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

A gold-dusted ruler: Spanish reports told of a chief who was coated in gold dust and washed it off in a sacred lake. Only later did the name pass to a...

Q 02/05

The Muisca, the goldworking people behind the El Dorado legend, lived in the highlands of which modern country?

A) Peru

B) Colombia

C) Mexico

D) Bolivia

Answer · why

B) Colombia

Colombia's eastern highlands were the Muisca homeland. To them gold was less wealth than a gift for the gods: by one expert's estimate, more than half...

Q 03/05

Besides gold, which gemstones did the Muisca throw into their sacred lakes as offerings?

A) Rubies

B) Sapphires

C) Diamonds

D) Emeralds

Answer · why

D) Emeralds

Emeralds came from the Muisca's own mountains. The Spaniards tracked down the mines within months of arriving, but for all their efforts prised out on...

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 centrepiece of the El Dorado story, now kept?

A) The British Museum

B) Museo del Oro

C) Museo de América

D) Museo Oro del Perú

Answer · why

B) Museo del Oro

Museo del Oro holds it. The little raft carries a chief surrounded by attendants, matching the old written accounts so closely that it is often cited ...