El Dorado is commonly associated with the legend of a gold city, kingdom, or empire purportedly located somewhere in the Americas. Originally, El Hombre Dorado ("The Golden Man") or El Rey Dorado ("The Golden … See more

Spanish conquistadores had noticed the native people's fine artifacts of gold and silver long before any legend of "golden men" or "lost cities" had appeared. The prevalence of such valuable artifacts, and the natives' apparent ignorance of their value, inspired … See more

The Spanish Governor of Trinidad, Antonio de Berrio (nephew of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada), made three failed expeditions to look for El Dorado. Between 1583 and 1589 he carried out … See more

The Muisca people occupied the highlands of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments of Colombia in two migrations from outlying lowland … See more

The concept of El Dorado underwent several transformations, and eventually accounts of the previous myth—a legendary story in which precious stones were found in fabulous abundance along with gold coins —were also combined with those of a … See more

Even before the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires and the Muisca Confederation the Spanish collected vague hearsay about … See more

It appears today that the Muisca obtained their gold in trade, and while they possessed large quantities of it over time, no great store of the metal was ever accumulated. See more