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El Dorado

  • Nov 21, 2019
  • 4 min read

What is El Dorado? El Dorado is a term in Spanish that means the Golden one. It is also originally "El Hombre Dorado (the Golden Man)" or "El Rey Dorado (the Golden King)". Later on, it is believed to be a place in South America that is rich in gold and precious stones.

Legend of El Dorado

The legend of El Dorado began as an initiation ceremony of new chieftains in Muisca Tribe. The new chieftain would be covered with gold dust and submerged in Lake Guatavita. The priests and nobles would put gold and precious stones into the lake.

There are also some sayings from South American tribes about trading with another tribe for gold and precious stones. People stated that they had seen those people from the Golden Tribe with tons of gold.

History of El Dorado

In the 1500s, the Spanish conquistadors began to invade South America. When the Spanish were in South America, they found a huge amount of gold and noticed that local people there had no idea about how much those things were worth. When Pizarro (Spanish Conqueror) invaded Inca Empire, the chief of the empire promised to fill the room up with gold as an exchange for his life. He did fill the room up, but he was still killed.

After seeing all these, Europeans began to seized gold from tribes in South America. When they heard of the legend of El Dorado, they began to explore and search for more gold.

Searching for El Dorado

This story of El Dorado had attracted European nations to go to South America and search for that treasury city of El Dorado (also Known as Manoa). The city was believed to be located right next to Lake Parime (Lake Parima), somewhere in South America.

Explorers all over Europe had been putting in lots of effort and money for this research. explorers such as Nikolaus Federmann (German), Georg von Speyer (German ) , Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada (Spanish), Hernán Pérez de Quesada (Spanish), Walter Raleigh (British), and many other people.

Europeans believed the city of El Dorado and Lake Parime is likely to be in Guyana.

Location of El Dorado

1. Lake Guatavita

2. Machu Picchu

El Dorado?

The legend of El Dorado led to a big series of exploration in South America. It took many lives, money and time for this exploration.

Even though Europeans spent a whole lot of money trying to find El Dorado, none of them had found the golden city. In the early 19th century, they found Lake Guatavita (Muisca territory, believed to have a huge amount of gold and emerald) in Colombia, but there was not much gold.

And, Lake Parima, which is believed to be in Guyana was proved to drain due to the tectonic plate movement about 700 years ago.

However, in 1969, people had found an artifact made of pure gold: a boat with 8 people wearing golden ornaments and 1 person in the middle which they believed is the chief (king) of the tribe.

Maybe there is a place in South America that brings them infinite wealth, but nobody has ever found it.

The golden artifact found in 1969.

Story of El Dorado used in Modern Days

Many movies, video games, music and some writing nowadays are about the legend of El Dorado.

Movies

  • Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

  • El Dorado (1988)

  • The Mask of Zorro (1998)

  • The Road to El Dorado (2000)

  • National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

  • The Lost City of Z (2016)

  • Amazon Obhijaan (2017)

  • Gold (2017)

  • Black Panther (2018)

  • K.G.F: Chapter 1 (2018)

  • Professor Shonku O El Dorado (2019)

  • Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019)​

Video Games

  • Inca (1992)​

  • Sid Meier's Colonization (1994)

  • The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time (1998)

  • Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (2004)

  • Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007)

  • Sid Meier's Civilization V (2010)

  • Uncharted Drake's Fortune (2010)

  • Pirate101 (2012)

  • Age of Empires II: The Forgotten HD (2013)

  • Europa Universalis IV – El Dorado DLC (2015)

  • Civilization VI (2017)

  • Monster Hunter: World (2018)

Music​

  • Eldorado, album by Electric Light Orchestra (1974)​

  • Eldorado, by Goombay Dance Band (1980)

  • El Dorado, by Agent Orange (band) (1981)

  • El Dorado, by Seikima-II (1986)

  • El Dorado, by Restless Heart (1988)

  • Eldorado, by Patrick O'Hearn (1989)

  • Eldorado, by Komu Vnyz (1990)

  • Eldorado, by The Tragically Hip (1992)

  • El Dorado, by Aterciopelados (1995)

  • ElDorado, a Japanese Visual Kei band (formed in 1999)

  • Eldorado, by Dave Rodgers (2007)

  • El Dorado, by Iron Maiden (2010)

  • El Dorado, by Two Steps From Hell (2012)

  • El Dorado, by Every Time I Die (2014)

  • El Dorado, by Death Cab for Cutie (2015)

  • El Dorado, by EXO (band) (2015) album "EXODUS"

  • El Dorado, by Marillion (2016)

  • El Dorado, album by Shakira (2017)

  • El Dorado, by The Jayhawks (2018)

Writing

  • "Eldorado"Poem by Edger Allen Poe (1849)

Bibliography

 
 
 

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