Q 01/05

The name 'el Dorado' originally referred to what?

A) A gold-lined lake

B) A golden raft

C) A gold-dusted ruler

D) A gold-roofed city

Answer · why

C) A gold-dusted ruler

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

Q 02/05

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

A) Altiplano of Bolivia

B) Puna de Atacama

C) Meseta Central

D) Altiplano Cundiboyacense

Answer · why

D) Altiplano Cundiboyacense

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

Q 03/05

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

A) 45 km

B) 15 km

C) 30 km

D) 57 km

Answer · why

D) 57 km

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

Q 04/05

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

A) Sebastián de Belalcázar

B) Nikolaus Federmann

C) Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada

D) Francisco Pizarro

Answer · why

C) Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada

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

Q 05/05

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

A) British Museum, London

B) Museo del Oro, Bogotá

C) Smithsonian, Washington

D) Prado, Madrid

Answer · why

B) Museo del Oro, Bogotá

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