Did El Doradodo Exist

The Story of El Dorado convinced numerous people of a path to riches. The idea of a land full of wealth brought many explorers through an endless journey, some of them ending in tragic situations. To this day, historians scrounge for any info they can find on this myth, pondering whether the fable was ever true. In order to discover the truth behind the myth, researchers will have to turn back long ago, to the 1500’s, where tribes and explorers fought tooth and nail for what they thought was rightfully theirs. Two theories lie behind the question of whether or not El Dorado ever existed, these being the ways of the tribes and what the explorers found. El Dorado is an ancient legend built upon false stories and a supposedly mystical city from

The king would immerse his whole body in gold dust during a festival to honor the gods, while his subjects threw gold and jewels into Lake Guatavita (“El Dorado” DB). The myth of El Dorado soon began to grow, until it had transformed into a country of gold, with legendary cities named Manoa and Omagua (“El Dorado”DB). The stories of El Dorado spread by word of mouth by ignorant conquistadors, which explains the vast evolution of the myth (“The Legend of El Dorado”). The legend itself started in Quito, when explorers of the South Americas returned home, and the stories soon developed around the late 1540’s (Gaffron 48). One of the first to claim to have found the golden city was Ambrosius Alfinger, a German explorer. Tales of this rich civilization encouraged many explorers to try their luck at finding the place. The last expedition of the 1500’s was lead by Sir Walter Raliegh. None of the explorers ever found El Dorado. Other legends similar to El Dorado were also spreading around the time, such as the City of Los Cesares and the “White King”. The promise of a kingdom of gold and silver tempted many Spanish Conquistadors to leave their plans of expedition and to go and find riches (Waldman and Wexler 101). The Incan tribe also may

The Spanish Conquistador Sebastian Benalcazar traveled across the Columbian mountains for the search of the kingdom. He is thought to be one of the first explorers to introduce the legend of El Dorado, inspiring many explorations to come (Waldman and Wexler 53). When Spanish explorers reached South America in the early 16th century, they had already heard stories of the Chibcha tribe in the Andes Mountains (“El Dorado Snared Sir Walter Raleigh”). They found much gold along South America’s northern coast, and believed there was still wealth to be discovered (“El Dorado: The Truth Behind the Myth”). The Spanish were certain that El Dorado was somewhere between Orinoco and the Amazon rivers (“EL Dorado”2). The stories of gold also were known to the English, who were shackled with poverty and disease at the time. These stories inspired them to find the kingdom and its wealth (Gaffron 13). English colonizer Sir Walter Raleigh led two expeditions to find El Dorado, and believed it would have more riches than both the Inca and Aztec civilizations. His expedition in 1617 was the final try to find El Dorado by Europeans (Waldman and Wexler 500). When he returned after two failed attempts, he was beheaded, by orders of King James, for having battle with the Spanish on the expedition (“El Dorado Snared Sir Walter Raleigh”). Before this event, Raleigh published a book claiming that