El Dorado is the lost city of gold, which is referred to the 'Gilded Man', the legendary kings of Muisca, people of Columbia.

The name specially signifies the coronation ritual which was held at the 'Lake Guatavita', the noth of modern 'Bogota'.

Significance of Gold

The gold was one of the most popular metal among the 'Metal-workers', its value wasn't used as a currency but it was just used as a exchange raw material metal.
This metal also has a significance because it was believed to be pure, gold was offered to the gods as the offering and were buried in a sacred ground, specially to the god of sun to protect them from natural calamities. God was also popular among the art and craftsman because of its easy to mould and carve properties, many artefacts were found from that time, one of the most popular was a raft with four men standing on the sides of the raft covered in jewelry from the top to bottom,

The artefact was found in the clay vessel in a cave, now that artefact resides in the museum of Bogota.
Among all the stories spread across Colombia, there is one very popular story of a 'Gilded Man' with an eye witness who watched the lavish coronation ceremony during the election of Muisca King.
I am going to discuss this story below which inspired the Spanish government and treasure hunters to invade the city and take the as much gold as possible but no one could find the way to the city of El Dorado treasure.

The Gilded Man

In the ancient Columbia when a monarch was to be elected for the Muisca King, he was to be prepared for the ceremony, the man elected was forbidden from salt, chilly pepper and women for several days in a sacred cave and when he was to be taken for the coronation ceremony, he would be completely naked of the clothes and his whole body would be covered in gold dust.

When the time comes he would be taken to the lake Guatavita, which was in the centre of a volcano crater,

then he would sail to the centre of the lake on a boat made of reeds and was laden with gold treasure and emeralds with four incense burners at the corners of the boat forming the thick white clouds around the lake which only adds the mustique to the ceremony, with people gathered around the lake waiting for their new king to present offering to the gods so that they would bless his reign.
On the four corners of the boat were the four guards who were fully covered in gold jewelry from top to bottom, the jewelry was hanging from every body part of the guard as much possible.

When the boat would be in the centre of the lake, the gold treasure was thrown in the centre of the lake with the people surrounding the lake also throwing small offerings in the lake and the man covered in gold dust himself takes a leap in the lake and when we emerged clean of gold dust from the water, he was a king.

City invading stories

From walter to 20th century explorers have tried finding the gold and the city but none of them had any success in finding it. In the 15th century, the Spanish king CE Antonio was very ambitious in taking the gold away from the city of El Dorado, in doing so he cut a slice of the lake to drain all the water but that resulted in a landslide which halted the process and later they got attacked by the locals and he returned back along with his army and ambition.
Same like Antonio, in the year 1909, the english company planned to drain the lake dry and loot all of its gold presumed at the bottom of the lake, unlike Antonio they made a secret tunnel under the lake to drain all of its water and they were successful in doing so but the real problem was the layer of mud at the bottom of the lake, it was impossible to stand anything still on the bottom of sinking mud, they arranged the drilling equipments days later but in doing so the harsh sunlight converted the layer of mud into hard concrete bed in very quick time, also blocking the tunnel and the lake was again filled with water and it was too expensive to again make a tunnel to drain the water out of the lake and hence they were unsuccessful too in the doing and they also returned back collecting few gold ornaments found on the shores of the lake.

Conclusion

The stories, the rumours and the artefacts collection of the lost city of El Dorado are fascinating but no-one ever found their way to the secret treasure of the lost city of gold but the explorers and the treasur hunters haven't given up yet on it and they are still looking for a place made of gold.

Disclosure: Posts on TravelFeed may contain affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure.