Photo by [Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee] FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The yellow metal we know as gold has always fascinated human beings from the days past. There are many instances where people have accumulated mounds of gold, and almost all civilizations have gold high on their priority lists. But what if we had a city where we would find nothing but gold? Yes, this is a special place known as “The Golden city”.
Many of us might be acquainted with the fact that the oceans have a large stock of gold for every one of us. As according to a rough estimate: If all the gold present in the immense oceans and other water bodies was some how extracted, there would be enough of it so that every human would get 20 kg! So, is 20 kg enough? Why bother with a city of gold? It is because human wants are insatiable. For centuries the legend of Eldorado, the fabulous land of gold, led many to make some adventurous and courageous feats. Almost all of them lost their life and remaining, lost their reputation.
Multiple Significance of Eldorado
The word Eldorado has multiple significance for different adventurers. To some, it meant the golden man but some signifies it as a golden land. Anyhow, Eldorado became a hypnotic legend and allured many adventurers to lose their fortune, reputation and live in its vain pursuit.
Expeditions for the golden city
Before the 19th century, there have been many expeditions for the search of Eldorado. In 1530, a Spanish adventurer Francisco Pizarro set sail from Panama. In 1536, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada started his journey from Colombia’s northern coast. When Quesada failed for the first time, he restarted his journey in 1568. One after the other, expeditions were made worldwide for the land of gold but everything went in vain. But, myths die hard. By the beginning of the 19th century, the quest for Eldorado passed to a new breed of adventurers. Two such were Humboldt and Bonpland. They travelled extensively and finally concluded that the search for Eldorado was futile and there was no such land.
The result of the Expeditions
Thus, ended the search for Eldorado- the golden city; the golden land. The expeditions failed to discover the gold but in their pursuit they discovered unknown tribes, platinum, silver, bauxite and manganese. And above all, they discovered oil in the lake of the Maracaibo basin of Venezuela. Thus, it was all the lure of possessing gold that led to these strange and weird adventures. In this regard, the search for the golden city- Eldorado has been the strangest of all. What do you feel about possessing the gold and the Eldorado as a myth is what is displayed in the comments section below. I shall be pleased to see some value for my research indeed!
Thanks for providing the detail information about this definitely this blog enhancing my knowledge.
hi Joy,
hope you enjoy reading about the golden city.
Thank you for sharing. Very usefful information.
thanks for reading about Eldorado!
Good information. Thank you for your good work.
hi Luittchi,
thanks for dropping your comment!
Thanks for a great article Yogesh. Eldorado is something man has been searching for over the ages.
I’m thinking the Golden City is either in a place too obvious to find, or it may be covered by landscape and debris that is making it hardly recognizable by the untrained eye. But one things for sure. If I were to stumble upon that place I’d be loading up dump trucks! lol
thanks robert,
it is the same quest and the human tendency to accumulate the gold that is attracting more and more to hunt for the golden city.
Nice Post Yogesh. Thanks for share this informative post. This post is really awesome.
Hi Anjoo,
You also seem to have thought about accumulating gold sometimes!
thanks to drop the comment.
-Yogesh
very interesting article. there have a lot of myth about golden city. but you are trully a beautiful research !!!
thanks for comment!
Thanks for sharing awesome information, Keep the good work up 🙂
thank you David.
You can also visit my site for some more information.:-)
-Yogesh
A quick google of Humboldt and Bonpland reveals the association with el dorado was most likely assigned to them by the public affectation of adventure, romanticism, and plain old desire to have fun with the subject.
They were explorers, scientists, and adventurers of the first order. Their travels were driven by scientific discovery as opposed to greed.
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835).
Humboldt’s quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.
Aimé Bonpland was decorated by the King of Prussia in 1854. He was named a member of the Academia Caesaro-Leopoldina in Halle in 1857. He died a year later, having been recognized as one of the foremost explorers and scientific plant collectors of the early nineteenth century. . A eulogy for him was read at the Société de Géographie (Paris) in 1853.
So, these guys were actually pretty admirable, and not some delusionable nutbags.
“the truth is often more interesting than fiction”