El Dorado City of Gold

El Dorado is a Colombian city that rests at the heart of one of the world’s most fertile regions. El Dorado is considered to be the “City of Gold” due to its vast natural resources and economic potential, making it an ideal location for international investment firms. El Dorado is also home to many natural wonders, including El Mirador, Río Claro, El Cocuy National Park and El Tatio Geysers. El Tatio Geysers are located in Chile but can be seen from El Dorado City. This site is the highest geothermal area on Earth and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.

El Dorado was discovered by Europeans just over 500 years ago when conquistadors reached the Andean forest. El Dorado was founded in 1538, making it one of the oldest cities in South America. El Dorado is considered to be an important contributor to Colombia’s economy due to its high GDP per capita rate and interest from foreign investment firms. El Dorado has a total population of approximately 1 million citizens, many of whom work in El Dorado’s large mining sector. El Dorado is also home to many embassies, including those of Australia and Japan.

El Dorado is considered to be the “City of Gold” due to its vast natural resources and economic potential, making it an ideal location for international investment firms. El Dorado is also home to many natural wonders, including El Mirador, Río Claro, El Cocuy National Park and El Tatio Geysers.

El Dorado: The truth behind the myth

On the other side were the indigenous peoples – most with no immunity to European diseases and armed with only basic weaponry such as arrows and stone-tipped spears.

As a result, it would be 500 years before El Dorado was discovered: not in South America but in Europe itself, with recent archaeological research confirming what many scientists now believe – El Dorado was not a place but a person.

The golden one “was actually not a place but a person – as recent archaeological research confirms.” El Dorado, then, is the name given to the ruler of Guativita (in modern Colombia).

A painting from 1546 by Theodor de Bry shows El Dorado in the river with his attendants.

“The precious mineral would be believed to pass through these ceremonies and then into the possession of El Dorado himself, who was covered from head to toe in gold dust.” El Dorado is an old Spanish term which means ‘Golden One’. But El Dorado didn’t truly exist as a place. El Dorado is a story about a ruler in Colombia who covered himself with gold dust and threw gold into a lake. The Spanish thought this El Dorado might be a golden city, so they went to look for it.

El Dorado is a metaphor for something that people desire but cannot ever have fully. El Dorado was never a place, El Dorado is a story about a ruler in Colombia who covered himself with gold dust and threw gold into a lake. Not only that, El Dorado was originally used as a metaphor for the search for something valuable that was just over the horizon or that people could never have.

El Dorado is a story about a ruler in Colombia who covered himself with gold dust and threw gold into a lake, but El Dorado also became a metaphor for something that people desire but cannot ever have fully.

Was El Dorado found?

Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in AD1492 was the first chapter in a world-changing clash of cultures. It was a brutal confrontation of completely opposing ways of living and systems of beliefs.

In his mistaken belief that he had reached Asia, Columbus had arrived on alien shores with an army determined to subjugate those who stood in his way.

Not surprisingly, it did not take long before the new invaders came across El Dorado. El Dorado was a city of gold and men who wore gold jewelry so liberally that they appeared to be made from burnished metal. El Dorado’s wealth had been created by its skillful use of advanced technology in mining and metallurgy. El Dorado is an example of the name given by European explorers to a legendary “Lost City of Gold” in South America. The original El Dorado ceased to exist in the late 17th century, when its ruler, or Inca (“Emperor”) committed suicide rather than be captured by Spanish conquistadors led by Gonzalo Pizarro. El Dorado’s renown was such that the city and its legendary golden king, El Dorado, gave rise to a new European expression: “the Gilded One”.

In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh had sailed to South America in hopes of uncovering El Dorado. He returned home empty-handed but with a tale of a golden king and a land overflowing with gold. El Dorado lay in the El Guayra region of northern South America, where the borders of present-day Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil meet.

De El Dorado was said to be fabulously wealthy. In fact his very person was supposedly sparkling with gold dust that clung to him as he moved. El Dorado was the “Gilded Man” and El Dorado city was El Dorado’s capital. El Guayra meant “the gushing waters”. El Dorados’s wealth, it was said, came from a splendid waterfall that oozed precious gold as it splashed through the rocks. Raleigh went in search of El Dorado but returned empty-handed.

El Dorado was the Gilded One, El Dorado City El Dorados capital. El Dorados legend grew in the telling and retelling of El Dorado’s fabulous wealth and El Dorados ruler who covered himself with gold.

The city has not been found though Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada and his army reached El Dorados vicinity in 1537. El Dorado disappeared from the records for hundreds of years, during which time it became a mythical city of fabulous riches.

El Dorado was believed to be located somewhere in the unexplored interior of South America, possibly high up in the Andes Mountains. There were many stories about El Dorado, so many that El Dorados location became completely obscured. Some claimed El Dorado was an actual city made of gold.

El Dorado could be found by following a trail of jewels and precious metals laid down by El Dorados ruler as he traveled to his realm each morning. Others said El Dorado was actually the king’s young son who daily did El Dorados royal bidding by revealing El Dorado’s location to El Dorados ruler.

El Dorado was a city of gold, El Dorados ruler was covered with gold dust, El Doradols own son would reveal El Dorado’s location to El Dorados king.