Monday, October 22, 2012

El Dorado


Author: Theresa Cordell

A golden king with his followers on a raft.

El Dorado is said to be in South America, at the bottom of Lake Guatavita or in the jungle. El Dorado is where the riches are supposed to be. There are many meaning to El Dorado. Some of the meanings are the golden one, the golden lake, the golden king, and the golden city. All of this information has came from many different legends. 


The Lake Guatavita surrounded by the jungle.


            Several legends existed over the golden city when the Spanish came. The first legend is that a group of Inca people fled into where the Spanish invaded Peru. The Spaniards believed they kept the treasure and took it with them. The second legend, the Indians knew for many years. This legend is the most popular of El Dorado. It is said that the legendary king covered his body in gold and would go into the middle of Lake Guatavita to wash it off. He would also throw jewels in the lake, this was a religious ritual. In 1535 this came to the Spaniards. This is how the search for El Dorado came to be. 


As all the greedy men began searching for the treasure, it became a lust for them. It then was known as the gold fever. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Europeans and the Spanish would waste their lives searching. They would die, kill others, or go insane. The men didn’t care; they had a desire to obtain the riches. This search for El Dorado became a quest that many conquistadors would travel. Even after the conquistadors, explorers in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries traveled to find the treasure. 

The map for the search of El Dorado.
The legend of El Dorado is fact and fantasy, these quests and religious acts did occur. We do not know what El Dorado really is. Many people say that it is a human being but others say a place. Since there is no existence of El Dorado we will never figure out the answer.

Works cited:
Ancient Map of Manoa. N.d. Photograph. N.p. Comp. Stan Grist.
Drye, Willie. “El Dorado Legend Snared Sir Walter Raleigh.” National Geographic. Web. 16 October 2012.
Floyd, Randall. “The Legendary City of Gold “El Dorado” – The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett.” The Legendary City of Gold “El Dorado” – The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett. 1999. The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett. Web. 16 October 2012.
Levi. El Dorado Lake Guatavita. 2009. Photograph. South America, Colombia. Web. 18 October 2012.
Leyenda - El-Dorado. 2010. Photograph. Audistico, n.p. Web. 19 October 2012.
WebMaster412160. “The Legend of El Dorado, The golden city! – Total War Center Forums.” The Legend of El Dorado, The golden city! – Total War Center Forums. 27 July 2009. Web. 16 October 2012

Links for further research:
Ancient mysteries
Has articles about aliens, spirituality, and locations.

El Dorado (The golden one)
A digital magazine about natural landscapes.

What is El Dorado?
It tells About not only El Dorado but also other locations, charms and creatures.






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