Who were the Muisca, and how did the El Dorado legend begin?
The Muisca and the legend of El Dorado
Los muiscas y El Dorado
between 600 and 1537. On the cool high plateau around today's Bogotá lived the Muisca, or Chibcha, a people of farmers, salt traders and goldsmiths who flourished from about AD 600…
Where: Colombia, Bogotá
What happened
On the cool high plateau around today's Bogotá lived the Muisca, or Chibcha, a people of farmers, salt traders and goldsmiths who flourished from about AD 600 until the Spanish conquest in the 1530s. They worked gold, often as an alloy called tumbaga, into exquisite figures left as offerings at lakes, caves and rocks. One ceremony at Lake Guatavita, in which a new ruler covered in gold dust was rowed out on a raft and plunged into the water while gold and emeralds were thrown in, gave the Spaniards the story of 'the gilded one', El Dorado, which grew into a legend of a golden city that was never found. A gold raft found near Bogotá shows the scene and is the treasure of the Museo del Oro.
Say it
La leyenda de El Dorado viene de una ceremonia de los muiscas.
The legend of El Dorado comes from a Muisca ceremony.
Why it matters
El Dorado drove a century of Spanish expeditions and entered every European language; Bogotá, Colombia's capital, was founded on Muisca land and keeps Muisca place names.
Read about it
Sources
- Muisca Civilization — World History Encyclopedia