spanish, and Raleigh's son died in battle.

When Raleigh returned to England empty-handed, he was jailed again, tried in secret, and executed on the 1603 treason charge. The term "El Dorado" became part of Renaissance-era English culture; John Milton (1608–1674) wrote of it in Paradise Lost, and William Shakespeare (1564–1616) mentioned the headless warriors in Othello. El Dorado has become synonymous with a place of fabulous wealth or inordinately great opportunity. Accepted theory holds that El Dorado existed only in the minds of the Europeans who were eager to discover the quickest path to riches. Delving Deeper El Dorado (legendary country of South America) The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press El Dorado (ĕl´dərä´dō, –rā´–) [Span.,=the gilded man], legendary country of the Golden Man sought by adventurers in South America.

The legend supposedly originated in a custom of the Chibcha people of Colombia who each year anointed a chieftain and rolled him in gold, which he then ceremonially washed off in a sacred lake, casting offerings of emeralds and gold into the waters at the same time. This custom had apparently disappeared long before the coming of the conquistadors, but the tales lived on and grew into a legend of a land of gold and plenty. Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana set out in quest for it, the latter drifting down the length of the Amazon River in the process. From the middle of the 16th cent. a series of adventurers searched for El Dorado and its fabulous variants—Omagua, the Land of Cinnamon, or the golden land of Manoa. El Dorado passed into European literature and found its way to the maps. The conquistadors of Venezuela and New Granada— Federmann , Benalcázar , and Jiménez de Quesada —all searched for El Dorado. Perhaps best known to English-speaking peoples is the expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595.

The location of the mythical land shifted as new regions were explored, and similar legends appeared in W United States. Cabeza de Vaca told of the Seven Cities of Cibola; interest in these treasure-laden cities reached a peak with the stories of Fray Marcos de Niza and culminated in a tremendous but fruitless expedition under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado . El Dorado is used figuratively to mean any place of fabulous wealth, a utopian dream, or the land of desire. See A. F. Bandelier, The Gilded Man (1893, repr. 1962); G. Arciniegas, The Knight of El Dorado (tr. 1942); R. Silverberg, The Golden Dream (1967); V. S. Naipaul, The Loss of El Dorado (1970). Cite this article Myths and Legends of the World COPYRIGHT 2001 Macmillan Reference, USA El Dorado The legend of El Dorado was about a fabulously wealthy city of gold and the king who ruled over it. The story sprang up shortly after the first Spanish explorers landed in Central and South America .

Local people told tales of a rich king who plastered his body with gold dust and then dived into a sacred lake to wash it off. Afterward, he would toss gold into the lake as an offering to the gods. The Spanish called the king El Dorado—The Gilded One—because his body was gilded, or covered, in gold. As the tale spread, the city he ruled came to be called El Dorado. Eventually, the meaning of the name changed to include any mythical region that contained great riches. An early version of the El Dorado legend placed the city near Lake Guatavita not too far from modern Bogotá, Colombia . The story was based on the Muisca people who performed a ceremony similar to that in the legend. The Muisca king, covered with gold dust, boarded a raft in the lake and made offerings to the gods. Both Spaniards and Germans searched the region in 1538 but failed to find El Dorado. They looked in a number of other places as well. Local inhabitants usually claimed that El Dorado was somewhere far away in the hope that the Europeans would search elsewhere and leave them in peace.

Men as famous as Sir Walter Raleigh spent years in South America looking for legendary golden cities such as Manoa and Omagua. Other places mentioned in stories were Paititi, a land of gold located in Paraguay , and the City of the Ceasars, an invisible golden city in Chile . Several bloody expeditions were launched to find these imaginary kingdoms. One of the most tragic was led by a rebel soldier named Lope de Aguirre, a brutal madman who proclaimed himself king and was murdered by one of his followers. El Dorado made its way into literature. In Candide, a novel by the French writer Voltaire, the main character accidentally discovers the rich city. Edgar Allan Poe's poem Eldorado refers to the legend, as does Paradise Lost by English poet John Milton. * See Names and Places at the end of this volume for further information. Cite this article The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable © The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006, originally published by Oxford University Press 2006.

El Dorado the name of a fictitious country or city abounding in gold, formerly believed to exist somewhere in the region of the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers; the name is first recorded in English in the title of Raleigh's Discoverie of Guiana, with a relation of the Great and Golden City of Manoa (which the Spanish call El Dorado) (1596). The belief, which led Spanish conquistadors to converge on the area in search of treasure and Sir Walter Raleigh to lead his second expedition up the Orinoco, appears to have originated in rumours of an Indian ruler who ritually coated his body with gold dust and then plunged into a sacred lake while his subjects threw in gold and jewels. The name comes from Spanish, and means literally ‘the gilded one’. Cite this article The Legend of El Dorado | Historic Mysteries The Legend of El Dorado 4706 Views Legends of the El Dorado City of Gold Have Been Alive Hundreds of Years The legend of El Dorado pertains to a lost city of gold, believed to exist somewhere in South America. It is yet to be found, but that hasn’t stopped historians and treasure hunters from searching.

Since the legend began in the 1500s, thousands of people have attempted to locate this city of gold in various locations throughout Latin America. Where does the legend of El Dorado come from, and what have these searches uncovered? Representation of the “Gilded One” covering his body in gold dust and offering treasures to the goddess in Lake Guatavita. Was this the origin of the legend of El Dorado? The Colombian Legends of Treasure The Muisca tribe of central Columbia has been known to exist since 800 AD. For them, El Dorado, “the gilded one,” represented their tribal chief. Research and ancient texts reveal that the El Dorado of Colombia was never originally considered a city of gold at all. Archeological evidence and Spanish accounts of the stories indicate that during initiation ceremonies their chiefs would be covered in gold dust and taken to the center of Lake Guatavita on a raft. Once in the center he would throw precious items made of gold and gems as an offering to the gods. Other accounts of the story say that the chief had so much gold, that he would cover himself with gold dust and submerse himself in the lake along with the golden treasure.

This would appease the gods, and the Muisca believed they would then be granted balance and harmony in their environment and within the tribe. Spanish explorers heard of these stories, and were led by their greed. The seductive tale of El Dorado would eventually become generically known as any undiscovered place filled with treasure somewhere in the Americas. The Oak Island Money Pit Interestingly, in 1545 gold-hungry Spaniards attempted to drain Lake Guatavita. They removed a significant amount of gold, but could not reach the trove that supposedly existed in the deepest parts of the lake. In the 1500s many other explorers claimed they found El Dorado. It was once thought that Sir Walter Raleigh had found it at the end of the 1500s. It was marked on English maps and described as a location in the north. This location was thought to be significant until the 1800s, when Alexander von Humbolt proved otherwise during his own exploration of South America. Rumors of Other Treasure Troves The legend of El Dorado originated in Colombia, and it appears we have enough evidence to explain that legend today.

However, other rumors of treasure-filled places in Peru exist even now. Hunters still cling to the belief there is an El Dorado in South America. The Peruvian legend describes the sack of Cusco, and how Francisco Pizzaro looted the Incan city of its gold. However, the Incas had months of preparation before Pizarro’s sack to squirrel away their treasures. These treasures included golden mummies of previous Incan leaders. The treasures were rumored to be hidden in the network of ancient mazes that run underneath Peru and Ecuador. When Pizarro went to sack Cusco, many artifacts that were thought to be there were not found. Pizzaro and his men were unable to locate the missing gold, mummies, and artifacts, despite explorations into the Incan tunnels. Modern Day Expeditions to Find El Dorado One present day attempt to find El Dorado took place in 2000. The Monastery of Santo Domingo searched for underground Incan tunnels. Nothing concrete was found, but interestingly, radar had revealed what appeared to be an entrance to a large tunnel underneath the Monastery. Another recent attempt at finding and debunking the myth of El Dorado came in 2001.

A document dating back to the 1600s was discovered by the Italian archaeologist Mario Polia, describing a city that could be El Dorado located in an area known as Paratoari in Peru. From the air it seems as though there may be man-made structures there. Also, tools have been found in the area suggesting the remains of a civilization. Further voyages into the Paratoari area are difficult due to the terrain, and this makes the hunt for El Dorado too costly. Treasure Hunting and Looting Unfortunately, the modern surge in gold hunting has led to mass looting of historical treasures strictly for monetary gain. This is robbing the scientific community and the world of the ability to study the artifacts to discover more about the fascinating ancient cultures that crafted the pieces. As Dr. Jago Cooper, curator at the British Museum, beautifully put it in his fantastic BBC article , “This El Dorado-inspired looting of gold has meant that the vast majority of precious pre-Columbian gold objects have been melted down and the real value of these artefacts as clues to the workings of an ancient culture have been lost forever.” Today, El Dorado is still yet to be found anywhere in South America.

Time and time again greed has driven treasure hunters far and wide, even to their death in search of it. The loss of cultural artifacts, archaeological knowledge and lives, makes the chase of the El Dorado legend disadvantageous to society. However, dreaming doesn’t cost anything. The romantic dream filled with tales of wealth and cities filled with treasure will always be alive. Resources:

Question: Where was the supposedly golden land of El Dorado?
Answer: South America