Why Is El Doradodo Important
El Dorado - Lost City of Gold "Over the Mountains of the Moon, down the Valley of the Shadow, ride, boldly ride…if you seek for El Dorado."- Edgar Allan Poe
Truth to the Myth:
• A Spanish conquistador by the name of Francisco Pizarro conquered and plundered the Inca Empire in the 1530’s. This lead to adventurers and conquistadors from all over Europe to move to the New World anticipating conquering and looting for gold, silver and jewels to bring back to Spain (Mysterypile: el-dorado) . These men followed rumors of gold all across the unexplored interior of South America, many of them dying in the process (Minster).
• The legendary lost city of gold, El Dorado myth possibly came from the Muisca territory, present-day Eastern Colombia. Spaniards were told of the ritual at Lake Guatavita where treasures were thrown into the lake as offerings to the Guatavita goddess (Mysterypile: el-dorado). Through the centuries, this passion gave rise to the enduring tale of a city of gold.
• …show more content…
16th and 17th centuries- Europeans believed that the New World a place of immense wealth known as El Dorado (Drye).
Geographical locations kept changing “until finally it simply meant a source of untold riches somewhere in the Americas”; but this place of immeasurable riches hasn't been found. (Drye)
The Discovery of El Dorado:
• The origins of El Dorado lie deep in South America. Neighboring tribes knew of the practice and told the Spanish thus was born the myth of “El Dorado.” (Minster)
• When Spanish explorers reached South America in the early 16th century, they heard stories about a tribe in the Andes Mountains in what is now Colombia
(Drye).
• The phrase “El Dorado” referred to an individual. El Dorado translates into “the gilded man.” (Minster) The Muisca people had a tradition where their king would cover himself in gold dust and jump into Lake Guatavitá. The Spaniards started calling this golden chief El Dorado.
• Europeans had found so much gold that they believed there had to be a place of great wealth somewhere in the interior (Drye).
• The Muisca people were discovered in 1537 by Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada and they were swiftly conquered and their cities looted.
• The Spanish found Lake Guatavita and tried to drain it in 1545. Lowered enough to find hundreds of pieces of gold along the lake's edge (Drye), “The greedy conquistadors refused to believe that such a disappointing haul could be the "real" El Dorado. They therefore kept searching for it in vain for decades” (Minster).
The Legacy of El Dorado:
• For two centuries, thousands of men search South America in search of El Dorado. “Somewhere along the line, El Dorado stopped being an individual and began being a fabulous city of gold” (Minster).
• Good from the El Dorado myth: the interior of South America was explored and mapped (Minster).
• “The legend of El Dorado endures because you want it to be true" (Drye)
Truth to the Myth:
• A Spanish conquistador by the name of Francisco Pizarro conquered and plundered the Inca Empire in the 1530’s. This lead to adventurers and conquistadors from all over Europe to move to the New World anticipating conquering and looting for gold, silver and jewels to bring back to Spain (Mysterypile: el-dorado) . These men followed rumors of gold all across the unexplored interior of South America, many of them dying in the process (Minster).
• The legendary lost city of gold, El Dorado myth possibly came from the Muisca territory, present-day Eastern Colombia. Spaniards were told of the ritual at Lake Guatavita where treasures were thrown into the lake as offerings to the Guatavita goddess (Mysterypile: el-dorado). Through the centuries, this passion gave rise to the enduring tale of a city of gold.
• …show more content…
16th and 17th centuries- Europeans believed that the New World a place of immense wealth known as El Dorado (Drye).
Geographical locations kept changing “until finally it simply meant a source of untold riches somewhere in the Americas”; but this place of immeasurable riches hasn't been found. (Drye)
The Discovery of El Dorado:
• The origins of El Dorado lie deep in South America. Neighboring tribes knew of the practice and told the Spanish thus was born the myth of “El Dorado.” (Minster)
• When Spanish explorers reached South America in the early 16th century, they heard stories about a tribe in the Andes Mountains in what is now Colombia
(Drye).
• The phrase “El Dorado” referred to an individual. El Dorado translates into “the gilded man.” (Minster) The Muisca people had a tradition where their king would cover himself in gold dust and jump into Lake Guatavitá. The Spaniards started calling this golden chief El Dorado.
• Europeans had found so much gold that they believed there had to be a place of great wealth somewhere in the interior (Drye).
• The Muisca people were discovered in 1537 by Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada and they were swiftly conquered and their cities looted.
• The Spanish found Lake Guatavita and tried to drain it in 1545. Lowered enough to find hundreds of pieces of gold along the lake's edge (Drye), “The greedy conquistadors refused to believe that such a disappointing haul could be the "real" El Dorado. They therefore kept searching for it in vain for decades” (Minster).
The Legacy of El Dorado:
• For two centuries, thousands of men search South America in search of El Dorado. “Somewhere along the line, El Dorado stopped being an individual and began being a fabulous city of gold” (Minster).
• Good from the El Dorado myth: the interior of South America was explored and mapped (Minster).
• “The legend of El Dorado endures because you want it to be true" (Drye)