El Dorado – Guyana’s Golden Mystery

Could there really be a stunning undiscovered city of gold in the Guyana wilderness?

Exploration of the New World by Europeans inspired a number of fascinating stories about lost worlds and new discoveries. One was the legend of El Dorado, the belief that a place filled with incredible wealth was hidden somewhere in the jungle. This enticed adventurers to embarked on countless expeditions in search of this city of gold.

El Dorado was said to be located near to Lake Parime in the South American interior. Early Explorers searched parts of Columbia, Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana but to no avail. The famous explorer and adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh sponsored four voyages to Guyana (1579, 1595, 1596 and 1617) trying to located El Dorado.

In the 1800s, German explorer and naturalist Alexander Humboldt strikingly claimed that Lake Parime was actually Lake Amucu in the North Rupununi region of Guyana.

Though El Dorado was never found, some still believe the ancient city lies hidden from the eye. This leaves us to wonder if it was just a legend or if there’s gold still to be discovered somewhere in the vast Guyana wilderness.

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