Scientists May Have Finally Found the Real El Dorado — Full Documentary

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Hidden in the jungles of South America, El Dorado, a legendary city made of pure gold. Many set out to find it, and new evidence has been unearthed. [00:00:23] Speaker 2: The myth of El Dorado led to countless conquistadors from the Spanish Empire traipsing through the jungles of South America, trying to find this myth of the golden city. [00:00:35] Speaker 1: To this day, El Dorado represents the search for happiness and riches. [00:00:39] Speaker 3: This area interests me very much because I can see, I can see like a pattern or something here. [00:00:47] Speaker 1: Dozens of expeditions failed, despite having clear evidence. Is the golden city just a myth, or does it actually exist? Great myths of humanity. For thousands of years, they have captivated and mystified us, fueling our imaginations. But what if the legends are more than just stories? Researchers from across the globe are trying to unravel the great mysteries of history. South America's impenetrable rainforest. [00:01:21] Speaker ?: It's said that herein lies a legend waiting to be discovered. [00:01:24] Speaker 1: El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. With the arrival of the Europeans, the hunt for the new world riches begins. Stories from indigenous tribes, conquistadors, and real gold discoveries intermingle to form a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Ancient sources describe a golden ruler and an incredible empire hidden away deep in South America. Temples, streets, and even the houses there made of pure gold. Over the centuries, El Dorado transforms into a legend. To countless people, it is a place of longing where dreams come true. [00:02:19] Speaker 4: El Dorado may be one of the most powerful myths in history because of how badly we want to believe it's true. That there's some great city of gold, some gilded king, and all the wealth we could ever want just over there, where the sun sets. [00:02:33] Speaker 1: El Dorado is an inspiring place and not just for conquistadors and explorers. Josef von Eichendorff, a 19th century German poet, even dedicates a poem to El Dorado. In 1849, Edgar Allan Poe writes his own ballad about the gold country. Even Hollywood jumps on the bandwagon and uses the name for a western starring John Wayne. In 1987, in Aguirre: The Wrath of God, legendary actor Klaus Kinski also sets off in pursuit of El Dorado. And the animation company DreamWorks releases a full-length film for the cinemas. Naturally, Harrison Ford, otherwise known as Indiana Jones, can't resist looking for El Dorado's gold either. And beyond pop culture, the myth continues to be a symbol of fortune and riches. Countless casinos and cities in North and South America bear the name El Dorado. After all, what could be more enticing than to live in the luckiest place on earth? French adventurer Thierry Jamant heads to Peru in search of El Dorado. After more than 30 years, he is certain the City of Gold truly exists, and it is here in Peru. [00:03:58] Speaker 5: People have searched everywhere, but today, there's enough evidence to say that El Dorado is in Peru. [00:04:10] Speaker 1: The city of Peru believes only one group of people had enough resources to build an entire City of Gold. An advanced civilization with almost 10 million inhabitants, powerful cities, and plenty of gold. The Inca Empire stretching across Colombia and Peru to Chile and Argentina between the 13th and 16th centuries. The largest empire in the Americas, predating the arrival of Columbus. To this day, its capital city, Cusco, continues to attract visitors. The city still bears witness to the glorious past of its former rulers. [00:05:01] Speaker 6: We are at the Coricancha Temple, and these are the famous sun gardens. [00:05:10] Speaker 5: It is said that countless warrior statues in gold and silver once stood here. There were also lamas and some Incan food, all made of gold and silver. The Spanish who came here in 1533 were simply amazed when they discovered these incredible riches. [00:05:31] Speaker 1: Today, there is a church in the site of the former Inca Temple of Coricancha. All that remains are the foundation walls and the inner courtyard of the temple building. Nevertheless, Thierry Germain believes the remains symbolize the power and glory of the Incas. [00:05:54] Speaker 5: The Coricancha Temple symbolizes El Dorado. It was the most valuable building in the entire empire, home to the greatest treasures of the Incan Empire. [00:06:20] Speaker 1: A digital reconstruction of the temple and records of the Spanish conquistadors reveal that the temple chambers were once clad in gold and silver. It is the religious center of the incas, but gold and silver have no material value in the empire. Only spiritual value. Things are quite different for the Spaniards. They're agreed knows no bounds. In November 1532, conquistador Francisco Pizarro arrives at the center of the Incan Empire. With just 170 soldiers, he is hopelessly outnumbered by ruler Arahualpa's troops. Luck, however, is on Pizarro's side. Shortly before the Spanish arrive, Arahualpa's three-year civil war against his half-brother draws to an end. The Inca ruler is hardly bothered by the small band of Spaniards. He wants to capture them and accepts Pizarro's invitation to meet. On the 16th of November 1532, Pizarro and Arahualpa meet in Cajamarca. The Inca king underestimates the foreigners. The meeting is a trap. Without warning, the outnumbered Spaniards attack the king's 5,000-strong entourage. The surprise attack with horses, cannons, and rifles catches the Incas off-guard. Panic ensues. [00:07:52] Speaker 2: At the Battle of Cajamarca, the Spanish ambush an immense body of Incan warriors. And it leads to the death of at least 2,000 Incans and to the capture of their king, Arahualpa. [00:08:04] Speaker 1: Arahualpa knows the Spanish are out for gold and offers a trade unlike anything history has ever seen before. A room full of gold and another filled twice with silver. Throughout the empire, temples and palaces are plundered. The Spaniards accept the trade but refuse to release Arahualpa. After imprisoning him for eight months, they convict him of plotting a rebellion on the 26th of July 1533 and strangle him to death. The Incas realize by now that the Spaniards cannot be trusted. Legend has it they move the gold, silver, and precious stones out of Cusco as fast as they can. To a place somewhere in the Amazon. To El Dorado. Thierry Germain plans to follow the trail of gold. But how are the Incas able to get past the Spanish soldiers? Are there any secret paths leading from the Coricancha temple out of the city? [00:09:22] Speaker ?: To El Dorado. [00:09:26] Speaker 5: There is supposedly a whole network of tunnels in the Coricancha underground, known as the Socabones. It is even said that one of the main tunnels connects with the fortress of Sacsayhuaman. Some chroniclers say that the Incas escaped through this tunnel, carrying the treasures of the temple of Coricancha. [00:09:47] Speaker 1: Sacsayhuaman stands some 200 meters above the one-time center of the Inca Empire, right on the outskirts of Cusco. In fact, archaeologists have found evidence of underground passages between the fortress and the city center. This is where the Incas are said to have stored their gold for a short time. But where does it go afterwards? Pathways lead from the fortress grounds into the lower-lying rainforest. To this day, it is unclear what they are used for. [00:10:32] Speaker 5: Are these the secret smuggling routes of the Incas? It's quite clear these stones have been cut. [00:10:42] Speaker 1: Thierry is sure these paths were made by humans. A labyrinth within the rock. An escape route for the legendary Inca gold. [00:10:50] Speaker 5: Wow. Wow, a real tunnel. And it goes pretty deep. Let's see how far it goes. [00:11:01] Speaker 1: Today, just a handful of rock passages are open to visitors. Rumor has it that people kept disappearing here without a trace. The stone has been cut here, too. The tunnel system is the perfect way to get out of the city. And more importantly, outsiders can't find their way around and get lost. [00:11:39] Speaker 5: These tunnels are called chincana, meaning somewhere where you get lost. [00:11:45] Speaker 6: Now I know why. [00:11:48] Speaker 5: There are branchings everywhere. Many people must have gotten lost here over the centuries. [00:12:05] Speaker 1: At the end of the tunnel system, the Incas gain the upper hand. They know the terrain, the jungles of South America. Treasure hunters face the same problem back then as they do now. The rainforest covers more than a third of the continent. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. No wonder evidence of El Dorado has purportedly been found in several faraway places. One conquistador claims to have seen it with his own eyes, more than 3,000 kilometers from Peru in present-day Guyana. This eyewitness account dates back from the 16th century. On his deathbed in 1570, Spaniard Juan Martinez recounts having reached El Dorado. [00:12:56] Speaker 2: One conquistador known as Juan Martinez finds himself lost in the jungles of Southern Guyana, and he's drifting helplessly downstream near death, and he falls in with a local tribe. [00:13:10] Speaker 1: So, for the first time, the myth of El Dorado is located far away from the Andes, in northeastern South America. Juan Martinez speaks of a kingdom full of gold, and a city with a glorious palace next to a lake. The shore is said to be dusted with gold. After seven months, Martinez leaves the city in the hope of soon returning. He never finds his way back. However, on his deathbed, he remembers the name of the city: Manoa. After his death, European explorer set off for Guyana. Among them is British navigator and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1596, he publishes a travel report, claiming to know the location of Manoa. Has El Dorado finally been found? Raleigh's report provides a map of the location, made from descriptions provided by locals. It says that Manoa is by a large body of water, Lake Parima. [00:14:38] Speaker 2: One of the key characteristics of Walter Raleigh's investigations into El Dorado is an enormous, landbound lake, and it's because of this that the lake starts to appear in lots of maps concerned with El Dorado. [00:14:52] Speaker 1: Raleigh dies before ever finding El Dorado. Dozens of others set out in his footsteps to find Lake Parima and the nearby city of gold. With no luck. Both the lake and the legendary city of Manoa appear on numerous maps from the 17th century. But did this lake actually exist back then? German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt is also wondering the same thing. He sets off for South America in 1799, two centuries after Walter Raleigh's expedition. Today his journals from the five-year journey are in the Berlin State Library. Tobias Kraft, a literary scholar, wants to take a closer look at them. If Humboldt had indeed found clues to El Dorado, they would have to be in here. [00:16:04] Speaker 7: There was really only one way for Humboldt to find where Lake Parima could be. And that is to travel along the Orinoco in the direction of the source. [00:16:20] Speaker 1: The Orinoco River is the fourth longest river in South America. It flows through what is today Venezuela and into the Atlantic. At the beginning of the 19th century, neither its source nor its course had been mapped. Humboldt wants to change this. The explorer meticulously notes down every detail of the expedition. He writes nine diaries between 1799 and 1804. His notes represent a milestone in modern geography. They also reveal the shortcomings of science at that time. [00:17:00] Speaker 7: He wants to look at the actual site. What can we learn about the Orinoco River Delta? How are the river systems interconnected here? Is there perhaps a lake as well? [00:17:15] Speaker 4: The quest for El Dorado. As a scientist would have been far more able to receive funding to go and search for a lake, than they would have been able to get funding to go and search for some mythic location. [00:17:28] Speaker 1: Humboldt constantly adjusts the land and river map, adding detailed sketches. [00:17:37] Speaker 7: Back then, one of the great problems with cartography was that people often just copied each other's maps. Newer maps would copy everything over from older maps. Cartographers didn't actually travel along these routes, as this was a very dangerous task. [00:17:56] Speaker 1: Humboldt and his French companion, Amé Bonplan, find themselves in danger on several occasions. They manage to survive in the jungle, but with a lot of luck. But they never make it to Lake Parima and the fabled gold city of Manoa. Humboldt searches for answers. [00:18:18] Speaker 7: Humboldt certainly was curious and wanted to better understand the history behind Lake Parima. He feels he has achieved this goal with his cartography. [00:18:33] Speaker 1: Upon his return, Humboldt draws up a proper map of the region. Unlike other maps, Humboldt gathers the information himself. If this lake existed, it must have been here. Humboldt cross-checks his map against previous records of the lake's purported location and finds nothing. [00:19:04] Speaker 7: But beyond the Orinoco Delta, what's interesting for me is that there's one place that's not to be found on the map. And that's the lake. [00:19:20] Speaker 1: Humboldt verifies a number of theories as to the lake's whereabouts. To no avail. [00:19:28] Speaker 7: Lake Parima isn't on Humboldt's map at all. So he must not have seen it. Nor had any of the locals he had spoken with seen it. [00:19:40] Speaker 1: Humboldt's expedition is proof there is no longer a lake in northeastern South America. He believes seasonal floods are the answer to this mystery and that the golden city of El Dorado is nothing more than a myth. So is Guyana's rainforest the wrong place to be looking for the lost Incan gold? Could it maybe be found closer to where it disappeared? In the Andes, over a thousand kilometers to the west. The story of the Incas does not end in 1533 with the death of King Atahualpa. Inca warriors who know the land are waging a guerrilla war against the Spaniards. Legend has it they retreated to the rainforest somewhere along the foothills of the Andes. Treasure hunter Thierry Jamin collects every piece of information he can get his hands on about El Dorado. He believes the Incas hid their gold in the jungle. European records and indigenous folklore refer to one last Inca capital that was never conquered. It is called Paititi. Thierry is convinced he has finally found the legendary site. [00:20:58] Speaker 5: Since 2009 my team and I have been working together in the Lacoyavero valley north of Cusco. We found an astounding amount of archaeological sites there. [00:21:20] Speaker 1: These images are from one of those expeditions. Illustrations of a hidden world. In the middle of the rainforest researchers come across traces of a settlement. There is a lot to suggest that Inca warriors once lived here. For the researchers one of the discoveries is extremely significant. A cliff wall covered with stone carvings. The drawings etched into the stone stretch for almost 24 meters. Thierry Jamin believes they are the writings of the Incas containing information about important events. One of the drawings depicts a king. The headdress leads the researchers to believe that it is Pachacutec. Pachacutec-Yupanqui rules long before the arrival of the Europeans. Most likely from 1438 to 1471. At which time the Inca's power and wealth has surely reached its peak. Is the drawing of Pachacutec a clue to the whereabouts of these riches? Thierry Jamin believes the drawings provide groundbreaking information to the case. [00:23:07] Speaker 5: This is a map carved into stone. This is the only map of its kind that's been found here in Peru, or anywhere else for that matter. At the same time, it also chronicles the entire history of the Incan Empire. [00:23:22] Speaker 1: Do they retreat into the dangerous jungle after the arrival of the Conquistadors in the 16th century? Thierry Jamin meets up with an indigenous tribe in the region. An old woman says there is a secret Incan city nearby. Ruins of Paititi are said to be located on a remote rocky plateau. With the help of satellite images, Thierry sets out to find the mysterious plateau. Thanks to modern technology, it's now much easier to see geographical details, even when it's cloudy. Computer analyses reveal a square rock formation in the jungle. Could this 1,000-meter-high plateau be Paititi, the mysterious El Dorado? The images are reminiscent of another Inca center, Machu Picchu. Built in the 15th century, at an altitude of almost 2,500 meters, today Machu Picchu is world famous. Some of Thierry Jamin's other images show a square lake and two lagoons. However, there are no ruins to be found. Thierry is planning on taking an expedition in the hard-to-reach region. However, the only way to get to where the square structures are is by helicopter. There are no roads, no paths, and certainly no trails. From the air, Thierry sees a plateau corresponding to the old woman's story. He also finds the bodies of water on the satellite images, the square lake, and the two lagoons. But his helicopter can't land. The rainforest canopy is too dense. No landing site can be found on the mysterious plateau, either. He returns back home empty-handed. He realizes the only way of reaching what may be the last bastion of the Incas is by walking several days through the jungle. Thierry plans on getting the right gear together and finding some travel companions for next year's trek. Setbacks are part of the process. Back in Cusco, Thierry immediately starts planning his next search for El Dorado. [00:26:39] Speaker 5: I'm a scientist and not a conqueror. That's why I have to be honest and say that sometimes these things develop very slowly. The only way to move forward is as a team, as a group, and with the support of many people. [00:27:05] Speaker 1: The French treasure hunter will have to wait until his next expedition to put his theory to the test. But promising news about El Dorado is also coming from Venezuela. With the help of modern technology, it is now possible to conduct research much differently than Alexander von Humboldt was able to do in the 18th century. Archaeologist Jose Miguel Perez Gomez uses satellite images from the German Aerospace Center. He hopes to use the data to prove Lake Parime actually existed. [00:27:48] Speaker 8: It's incredible. We have the opportunity to use this technology now. [00:27:56] Speaker 1: The researchers want to prove that even though Lake Parime doesn't exist anymore, it did centuries ago. [00:28:01] Speaker 4: While it might sound like fantasy to imagine a lake that's disappeared, in reality it happens all over the world. We see lakes vanish and dry up. We see aquifers dry up. We see deluges and the breaking of dams. And so it's not unlikely that there's some real historical or natural source for this memory. [00:28:26] Speaker 1: In Germany, in the town of Oberpfaffenhofen, Perez Gomez meets with project manager Thomas Busche to discuss the latest developments. The TandemX mission satellites are monitored in the control center. They circle the Earth and are able to map each and every square meter of our planet within 11 days. If there are any traces of El Dorado, TandemX should be able to find them. The researchers have to decide where exactly the two satellites should be placed. One of the main advantages to this system is that it is operated using radar. [00:29:17] Speaker 9: The main advantage of this radar technique on satellites is that you are completely independent of cloud cover. [00:29:25] Speaker 1: The satellites are even able to take images at night, and always two images at a time. [00:29:32] Speaker 9: The advantage is if you have two satellites, you have two eyes, and you get the topography. And this is what was our main goal of this mission. [00:29:44] Speaker 1: Researchers can also use these detailed images to see depressions in the Earth's surface left behind by bodies of water that have long since disappeared. Following in Humboldt's footsteps, from outer space. [00:29:58] Speaker 3: So here is where Humboldt considered that the Lake Parima was. Because as you can see, there is like a white spot. [00:30:06] Speaker 1: Similar to Humboldt's experience more than 200 years ago, the scientists are unable to find a lake matching the folklore of the indigenous tribes. Further southwest, however, something catches their eye. [00:30:18] Speaker 3: You can see how there is a depression in this part of the map, but this was not enough. Nonetheless, we did a reconstruction and we could see that this probably was a lake at some point. [00:30:33] Speaker 1: The satellite images from the TandemX mission should now hopefully provide conclusive proof. The high-resolution images reveal a lowland spanning nearly 250 kilometers, no longer visible to the naked eye because of the rainforest covering. [00:30:51] Speaker 3: We have a platform and this platform is totally flat on top so all the waters they flow into a center. [00:31:00] Speaker 1: The satellite imagery bears a striking resemblance to the map from Walter Raleigh. [00:31:09] Speaker 3: He considered this map to be so secret and so delicate that he didn't know if to publish or not. At the end, he didn't publish the map and the map got lost for over 270 years. [00:31:23] Speaker 1: Drawn up at the end of the 16th century, the map made its first appearance in 1849 in the British Museum's collection in London. And now, satellite images confirm the correctness of Raleigh's map. A large lake lies between the Amazon and the Orinoco. Maybe it's a saltwater lake or a seasonal floodplain as Humboldt suspected. It dried up before the arrival of the Europeans, yet Lake Parima and the city of Manoa live on in indigenous folklore and thus find their way into Raleigh's map. Is this where the legendary El Dorado can be found? Archaeological discoveries provide clues as to who lived along the shores of the lake. [00:32:17] Speaker 3: In these low lands, we have found out that there are traces of ancient humans traveling through these scenarios. [00:32:31] Speaker 1: Among the discoveries are prehistoric rock paintings and beads. There are also shards of pottery and the remains of several drinking and cooking pots, some of them up to 3,500 years old. [00:32:47] Speaker 3: We believe that the people that made the ceramics probably, they were using the lake as a source of food, as a source of transportation or whatever, but their information about the lake, they went from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, and this is how it got into the conqueror's ears. [00:33:11] Speaker 1: Some of the lake's lost tributaries still exist to this day. Waterways can also be found on another 16th century map. The Spanish conquistadors document a city that is unknown today. Can it also be found using the satellite images? [00:33:26] Speaker 3: So, our interest as an archaeologist to realize about this place is to see how these people, they were arranging these towns. I mean, how their towns were being arranged, how they defended themselves. [00:33:44] Speaker 1: The historical map is not accurate. The only reliable clue is the position of the settlement along a fork in the river. The scientists are looking for forks in the branching river systems of the Amazon basin and come across striking findings. [00:33:59] Speaker 3: If you ask me, I am quite interested in this particular area over here. This area interests me very much because I can see an elevation here. And also, this area here is also very interesting because I can see like a pattern or something here. [00:34:19] Speaker 9: I understand your arguments, but if this, let's say, is basically flat and with a low topography, it's not easy to defend. [00:34:31] Speaker 1: The images don't solve the mystery of Manoa, also known as El Dorado, but they did provide some leads for the next expedition on the ground. Will the Golden City finally be found? [00:34:48] Speaker 3: In our consideration, El Dorado was not a golden city covered with plates of gold and, you know, the roofing with gold. El Dorado was a mining area. And this has been proved because Guayana in the Venezuela is one of the richest mining areas in the world. [00:35:08] Speaker 1: Could El Dorado just be nothing more than a mining town? And not the legendary golden city where dreams come true? [00:35:16] Speaker 2: Thousands of people have been on expeditions to try and find El Dorado and thousands have died. And yet no one has found it. There's got to be more to it than the myth of this golden city. [00:35:28] Speaker 1: However, there's another very similar version of the story that doesn't lead to Peru or Venezuela, but rather to the north, to Bogota, the capital of Colombia. To all those looking for El Dorado, Bogota holds an intriguing clue. In the city center, there is the Museo del Oro, the gold museum, with more than 55,000 artifacts. Archeologist Juan Pablo Quintero Guzman believes one of the exhibits is directly linked to the legendary city of gold. This artifact changes the myth of El Dorado. It's not the item's material value that the researcher finds interesting. It's what it represents. To the archaeologist, it is above all evidence from a time for which there are very few written records. [00:36:31] Speaker 10: The gold working of the South Americans really is unrivaled. It is uniquely accomplished, but it tells us lots of things. It doesn't just tell us how incredible they were at working this medium, gold. It also tells us about their world view, their social structure, and their relationship with spiritual matters. [00:37:00] Speaker 8: What we see here might be a ceremony. We can see a number of different people in what appears to be a raft. [00:37:10] Speaker 1: The piece features a central figure on a raft, wearing a headdress and surrounded by 12 smaller figures. The size difference is striking. He believes this is a ruler and his subjects. What can be learned from this 20 centimeter object today? In the museum lab, the archaeologist is able to examine the piece more closely. He is able to see details on the figures and how they are positioned in relation to each other. [00:37:48] Speaker 8: It is really interesting that everyone surrounding the main figure always has their backs turned. [00:38:00] Speaker 11: This shows the central figure must be very important. [00:38:07] Speaker 1: Quintero has a theory on who the important figure might be. The artifact, he says, is none other than El Dorado, the golden one. The story of El Dorado actually includes a mythical person known as the golden king. He is said to be the ruler of the golden city. [00:38:31] Speaker 12: El Dorado in Spanish means the golden one. And the myth transforms through time. First of all, it becomes a person and then it becomes city, then a kingdom, then an empire, a mysterious empire. No one's seen but everyone knows is there somewhere, waiting to be discovered. [00:38:50] Speaker 1: A material analysis reveals even more about the golden raft found in 1969 in a nearby cave. [00:39:03] Speaker 8: It was examined only recently. We found pieces of charcoal that were used when it was made and sent them to a lab to be analyzed. We found that the raft dates back to the 14th century. [00:39:20] Speaker 1: This means the artifact is more than 100 years old by the time the Spaniards arrive. If it has anything to do with El Dorado, the hypothesis about the Inca treasures being brought to safety would be off the table. Further examinations reveal the artifact is not only gilded, it is made almost entirely of solid gold. It is highly likely that the raft was used in some kind of ritual. [00:39:47] Speaker 8: This is a typical offering from Alteplano, a region in the Andes between Peru and Bolivia. In the past, this territory belonged to the Muisca. [00:40:00] Speaker 1: The Muisca are a lesser known yet advanced civilization of South America, the Inca Empire's northern neighbors. One of its centers is located northeast of Bogota in the municipality of Sesquilé. Up until the 16th century, the Muisca were considered to be master goldsmiths. In images, they are seen wearing elaborate gold jewelry. Do the origins of El Dorado ultimately lie here in the highlands of Colombia? Juan Pablo Quintero has obtained geological maps of the region. They list the types of rock and mineral resources found within the former indigenous territory. [00:40:43] Speaker 8: Many golden artifacts were found in this region. Therefore, you might assume, there is also a lot of gold in the ground here. But there is no evidence of it anywhere in the region, let alone any actual mines. So where did the gold come from? [00:41:01] Speaker 1: And what's the link between the Muisca and El Dorado? Can the golden ruler's raft finally help solve the mystery? In search of answers, Juan Pablo Quintero travels to the Cundinamarca region. A good 50 kilometers away, Pui has a meeting with Clara Chauta, a Muisca woman and descendant of the Muisca tribe. [00:41:33] Speaker 8: Hi, Clara. [00:41:33] Speaker 11: Hello, welcome. [00:41:36] Speaker 1: Nice to meet you. Clara Chauta knows a lot about the history of her people. Her ancestors were not gold miners during the Muisca's heyday, but rather extract other valuable natural resources such as coal, emeralds, and most importantly, salt. It is found here, a good 80 meters underground. [00:42:05] Speaker 13: And how do you find the spot? [00:42:07] Speaker 8: That's more intriguing than I had imagined. Tell me more. [00:42:11] Speaker 13: The Muisca had plenty of gold, but this was not the source of their wealth. Whereas gold represented wealth and power for the Spaniards, the Muisca only used it for rituals. They cared much more about their land, their lagoons, and their salt. [00:42:32] Speaker 12: Since prehistoric times, humans have known that salt is essential to survival, and that's why you see settlements growing up and trade networks growing between places where they can access salt or salty water. For the Muisca, this was the true gold of their territory, salt. [00:42:51] Speaker 1: People have been using salt as a food preservative for thousands of years. This is why the white gold is a lucrative commodity for the Muisca. In return, they get everything they need, even gold and silver, which is hard to come by on their land. They use it to create elaborate ornaments, offerings to the gods. Inside the Nemocon Mine Museum, everything revolves around salt, the true gold of the Muisca. [00:43:28] Speaker 13: We consider this a sacred place, a sacred place whose peace was disturbed by plundering conquistadors. They had heard a remarkable tale of a man who bathed in gold, the Golden King. [00:43:53] Speaker 1: And this is where the journey brings us directly to the story of the Golden King. [00:44:02] Speaker 4: To have a Golden King was to have a microcosm or individual that personified wealth and gold itself. Similarly, this king personified as kind of a microcosm the city that he ruled. [00:44:18] Speaker 1: The Muisca invite Juan Pablo Quintero to a site where the legend of El Dorado might have started. The journey first leads him to a remote mountain village. The governor of Cesquilet, Carlos Candil, places great importance on tradition. [00:44:53] Speaker 11: Hello, how are you? [00:44:54] Speaker ?: Hello, how are you? [00:44:54] Speaker 11: Thank you, good. Welcome. [00:44:56] Speaker 3: Thank you. This way. [00:45:05] Speaker 1: The Muisca ask their ancestral spirits for permission before sharing their secret practices with strangers. They call upon their ancestors and perform a cleansing tobacco ritual before taking Juan Pablo Quintero to their sacred place. The Spanish conquistadors even wrote about a place over 3,000 meters above sea level. The Guatavita lagoon. [00:45:44] Speaker 7: We call this place Mother Guatavita. We consider it the center of the world. The legendary El Dorado the Spaniards were always looking for. But to us, El Dorado is a place of sacrifice and our spiritual center. Muisca leaders came from all around to perform the ritual of El Dorado. [00:46:07] Speaker 1: Originally, this sacred ceremony takes place at the coronation of a new ruler. At sunrise, the new Muisca king is stripped, covered with mud and fine gold dust. He is then crowned El Dorado, the golden ruler. In the company of warriors, he sails along the lake on a raft. The Spaniards must have been fascinated by what came next in their quest to find gold. It is said that baskets full of gold and precious stones were poured into the water in the middle of the lake and sacrificed to the gods. Afterwards, the gilded Juan himself is also said to have jumped into the lake, only to emerge on the shore as the new ruler of the Muisca. The Spanish conquerors learn about the ceremony from the local tribes. And then they try very hard to drain the lagoon, but aren't able to do so. If the offerings do exist, they are buried under a layer of mud at the bottom of the lake. Is this the origin of the myth of El Dorado? [00:47:23] Speaker 12: Before the conquistadors arrived, South America was home to many rich, sophisticated and advanced indigenous cultures. But the conquistadors didn't see that. They saw a barbaric, animalistic people who were ready and appropriate to be colonized and for the riches of their lands to be taken. [00:47:42] Speaker 1: By the end of the 16th century, the Europeans had removed part of the lakeshore to drain the water. The site can still be seen to this day. [00:47:53] Speaker 7: The excavation remnants are a reminder of the Spaniards' search for gold. They believed that by draining the lagoon, they would find all the gold. Today, these remnants serve as a symbol of human greed. [00:48:11] Speaker 1: The sacred lake has been under state protection since 1969. It is forbidden to carry out excavations there. Whatever might lie at the bottom will remain out of reach. This means that there is no conclusive evidence that the Laguna de Guatavita is indeed the legendary El Dorado. But the Muisca's Coronation Lake remains one of the strongest contenders. [00:48:37] Speaker 8: The myth of El Dorado is a unique legend that will live on forever. [00:48:46] Speaker 1: A legend about a place that represents incredible wealth. Driven by their greed for gold, adventures continue to set out for the most remote corners of South America, like Peru, into the Incan Empire. People have long believed El Dorado is a lost Inca treasure. Well hidden, away from Spanish conquistadors. Hundreds of explorers have searched for this treasure. But the Golden City has never been found. This raises doubts as to whether El Dorado actually exists, or whether it is just a symbol, a parable for humankind's greed for gold and riches. A centuries-long treasure hunt across an entire continent. But new research suggests the key to El Dorado lies in Colombia, with the ancient Muisca people, whose wealth did not come from gold, but rather salt. To the Muisca, gold was merely used for jewelry, worn on special occasions, like when crowning a new ruler. The Spanish conquistadors turned these stories of coronation ceremonies into myth. A legend that became famous all over the world. "The Mystery of El Dorado." [00:50:21] Speaker ?: "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado." "The Mystery of El Dorado."