In A Deep Equatorial Jungle

Imagine, in the heart of a jungle, that lies below the equator and precious stones cover mountains before you. They sparkle so brightly in the sunlight they could be seen from very far away through the dense green tree twigs... Your eyes are locked at this tantalizing sparkle and you clear the sharp twigs away as you put one foot forward after the other in the marshy soil…the sparkle blinds you every now and then reflecting a different color; a ruby red, an emerald green, or a sapphire blue… hitting you're eyes every time from a different corner… As you march forward more and more a kind of a clearing appears leading to a place where these shining / sparkling mountains turn out to be encircling a city, whose houses, temples, and fortress are made out of golden mud. Lots of statues and motifs are there on the walls. Even the streets inside the fort are lined with gold…The kings garden is vast and green where life size sculptures of all creatures scattered all around the city are gleaming in gold… Do you know now where you are? You are in the city of the Golden Man, the realm of wealth, where even utensils were made of gold, where red rubies hang like delicious plump cherries from the trees…you are in the lost land of "El Dorado"… 

But, what originated the lost land or the myth of `El Dorado"? The legend of the Golden/Gilded Man or "El Dorado" as told by South American natives had been based on a religious rite practiced at the sacred lake Guatavita in Colombia... 

The legend of the Golden/Gilded Man or "El Dorado" in Spanish as told by South American natives had been based on a religious rite practiced at the sacred lake Guatavita in Colombia. It was about the appointment of a new ruler, who would spend some time secluded in a cave, without women, forbidden to eat salt and chili pepper, or to go out during daylight. His first journey would to give offerings to the monster god in the lake to bless his appointment. The people would build a raft, decorate it and burn incense for their king. They would strip their heir to his skin, covered him in mud and then with gold dust. He would go on the raft, go into the middle of the lake and throw gold and emeralds as an offering to the monster god in the center of the lake. It was not only him in the raft, he had 4 of his chiefs, who were also naked and who threw crowns, bracelets, pendants and ear rings all of gold into the lake...the throwing was conducted in total silence, and was followed by shouting music of pipes, flutes, and large teams of singers and dancers. A big festivity... 

With this ceremony the new ruler was received, and was recognized as lord and king... The city the Golden Man is not known till now but many explorers have lost their lives in the jungles of South America. The location of the legendary "El Dorado" changed many times but at a certain period of time the search was at the Columbian Lake Guativita. Here is a summary of what happened...it reminds of the fate of the old treasures of Nubia lying at the bottom of our Lake Nasser...the treasures of submerged Nubia... 

Lلzaro Fonte and Hernلn Perez de Quesada. In 1545 the first two explorers hired formed a bucket chain of laborers to drain the lake. After three months they succeeded to expose the edges of the though not its center. 3000 to 5000 golden pesos were retrieved from the bottom of lake 

Antonio de Sepْlveda In 1580 another explorer cut a great notch in the volcanic / salt rim of the lake, lowering the water level by 20 meters before the cut caved in, killing many of the laborers and causing the operation to stop. He sent the gold found to King Philip 11 in Madrid, and also an emerald weighing 60 grams, which was valued at 50 pesos at the time. He retrieved golden dishes, serpents, eagles', and an emerald the size of a hen's egg, along with more than 12,000 golden pesos. 

Alexander von Humboldt In 1801 he tried to calculate how much gold the lake might contain. Estimating that one thousand pilgrims might have visited Guatavita each year over a period of one hundred years, and that each visitor threw in five objects, he arrived at the figure of about 500,000 offerings, worth, in 1807, some 300 million dollars. 'The Company for the Exploitation of the Lagoon of Guatavita' In 1898 this company wanted to drain away the water through a tunnel that would come up in the center of Guatavita.. the water was retained behind a tunnel. But when the lakebed was first exposed, it was several feet deep in mud and slime, so that no one could walk on it and the next day, the sun baked the mud to the consistency of cement so hard that it could not be penetrated. The water was then again directed into the bed of the lagoon. Later… Several more attempts were made, using drills, mechanical drags and airlifts, until the Colombian Government brought Guatavita under legal protection in 1965 as part of the nation's historical and cultural heritage. 

Noha El Shoky 

16 February 2004