The Muisca people occupied the highlands of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments of Colombia in two migrations from outlying lowland areas, one starting c. 1270 BC, and a … 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" … 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

In 1987–1988, an expedition led by John Hemming of the Royal Geographical Society failed to uncover any evidence of the ancient city of Manoa on the island of Maracá in … See more

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

Even before the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires and the Muisca Confederation the Spanish collected vague hearsay about these polities and their riches. After the … 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 … See more