The myth of El Dorado, a place full of gold and emeralds, is the typical back-and-forth story that has been transformed over time. It all started in 1536, when an expedition led by the Spanish conqueror Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada advanced through the Colombian jungle and made contact with the Muisca indigenous nation. They would have a ritual that drove Europeans crazy: when a new king was elected, the muiscas covered the future sovereign with gold dust – hence the name El Dorado, «the golden one» in Spanish. The king would then climb into a canoe and throw stones and more precious stones in the middle of a lake to please the gods and ensure a good reign.
The news spread among the Spaniards and, with time, the legend grew. What was a description of a ritual became a report about a kingdom, sometimes about a city where everything was filled with gold and emeralds, from the cutlery to the streets. The Muisca began to break up after first contact with Spanish colonists in the 16th century. The last vestiges of civilization were found in the 18th century.
There has almost certainly never been a gold-covered city in South America. But the mere possibility of there being something like El Dorado has stirred the imagination of adventurers for nearly 500 years. To give you an idea, in the middle of the 20th century, at least three famous explorers died looking for the city, often described as the last great refuge of the Inca Empire, where various treasures would be kept. In the last century, the British Peter Fawcett (1925), the French-American Serge Debru (1970) and, more recently, the Norwegian Lars Hafksjold (1997) disappeared from the South American forests in the last century.
But the greatest adventures in the search for this lost city were carried out by the Spanish explorers who arrived in South America in the 16th century. On the map below you can see the most incredible expeditions of that time and also recent finds that have reignited the legends about El Dorado.
LOST IN THE JUNGLE
Spanish expeditions even found warrior Indians, but nothing of the golden city
– (Sattu, Luiz Iria, Luciano Veronezi and Rodrigo Cunha/)
1. In 1522, the Spaniard Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada began an expedition on the coast of Colombia that would result in the founding of Bogotá. During the adventure, he became rich looting gold and emeralds and was the first to come into contact with the legend of El Dorado
two. When he faced the Inca Empire in Ecuador, Captain Sebastián de Belalcazar also heard stories about El Dorado from a prisoner. He deserted from Spanish troops in 1535 and headed north. His adventure ended, without gold or glory, in Bogotá, recently founded by Gonzalo Quesada
3. Also departing from Quito, another conqueror, Gonzalo Pizarro, decided to “just” cross the Andes in 1540. After a year, he had already lost 3,000 men… A year later he returned to Quito without finding anything, in one of the most clumsy in search of El Dorado
4. Francisco de Orellana belonged to Gonzalo Pizarro’s expedition, but he and about 50 men got lost from the main group in 1541. And let’s get lost in this: sailing on a raft, Orellana ended up in the Amazon River!
5. Following the current of the huge river, Orellana had a hard time. According to his reports, he even fought against tribes of Indians led by women, like the fearsome Amazons of Greek mythology. The explorer reached the coast of Pará in 1542 and from there went up to Venezuela. Without finding the golden city, of course
6. The same Gonzalo Quesada who started the search for El Dorado also organized one of the last great Spanish expeditions. In 1569, at the age of 60, he left Bogotá with about 2,000 men for the jungle. He returned, three years later, with only 70 soldiers and almost all of his fortune lost…