El Dorado (Lost City of Gold)

With the price of gold selling at a ridiculously all-time high of $1,585 per troy ounce, it seemed fitting to write an article about the precious metal.

There is a legend dating back to early 16th century about a lost South-American kingdom of gold by the name of El Dorado that has yet, to this day, been discovered. Early European travelers were told of a Muisca tribe near Lake Guatavita whose ruler would cover himself in gold dust before cleansing himself in the sacred lake to appease the gods.

The Spaniards drained the lake by 3 meters in 1545 using buckets and recovered a small amount of gold. A Bogota businessman cut a deep notch in 1580 and managed to drain the small lake nearly 20 metres at the expense of numerous labourers’ lives and found many pieces of gold jewellery. In 1801, a European explorer by the name of Alexander von Humboldt estimated that the lake could possibly yield as much as $300 million worth of gold.

Many expeditions looking for El Dorado came to grief while venturing into the jungle over the centuries trying to find the elusive gold treasure.

In 1969 two farm workers dug up a small model raft made of solid gold near the town of Bogota. The raft contained eight small rowing figures and a king. This newfound treasure quite possibly linked to the El Dorado legend itself.

Eldorado

Gaily bedight

A gallant knight,

In sunshine and in shadow,

Had journeyed long,

Singing a song,

In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old-

This knight so bold-

And o'er his heart a shadow

Fell as he found

No spot of ground

That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength

Failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow-

"Shadow," said he,

"Where can it be-

This land of Eldorado?"

"Over the Mountains

Of the Moon,

Down the Valley of the Shadow,

Ride, boldly ride,"

The shade replied-

"If you seek for Eldorado!"

- Edgar Allan Poe, first published in April 1849