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Eldorado
El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king of the Muisca people, an indigenous people of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of Colombia, who as an initiation rite, covered himself with gold dust and submerged in Lake Guatavita. The legends surrounding El Dorado changed over time, as it went from being a man, to a city, to a kingdom, and then finally to an empire. A second location for El Dorado was inferred from rumors, which inspired several unsuccessful expeditions in the late 1500s in search of a city called Manoa on the shores of Lake Parime or Parima. Two of the most famous of these expeditions were led by Sir Walter Raleigh. In pursuit of the legend, Spanish conquistadors and numerous others searched what is today Colombia, Venezuela, and parts of Guyana and northern Brazil, for the ...
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Lake Parime
Lake Parime or Lake Parima is a legendary lake located in South America. It was reputedly the location of the fabled city of El Dorado, also known as Manoa, much sought-after by European explorers. Repeated attempts to find the lake failed to confirm its existence, and it was dismissed as a myth along with the city. The search for Lake Parime led explorers to map the rivers and other features of southern Venezuela, northern Brazil, and southwestern Guyana before the lake's existence was definitively disproved in the early 19th century. Some explorers proposed that the seasonal flooding of the Rupununi savannah may have been misidentified as a lake. Recent geological investigations suggest that a lake may have existed in northern Brazil, but that it dried up some time in the 18th century. Both "Manoa" (Arawak language) and "Parime" (Carib language) are believed to mean "big lake". Two other mythical lakes, Lake Xarayes or Xaraies (sometimes called Lake Eupana), and Lake Cassipa, are ...
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Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It has a territorial extension of , and its population was estimated at 29 million in 2022. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas. The continental territory is bordered on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Colombia, Brazil on the south, Trinidad and Tobago to the north-east and on the east by Guyana. The Venezuelan government maintains a claim against Guyana to Guayana Esequiba. Venezuela is a federal presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District and federal dependencies covering Venezuela's offshore islands. Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America; the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the n ...
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Gold Museum, Bogota (36145671394)
Gold is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a Brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal in a pure form. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under Standard conditions for temperature and pressure, standard conditions. Gold often occurs in Free element, free elemental (native state (metallurgy), native state), as Gold nugget, nuggets or grains, in Rock (geology), rocks, Vein (geology), veins, and alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver (as electrum), naturally alloyed with other metals like copper and palladium, and mineral inclusions such as within pyrite. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides). Gold is ...
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El Carnero
''El Carnero'' ( en, The Sheep) is the colloquial name of a Spanish language colonial chronicle whose title was ''Conquista i descubrimiento del nuevo reino de Granada de las Indias Occidentales del mar oceano, i fundacion de la ciudad de Santa Fe de Bogotá, ...'' lso known as ''El Carnero de Bogotá''(English: Conquest and discovery of the New Kingdom of Granada of the West Indies sea, and foundation of the city of Holy Faith of Bogota). It is a chronicle of history and customs written in 1636-1638 (but not published until 1859) by Bogota-born Juan Rodríguez Freyle. Contents ''El Carnero'' tells the story of the Spanish conquest of the Muisca; the early exploration of northern South America and the establishment of the New Kingdom of Granada, currently Colombia and parts of Venezuela, and the foundation and first century of the city of Bogotá. Bogotá was the first city of the kingdom to have an established royal audience and a chancellery. It also describes the indigen ...
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Nencatacoa
Nencatacoa or Nem-catacoa was the god and protector of the mantle makers, artists and festivities in the religion of the Muisca. The Muisca and their confederation were one of the advanced civilizations of the Americas; as much as the Aztec, Mayas and Incas but other than the other three, they did not construct grand architecture. Their gold working however was well-known and respected which made Nencatacoa an important deity and protector. Description Nencatacoa was represented in the form of a forest animal, made of gold and covered with a mantle. Nencatacoa looked most like a fox or a bear,Description Nencatacoa
– Pueblos Originarios because as noted, "an animal in that shape would ...
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Bochica
Bochica (also alluded to as Nemquetaha, Nemqueteba and Sadigua) is a figure in the religion of the Muisca, who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense during the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombia. He was the founding hero of their civilization, who according to legend brought morals and laws to the people and taught them agriculture and other crafts. Description Similarly to the Incan god Viracocha, the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and several other deities from Central and South American pantheons, Bochica is described in legends as being bearded. The beard, once mistaken as a mark of a prehistoric European influence and quickly fueled and embellished by spirits of the colonial era, had its single significance in the continentally insular culture of Mesoamerica. The ''Anales de Cuauhtitlan'' is a very important early source which is particularly valuable for having been originally written in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec. ...
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Chibchacum
Chibchacum is the rain and thunder god in the religion of the Muisca who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in pre-Columbian times. Description In myth, when Chibchacum was angry, he sent heavy rains to the flatlands, causing the rivers to flood, destroying the agriculture and the houses (''bohíos'') of the Muisca. When the rains were over and the Sun was shining again, causing Cuchavira to appear, the people offered low-grade gold or gold-copper alloys (tumbaga), marine snails and small emeralds to thank him. One tale tells how the Muisca venerated a rock and worshipped Bochica. Chibchacum was very angry and rebelled against Bochica. He went down to Earth and noticed a woman, Chié coming to get some water. Chibchacum wooed her into joining his rebellion, promising that Chié would be his queen once Bochica was finished. Chié joined, and soon everybody was fighting, believing that they were better than others and lying. This caused a civil war. Chié was cursed by Bochi ...
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Bachué
The goddess Bachué (in Chibcha language: "the one with the naked breast"), is a mother goddess that according to the Muisca religion is the mother of humanity. She emerged of the waters in the Iguaque Lake with a baby in her arms, who grew to become her husband and populated the Earth. She received worshipping in a temple, in the area now within the municipality of Chíquiza, formerly called "San Pedro de Iguaque". The legend tells that after she accomplished the goal of giving birth to humanity, Bachué and the parrot god, her husband, became snakes and returned to the sacred lagoon. The history of Bachué was mentioned by the Spanish chronicler, Pedro Simón in his book ''Noticias Historiales'' where he wrote that the indigenous people also called her "Furachogua" (Chibcha for: "the good woman"), and worshipped her as one of their main deities. Simón also mentions that the Muisca believed that Bachué sometimes came back from the underworld to guide her people. See also ...
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Chiminigagua
Chiminigagua, Chiminichagua or Chimichagua was the supreme being, omnipotent god and creator of the world in the religion of the Muisca.Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.1, p.15 The Muisca and their confederation were one of the four advanced civilizations of the Americas and developed their own religion on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Andes. Description Chiminigagua was a universally good god and represented the only light that existed when it was night time. When the world was created there was only darkness and the only light was given by Chiminigagua. When Chiminigagua decided to shine light across the Universe, he first opened his gigantic belly from where light was shining. He then created two large black birds and launched them into space. The birds spread light from their beaks which produced light in the cosmos. Thus he created light and everything in the world. Chiminigagua showed the importance of his important gods Chía (the Moon), Sué (the Sun) and Cuchavira (rainb ...
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Muisca Mythology
Knowledge of Muisca mythology has come from Muisca scholars Javier Ocampo López, Pedro Simón, Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita, Juan de Castellanos and conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada who was the European making first contact with the Muisca in the 1530s. Muisca mythology The times before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca Confederation are filled with mythology. The first confirmed human rulers of the two capitals Hunza and Bacatá are said to have descended from mythical creatures. Apart from that other Muisca myths exist, such as the legendary ''El Dorado'' and the Monster of Lake Tota. Mythological creatures Several mythological creatures have been described by the chroniclers: * Thomagata, said to have been one of the most religious of the ''zaques'', after Idacansás * Idacansás, allegedly a mythical priest from Sugamuxi who was able to change the order of things * Goranchacha, a mythical ''cacique'' who moved the capital of the northern Muisca from Ramiriquà ...
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Inca Empire
The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts",  "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilization arose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. The Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 and by 1572, the last Inca state was fully conquered. From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined modern-day Peru, what are now western Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, the southwesternmost tip of Colombia and a large portion of modern-day Chile, and into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia ...
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