Discovering El Dorado

The European quest for the legendary El Dorado prompted the exploration of the furthest reaches of the New World, including the first known navigation of the Amazon River. Luckily for us, we just had to pop into the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) in Bogotá to find it.

Whilst Colombia’s collection of pre-Hispanic gold artefacts is vast enough to fill a museum in every major town in this country, the largest collection is kept in Bogotá. The sheer scale, beauty, variety and exquisite craftsmanship on display kept us captivated for most of the day.

The museum’s centrepiece is a miniature raft cast into a single gold piece. It depicts an indigenous inauguration ceremony, upon which the legend of El Dorado is based. In this ceremony, the new chief was completely covered in gold powder and cast out on a raft on a lake (later identified as Guatavita Lake, near Bogotá), where he threw offerings of gold and emeralds into the water and requested a renewal of life from the gods. The gold offerings represented the fertilising energy of the Father Sun whilst the lake represented the womb of the Mother Earth. When he returned to the shore, he was heralded as the new ruler with music and dance.

The Spanish referred to this golden chief as El Dorado, meaning “the gilded one”. The wealth of gold found by the Spanish amongst the native tribes along the continent’s northern coast convinced them there was a place of great wealth somewhere in the interior, and so the search for this El Dorado began.

At Guatavita Lake, several attempts have been made to unearth the assumed stockpile of treasure lying at the bottom with marginal success. For example, the lake was completely drained in 1898, however the muddy bed hardened like concrete in the sun and could not be investigated! We understand that it is now illegal to drain the lake, so perhaps Mother Earth will be allowed to keep these riches.

There was so much gold on display at the museum, we wondered how the Spanish and other pirates, in their ruthless pursuit, managed not to find any of it. On the other hand, this may just represent the little that remains, giving a vast scale to the quantities of priceless objects that have long since been melted down and lost forever. We also wonder how many more treasures are yet to be found here. Colombia has little spare cash to support archaeological digs and conservation, so these treasures may remain hidden for a long time to come.

A selection of photos from the Museo del Oro are below:

The famous golden raft represents the El Dorado ceremony. The heir assumed power with an offering to the gods. He is seen standing at the centre of a raft, surrounded by the principal chieftains, all of them adorned with gold and feathers.

The ruling elite used metal objects as a visible sign of their authority. By covering themselves in gold, dignitaries appropriated the powers of the Father Sun.

Golden mask

This display was magnificent – 3,000 gold items are hung in a circular room. You enter the room in darkness and the display is slowly revealed as part of a sound and light show.

Here are some photos of our journey from outside of Medellin, to Bogotá and then up to the Caribbean coast:

Views from the top of El Peñol.

The entrance to Hacienda Nápoles, once Pablo Escobar’s country retreat and private zoo, now a theme park. Above the entrance is Escobar’s first plane, one that carried Escobar’s first shipment of cocaine to the United States. He later upgraded and bought fifteen new and bigger airplanes (including a Learjet) and six helicopters, so he hung the decommissioned plane here.

We loved wandering around the streets of Bogotá’s old town – La Candelaria.

Lunch! Fresh limonada and tamales.

Many Colombians can’t afford their own mobile phone, so they pay by the minute to use phones offered by these street vendors (sold as “minutos”). Here people are chatting on the mobiles that are chained to the vendor’s stalls.

Inside the Salt Cathedral at Zipaquirá. Salt has been mined in this area since the 15th century. Miners started work on the original salt cathedral in 1950 however it was closed in 1990 due to safety concerns. It took four years to carve this new salt cathedral, dedicated to the patron saint of the miners. The cross in the photo is 16m tall.

Villa de Leyva, a small colonial town that has been declared National Monument. It boasts the largest plaza in Colombia.

Whilst this area is in central Colombia, it was once at the bottom of the ocean. You often see rocks with the odd fossil used in the construction of pavements and walls. Here is the floor of a local monastery.