50 Fun Facts About El Dorado

The name 'el Dorado' originally referred to what?

Only later did the name transfer to a lost city or kingdom of immense wealth.

The Muisca, the people behind the legend, lived on which high plateau in present-day Colombia?

They were skilled goldsmiths and cotton weavers who built in wood, organised into independent chiefdoms.

Lake Guatavita, the sacred lake of the ritual, lies roughly how far northeast of Bogotá?

It is nearly circular and covers about 19.8 hectares in the municipality of Sesquilé.

Which conquistador led the Spanish expedition that reached and conquered Muisca territory in 1537?

A lawyer by training, he had followed a trail of rock salt up from the Magdalena River.

Where is the Muisca raft, the golden artefact linked to the legend, now kept?

It was found in 1969 in a cave near Pasca and shows a chief on a raft surrounded by attendants.

Most 'gold' objects crafted by the Muisca were actually made of tumbaga, an alloy of gold and what?

The Muisca had no gold mines of their own and traded salt and textiles for the raw metal.

Which two titles were held by the most powerful Muisca rulers, in the south and north respectively?

The Spaniards captured the zacque at Tunja, seizing the largest single haul of the whole conquest.

Which German banking family had been granted the governorship of Venezuela by Charles V, sending Dalfinger and Federmann inland?

They held it as security for a loan and hoped above all to find a passage to the Pacific.

When Federmann's men were shown what looked like a great inland sea, what were they actually looking at?

He returned to Coro empty-handed and was banished for four years for abandoning his post.

How did Ambrosius Dalfinger, the first European to push into Venezuela's interior, die in 1533?

He had followed the salt trail to 12,000 feet before turning back.

Before 'El Dorado', what name did Spaniards use for the legendary golden kingdom, after a river Diego de Ordaz was told to follow?

A Carib prisoner told Ordaz he would find a kingdom ruled by 'a very valiant one-eyed Indian'.

In 1534, whose captured chief, from a land 12 days' march north of Quito, was dubbed 'el indio dorado'?

He may simply have been wearing golden armour or ornaments; the province of Popayán was found as a result.

Quesada's expedition set out in April 1536 from which Spanish colony, following the Magdalena River?

At La Tora he spotted rock salt cakes and guessed they came from a richer society uphill.

How was the Muisca's most sacred temple at Sogamoso destroyed?

Officials still reported 40,000 pesos of fine gold recovered there.

Which city did Quesada, Belalcázar and Federmann jointly found on 29 April 1539 after their three armies met on the plateau?

Quesada, the lawyer, defused the rival claims with a contract and all three sailed to Spain to argue their cases.

The first appearance of the phrase 'el dorado' in the historical record comes from the treasurer of which expedition?

Gonzalo de la Peña testified in July 1539 that they had left 'in search of a land called el dorado'.

According to Oviedo's 1541 account, the golden chief stuck the gold dust to his body using what?

He supposedly washed it off each night and did so every day of the year.

Which 17th-century writer first described the Guatavita ceremony as an investiture ritual for each new zipa?

Writing in 1636, he claimed his source was the nephew of the last Indigenous ruler of Guatavita.

Who received a royal licence in 1562 to drain Lake Guatavita, the first documented attempt?

He pulled some gold and emeralds from the exposed mud; an English-financed operation tried again in the early 1900s.

In what year was the Muisca raft discovered in a cave near Pasca?

A similar object found at Lake Siecha in 1856 was later destroyed in a fire.

Which Muisca mother goddess was said to have emerged from a lake and returned to it as a serpent?

Lakes were central to Muisca religion, and gold and emeralds were left at their shores as offerings.

Gonzalo Pizarro's 1541 expedition east from Quito was lured by reports of a valley full of which spice?

He found a few cassia trees, tortured locals who could not direct him to El Dorado, and pressed on to the Coca River.

Which of Pizarro's officers took a boat downstream for food, never returned, and became the first European to sail the length of the Amazon?

He was meant to be back within twelve days; instead he emerged into the Atlantic.

Which Amazonian people, encountered by Orellana, became the focus of later El Dorado searches, including Ursúa's?

Von Hutten was told their chief owned life-sized effigies of solid gold.

German nobleman Philipp von Hutten and Bartholomeus Welser met what fate on returning to Coro from their El Dorado quest?

Von Hutten had already been badly wounded attacking an Omagua village on the Guaviare River.

Why did Charles V suspend all El Dorado expeditions in 1550?

The suspension lasted almost a decade, until Pedro de Ursúa got permission in 1559.

Which mutineer murdered Pedro de Ursúa in 1561, styled himself 'Wrath of God' and declared war on Philip II?

Nicknamed El Loco, he was killed by his own men at Barquisimeto after trying to conquer Peru.

Who played Aguirre in Werner Herzog's 1972 film Aguirre, the Wrath of God?

Édgar Ramírez later played him in Disney's Jungle Cruise in 2021.

How many Spaniards set out with Ursúa's Amazon flotilla in September 1560?

A secondary aim was to give idle veterans of Peru's civil wars something to do — which is how Aguirre came aboard.

Quesada's final El Dorado expedition of 1569 left with 300 Spaniards and 1,500 Indigenous people. How many soldiers came back?

He was gone two and a half years and 'achieved nothing', but his will still ordered his heir to keep searching.

Antonio de Berrio, Quesada's son-in-law, believed El Dorado lay in the highlands of which region beyond the Orinoco?

Captives told him of a great lake there called Manoa; he made three attempts and founded a town on Trinidad.

How did Walter Raleigh extract information about Guiana from the Spaniards on Trinidad in 1595?

He then attacked San José, captured Berrio himself and announced he would find the golden city.

Raleigh strongly held the theory that El Dorado was populated by whom?

Chief Topiawari's tale of a warlike tribe from the west seemed to confirm it.

What was the title of Raleigh's exaggerated 1596 account of his voyage?

Critics note that at the expedition's furthest reach he turns aside to describe waterfalls rather than any discovery.

On Raleigh's second Guiana voyage in 1617, which town did his lieutenant Lawrence Kemys attack against royal orders?

Raleigh's son Wat died in the fight, Kemys killed himself, and Raleigh was executed in 1618 to appease Spain.

Which non-existent lake, supposedly the site of Manoa, appeared on maps of the region east of the Orinoco throughout the 17th century?

Kemys heard of it in 1596; two Jesuits crossed the area in 1674 and found nothing.

Which explorer's 1800 survey found that the phantom lake's name was just a local word for any large body of water, finally killing it off?

He suggested seasonal flooding around tiny Lake Amucu explained the legend, and Schomburgk agreed in 1836.

In which 1759 satire does El Dorado appear as an ideal society whose riches contrast with the greed everywhere else?

Edgar Allan Poe's poem 'Eldorado' later used the name for an elusive goal.

Which poet wrote 'Eldorado', using the name as a symbol of an unreachable goal?

The legend also runs through Latin American fiction such as Alejo Carpentier's The Lost Steps.

Which studio made the 2000 animated film The Road to El Dorado?

It was only the studio's third animated feature, with songs by Elton John and Tim Rice.

Who voiced the con men Tulio and Miguel in The Road to El Dorado?

Rosie Perez voiced Chel and Armand Assante the high priest; the pair stow away on Cortés's ship in 1519.

Lake Guatavita most likely formed by what process, now that meteorite and volcanic theories are discredited?

It is nearly circular, covers 19.8 hectares and sits 57 km northeast of Bogotá.

Muisca votive figures, cast by the lost-wax method and sometimes just 1.5 cm tall, are known as what?

Unlike jewellery they were never worn; they were made purely for offerings.

Columbus promised the Spanish monarchs he could give them 'as much gold as they have need of' after seeing what?

He never found mines, and Spanish digging soon exhausted the islands' small supply.

What did Antonio de Sepúlveda recover from the exposed mud after partly draining Lake Guatavita?

A later English-financed operation in the early 20th century sent its finds to London for exhibition and auction.

Where were objects taken from Lake Guatavita by an early 20th-century operation sent for exhibition and auction?

The operation was English-financed; the Muisca raft itself was found separately and stayed in Bogotá.

Which relative of Jiménez de Quesada led an El Dorado expedition south from Bogotá in September 1541?

After illness and starvation the party turned west and reached Pasto, an area already colonised by Belalcázar.

What did Quesada's will require of his heir, prompting Antonio de Berrio's expeditions?

Quesada died in 1579; by April 1584 Berrio was camped four leagues from the Orinoco.

Raleigh promised James I gold from a mine near which river to win permission for his 1616 voyage?

The mine was never found; Raleigh's son Wat died in the fighting and Raleigh was later tried and executed.

Diego de Ordaz's Orinoco expedition was stopped by impassable rapids after reaching the mouth of which river?

Heading back downriver they were attacked by Caribs and captured two prisoners, one of whom spoke of gold.