Lake Parime or Lake Parima is a legendary lake located in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
. It was reputedly the location of the fabled city of
El Dorado
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 o ...
, 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
The Rupununi savannah is a savanna plain in Guyana, in the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo region. It is part of the Guianan savanna ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome.
Description
The Rupununi Sava ...
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
Arawak (, ), also known as Lokono (Lokono Dian, literally "people's talk" by its speakers), is an Arawakan language spoken by the Lokono (Arawak) people of South America in eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. It is the epony ...
) and "Parime" (
Carib language
Carib or Kari'nja is a Cariban language spoken by the Kalina people (Caribs) of South America. It is spoken by around 7,400 mostly in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Brazil. The language is currently classified as highly endange ...
) are believed to mean "big lake".
[ Alexander von Humboldt, ''Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America During the Years 1799–1804,'' (chapter 25). Henry G. Bohn, London, 1853.](_blank)
/ref>
Two other mythical lakes, Lake Xarayes or Xaraies (sometimes called Lake Eupana), and Lake Cassipa, are often depicted on early maps of South America.
First attempts at discovery
Walter Raleigh, 1595
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...
began the exploration of the Guianas
The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories:
* French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France
* ...
in earnest in 1594 and described the city of Manoa, which he believed to be the legendary city of El Dorado
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 o ...
, as being located on Lake Parime far up the Orinoco River
The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...
in 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 th ...
. Much of his exploration is documented in his books ''The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana'',[Sir Walter Raleigh, ''The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana''](_blank)
(1596; repr., Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1968) published first in 1596, and ''The Discovery of Guiana, and the Journal of the Second Voyage Thereto'', published in 1606. How much of Raleigh's work is true and how much is fabricated remains unclear: His account indicates that he only succeeded in navigating up the Orinoco as far as Angostura, (what is now Ciudad Bolívar
Ciudad Bolívar (; Spanish for "Bolivar City"), formerly known as Angostura and St. Thomas de Guyana, is the capital of Venezuela's southeastern Bolívar, Venezuela, Bolívar State. It lies at the spot where the Orinoco River narrows to about ...
) and did not come close to the supposed location of Lake Parime. Raleigh says of the lake:
According to Raleigh, the lake itself was the source of the gold possessed by the people of Manoa:
Lawrence Kemys, 1596
In 1596 Raleigh sent Lieutenant Lawrence Kemys
Lawrence Kemys or Keymis ( 1562–1618) was a seaman and companion of Sir Walter Raleigh in his expeditions to Guiana in 1595 and 1617–18.
First voyage to Guiana
Raleigh's 1595 voyage to Trinidad and Guiana consisted of four vessels, with Ke ...
back to Guyana, to gather more information about the lake and the golden city. Kemys mapped the location of Amerindian tribes between the Amazon and the Orinoco and made geographical, geological and botanical reports. He described the coast of Guiana in detail in his ''Relation of the Second Voyage to Guiana'' (1596) and says that indigenous people of Guiana traveled inland by canoe and land passages towards a large body of water on the shores of which he supposed was located Manoa, Golden City of El Dorado. One of these rivers leading south into the interior of Guiana was the Essequibo. Kemys wrote that the Indians called this river "brother of the Orenoque rinoco and that this river of Essequibo, or Devoritia,
Early maps
As a result of Raleigh's work, maps began to appear depicting El Dorado and Lake Parime. One of the first was the elder Jodocus Hondius
Jodocus Hondius (Latinized version of his Dutch language, Dutch name: ''Joost de Hondt'') (17 October 1563 – 12 February 1612) was a Flemish people, Flemish and Dutch engraving, engraver and cartographer. He is sometimes called Jodocus Hon ...
' ''Nieuwe Caerte van het Wonderbaer ende Goudrycke Landt Guiana'', which was published in 1598. Hondius' map depicts an elongated Lake Parime south of the Orinoco River, with the majority of the lake positioned south of the equator, and with Manoa on the northern shore, towards the eastern half of the lake. Manoa is noted as "the greatest city in the entire world". Hondius' map was subsequently copied by Theodore de Bry
Theodor de Bry (also Theodorus de Bry) (152827 March 1598) was an engraver, goldsmith, editor and publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. The Spanish Inquisition forced de Bry , a Protestant, to fl ...
and published in his popular ''Grands Voyages'' in 1599. When Hondius published a completely revised edition of Mercator's Atlas in 1608, it included a map of South America featuring Lake Parime with the majority of the lake located south of the equator, and with Manoa again along the northern shore, although not quite so far east.
Cartographer Guillaume Delisle
Guillaume Delisle, also spelled Guillaume de l'Isle, (; 28 February 1675, Paris – 25 January 1726, Paris) was a French cartographer known for his popular and accurate maps of Europe and the newly explored Americas.
Childhood and education
Desli ...
was among the first to cast doubts on the lake's existence. In a map of Guyana printed in 1730, he included an outline of the lake, then replaced it with the notation: "It is in these regions that most authors place the Lake Parime and the City of Manoa of El Dorado." Delisle reluctantly included a lake in southwestern Guyana on several subsequent maps, but did not name it or the city of Manoa.
The lake was printed on maps throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and up until the early 19th century. Some cartographers and naturalists moved the lake more to the southeast of the Orinoco River
The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...
and north of the Amazon river
The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile.
The headwaters of t ...
, often situating it south of the mountains that border 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 th ...
, Guiana, and Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. However, by the late 18th century, failure to confirm the lake's existence led to its removal from most maps.[Justin Winsor]
''Spanish Explorations and Settlements in North America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century: Volume 2 of Narrative and critical history of America''
Houghton, Mifflin, 1886; p. 589. A 1792 map of the Rio Branco by José Joaquin Freire shows no sign of a lake, although there is now a Parimé River.
17th century explorations
Thomas Roe, 1611
In early 1611 Sir Thomas Roe
Sir Thomas Roe ( 1581 – 6 November 1644) was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Roe's voyages ranged from Central America to India; as ambassador, he represented England in the Mughal Empire, the Ottoman Empi ...
, on a mission to the West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (19 February 1594 – 6 November 1612), was the eldest son and heir apparent of James VI and I, King of England and Scotland; and his wife Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuar ...
, sailed his 200-ton ship, the ''Lion's Claw'', some up the Amazon, then took a party of canoes up the Oyapock River
The Oyapock or Oiapoque (; ; ) is a long river in South America that forms most of the border between the France, French Overseas departments of France, overseas department of French Guiana and the Brazilian States of Brazil, state of Amapá. ...
in search of Lake Parime, negotiating thirty-two rapids and traveling about before they ran out of food and had to turn back.
Raleigh and Kemys, 1617
In March 1617, Raleigh and Kemys returned to Venezuela in search of Lake Parime and El Dorado. The expedition failed to uncover any new evidence of the lake and ended with the death of Raleigh's son Walter and the suicide of Captain Kemys.
Samuel Fritz, 1689
Between 1689 and 1691 the Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
priest Samuel Fritz
Samuel Fritz SJ (9 April 1654 – 20 March 1725, 1728 or 1730) was a Czech Jesuit missionary, noted for his exploration of the Amazon River and its basin. He spent most of his life preaching to Indigenous communities in the western Amazon r ...
traveled along the Amazon and its tributaries, preparing a detailed map at the request of the Royal Audiencia of Quito
The of Quito (sometimes referred to as or ) was an administrative unit in the Spanish Empire which had political, military, and religious jurisdiction over territories that today include Ecuador, parts of northern Peru, parts of southern Colo ...
. Fritz was skeptical of the existence of a golden city, but thought that Lake Parime probably did exist, and included it prominently i
his map
[Jesuit Camila Loureiro Dias, "Maps and Political Discourse: The Amazon River of Father Samuel Fritz," ''The Americas,'' Volume 69, Number 1, July 2012, pp. 95–116.](_blank)
/ref>
18th century explorations
Nicholas Horstman, 1739
In November 1739, Nicholas Horstman (sometimes spelled "Hortsman"), a surgeon from Hildesheim, Germany
Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Le ...
who was secretly commissioned by the Dutch Governor of Guiana (Laurens Storm van 's Gravesande
Laurens Storm van 's Gravesande (12 October 1704 – 14 August 1775) was a Dutch governor of the colonies of Essequibo and Demerara from 1743 to 1772. He turned Demerara in a successful plantation colony, and the borders of Guyana are mainly ba ...
), traveled up the Essequibo River accompanied by two Dutch soldiers and four Indian guides.[C. A. Harris and John Abraham Jacob De Villiers, ''Storm Van's Gravesande: The Rise of British Guiana, Compiled from his Works'', Hakluyt Society, 1911; University of Michigan.](_blank)
/ref> In April 1741 one of the Indian guides returned reporting that in 1740 Horstman had crossed over to the Rio Branco and descended it to its confluence with the Rio Negro. Rumors at the time held that Horstman had planted the Dutch Flag on the shores of Lake Parime, however later explorers determined that he had in fact visited Lake Amucu on the North Rupununi. Nothing further was heard until late November, 1742 when the other guides returned, reporting that Horstman and one of the Dutch soldiers had spent four months in a village on the Pará River, where they were discovered and arrested by the Portuguese authorities, and that they had "entered into the Portuguese service". In August 1743 Charles-Marie de La Condamine
Charles Marie de La Condamine (28 January 1701 – 4 February 1774) was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He spent ten years in territory which is now Ecuador, measuring the length of a degree of latitude at the equator and prepar ...
met and conversed with Horstman,[Charles Marie de La Condamine]
''Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique méridionale: depuis la côte de la mer du Sud, jusqu'aux côtes du Brésil et de la Guyane, en descendant la rivière des Amazones...''
Jean-Edme Dufour and Philippe Roux, 1778; University of Lausanne rench
The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau (Baden (Land), Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is ...
/ref> who appeared to be living freely with the Portuguese in Pará
Pará is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian state) ...
, and Horstman gave him his fragmentary diary, titled "Journey which I made to the Imaginary Lake of Parima, or of Gold, in the Year 1739." Horstman states that on May 8, 1740,
Horstman also gave La Condamine a remarkably accurate hand-drawn map of his route from the coast through the interior of Northern Brazil. La Condamine then gave the map to the French geographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (; born in Paris 11 July 169728 January 1782) was a French geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. D'Anville became cartographer to the king, who purchased his cartographic ...
. Lake Amucu was incorporated into his ''Carte de l'Amerique Meridionale'' in 1748.
Manuel Centurion, 1740
In 1740, Don Manuel Centurion, Governor of Santo Tomé de Guayana de Angostura del Orinoco in Venezuela, hearing a report from an Indian regarding Lake Parima, embarked on a journey up the Caura River and the Paragua River
The Paragua River is a river of Venezuela. It is part of the Orinoco River basin. It is the largest tributary of the Caroní River.
The river drains the Guayanan Highlands moist forests ecoregion.
See also
*List of rivers of Venezuela
This is ...
.[Edward M. Pierce, ''The Cottage Cyclopedia of History and Biography: A Copious Dictionary of Memorable Persons, Events, Places and Things, with Notices of the Present State of the Principal Countries and Nations of the Known World, and a Chronological View of American History'', Case, Lockwood, 1867, Harvard University](_blank)
/ref> According to Humboldt:
During his expedition, "several hundred persons perished miserably" and Centurion failed to confirm the existence of either a lake or a city.
Charles Marie de La Condamine, 1743
Between June and September 1743 the scientist and geographer Charles de La Condamine traveled from Quito
Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...
to the Atlantic coast via the Amazon River
The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile.
The headwaters of t ...
, charting its course and making scientific observations. In his subsequent account of this journey, ''Abbreviated Relation of a Journey made in the Interior of South America'' (1745), Condamine discussed the existence of Lake Parime, stating that although the Indians had extracted "small flakes" of gold from the rivers, these stories had been greatly exaggerated to concoct the myth of a golden city:
During his journey La Condamine met and conversed with Nicholas Horstman and determined that he had found Lake Amucu in approximately the location of the reputed Lake Parime. O
the map of his own travels included in his book
La Condamine placed a small lake as a source of the Takutu River, designating it only "Lac".
19th century explorations
Humboldt and Bonpland, 1799–1803
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...
and Aimé Bonpland
Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (; 22 August 1773 – 11 May 1858) was a French explorer and botanist who traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. He co-authored volumes of the scientific results of their ex ...
considered Lake Amucu in the North Rupununi, which had been visited by the German surgeon Nicholas Horstman, to be the Lake Parime described by Sir Walter Raleigh. In his ''Relation historique du voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent'' (1825), Humboldt found that Lake Amucu was in the same vicinity as the Lake Parime (or Roponowini) described to Raleigh, and was also a "large inland sea" when flooded; he noted that:
Charles Waterton, 1812
In 1812 Charles Waterton
Charles Waterton (3 June 1782 – 27 May 1865) was an English naturalist, plantation overseer and explorer best known for his pioneering work regarding conservation.
Family and religion
Waterton was of a Roman Catholic landed gentry family de ...
independently came to the same conclusion and proposed that seasonal flooding of the Rupununi savannah
The Rupununi savannah is a savanna plain in Guyana, in the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo region. It is part of the Guianan savanna ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome.
Description
The Rupununi Sava ...
could be Lake Parime. Waterton wrote:
Robert Schomburgk, 1840
In 1840 explorer Robert Hermann Schomburgk
Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (5 June 1804 – 11 March 1865) was a German-born explorer for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missi ...
visited Pirara on the shores of Lake Amucu. He stated that the flooded Rupununi savannah which linked the Amazon and Essequibo River drainages was probably Lake Parime:
Jacob van Heuvel, 1844
In 1844 the American author Jacob Adrien van Heuvel, a graduate of Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
and a law student, published an account of his travels in Guiana in which he investigated evidence for the existence of El Dorado and Lake Parima. The book described a journey to Guiana he had made in 1819–20 during which he questioned a "Charibe chief" named Mahanerwa about the existence of the lake. Mahanerwa drew a map in the sand, and stated that a large body of water lay southeast of the Orinoco. Van Heuvel superimposed this drawing onto John Arrowsmith's 1840 map of British Guyana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
The first European to encounter Guiana was ...
, claiming that much of this body of water, some in length, was likely a "temporary inundation
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...
" but that "water must fill the savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
h" for half the year at least and probably more. Van Heuvel considered Lake Parima and Lake Cassipa to be identical.
In his 1848 edition of Raleigh's ''The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana,'' Schomburgk dismissed Van Heuvel's propositions:
In spite of well-publicized evidence disproving the existence of Lake Parime, the 1853 edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
'' described the lake under the entry for "America:"
Evidence for an ancient lake
Nhamini-wi and the Lake of Milk
The Tucano and Piratapuia
The Pira-tapuya, or variations like Pira-Tapuia, Piratapuyo, etc., or Tapuya for short, are an indigenous people of the Amazon regions. They live along the Vaupés River in Colombia and in the state of Amazonas, Brazil.
Languages
The Pira-tapuy ...
tribes of the upper Rio Negro tell a story of the Nhamini-wi
The Nhamini-wi is, according to indigenous oral history, an ancient trail leading from the Amazon jungle to the mountains in the west.
Myth
Indigenous peoples in Brazil and Colombia from the upper Rio Negro, such as the Tukano people and the ...
(the "narrow path"). The Nhamini-wi was a pre-Columbian road that traveled from the mountains in the west where the "house of the night" was located. The trail began at ''axpeko-dixtara'', or the "lake of milk" in the east. In 1977 artist and explorer Roland Stevenson found ruins north of the Rio Negro in the Uaupés River basin that are believed to be the remnants of the Nhamini-wi. Led by indigenous guides Stevenson found old and collapsed stone walls that were dotted every twenty kilometers along an east-to-west line.
Stevenson followed traces of the road eastward and ended up in Roraima
Roraima (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil. Located in the country's North Region, it is the northernmost and most geographically and logistically isolated state in Brazil. It is bordered by the state of Pará to the southeast, Amazonas ...
, Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, in the plains north of Boa Vista. Upon examining the region Brazilian geologists Gert Woeltje and Frederico Guimarães Cruz along with Roland Stevenson found that on the hillsides encircling the area, a horizontal line can be seen at a uniform level approximately above sea level.[Dalton Delfini Maziero, "El Dorado Em busca dos antigos mistérios Amazônicos," ''Arqueologiamericana.''](_blank)
ortuguese/ref> He proposed that this line represents the water level of an extinct lake that existed until recent times. Researchers who studied it found that the lake's previous diameter measured and its area was about . In the early 14th century, this giant lake began to drain due to epeirogenic movement
In geology, epeirogenic movement (from Greek ''epeiros'', land, and ''genesis'', birth) is upheavals or depressions of land exhibiting long wavelengths and little folding apart from broad undulations.
The broad central parts of continents a ...
. In June 1690, a massive earthquake opened a bedrock fault, forming a rift
In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics.
Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...
or a graben
In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults.
Etymology
''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...
that permitted the water to flow into the Rio Branco. By the early 19th century it had dried up completely.
Geological evidence
Geologic research suggests that, thousands of years ago, conditions existed for the formation of a lake. Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
in this region, known as the Takutu Basin or the Takutu Formation
The Takutu Formation is a Late Jurassic geologic formation in Guyana and northern Brazil. The formation comprises sandstones deposited in a shallow water to littoral setting.Berrangé, 1977, p.84 Fossil theropod tracks (a type of dinosaur) have b ...
, dates back to the late Paleozoic
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon.
The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838
by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...
, roughly 250 million years ago, and the basin connected with the Atlantic via the Takutu Graben
In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults.
Etymology
''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...
. The geologic history of the Takutu Graben is known to have one phase of volcanic activity and three sedimentary depositional phases. Rifting
In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics.
Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben ...
due to tectonic plate
Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...
divergence took place "in ''a lake or delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta")
* Delta Air Lines, US
* Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19
Delta may also ...
environment'' in the Late Triassic
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...
to Early Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
periods, between 200 million and one hundred and fifty million years ago." Starting around 66,000 years ago, sea level rise and more humid conditions created flooded zones north of the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Solimões River
Solimões () is the name often given to upper stretches of the Amazon River in Brazil from its confluence with the Rio Negro upstream to the border of Peru.
Geography
The Amazon / Solimões river just above the confluence of the Solimões and ...
, in what is now Roraima.
Seasonal flooding was probably misidentified as a lake by some observers. The drainage system of the Rupununi Savannahs is unable to carry a high volume of surface runoff
Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when th ...
and as a result, most rivers flood in the wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...
. In a few places ground water
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
drainage is impeded by clay, and ponds and lakes persist for several months.
Archeological evidence
Roraima's well-known Pedra Pintada
Caverna da Pedra Pintada (Painted Rock Cave ), is an archaeological site in northern Brazil, with evidence of human presence dating ca. 11,200 years ago.Saraceni, Jessica E. and Adriana Franco da Sá"People of South America."''Archaeology.'' Vol. ...
is the site of numerous pictograms
A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and g ...
and petroglyphs
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
dating to between 9000 and 12000 years ago or less than 4000 years ago.[Ribeiro, Pedro A. Mentz et al. "Projeto Arqueológico de Salvamento no Territorio Federal de Roraima" (1986, 1987 1989) ''Cepa (Santa Cruz do Sul)'' 13 (16): 5–48; 14 (17): 1–81; 16 (19): 5-48-] Designs above the ground on the sheer exterior face of the rock were probably painted by people standing in canoes on the surface of the now-vanished lake. Gold, which was reported to be washed up on the shores of the lake, was most likely carried by streams and rivers out of the mountains where it can be found today."Significant gold deposits in Roraima Basin – study," ''Stabroek News,'' March 22, 2009
/ref>
Additional maps
Map from 1626
by John Speed
John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.S. Bendall, 'Speed, John (1551/2–1629), historian and cartographer', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (OUP 2004/ ...
showing Lake Parime, Lake Cassipa and Lake Eupana
Map from 1635
by Willem Blaeu
Willem Janszoon Blaeu (; 157121 October 1638), also abbreviated to Willem Jansz. Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker and publisher. Along with his son Johannes Blaeu, Willem is considered one of the notable figures of the Netherlandis ...
Map from 1652
by Nicolas Sanson
Nicolas Sanson (20 December 1600 – 7 July 1667) was a French cartographer who served under two kings in matters of geography. He has been called the "father of French cartography."
Life and work
He was born of an old Picard family of Sco ...
showing ''"Lac ou Mer de Parime"'' and the city of El Dorado on the western shore
Map from 1690
by Vincenzo Coronelli
Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (August 16, 1650 – December 9, 1718) was an Italian Franciscan friar, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist known in particular for his atlases and globes. He spent most of his life in Venice.
Biogr ...
which mentions ''"La Città del Manoa del Dorado"'' and shows Lake Cassipa and Lake Xarayes
Map from 1707
by Samuel Fritz
Samuel Fritz SJ (9 April 1654 – 20 March 1725, 1728 or 1730) was a Czech Jesuit missionary, noted for his exploration of the Amazon River and its basin. He spent most of his life preaching to Indigenous communities in the western Amazon r ...
Map from 1750
by Emanuel Bowen
Emanuel Bowen (1694 – 8 May 1767) was a Welsh map engraver, who achieved the unique distinction of becoming Royal Mapmaker to both to King George II of Great Britain and Louis XV of France. Bowen was highly regarded by his contemporaries for p ...
showing Lake Parima and the city of Manoa
Map from 1751
by Giovanni Petroschi and Carolo Brentano, showing ''"Parime Lacus, ab auri opulentia fabulosus"''.
Map from 1796
by Francisco Requena
Map from 1807
by William Faden William Faden (1749 – 1836) was an English cartographer and a publisher of maps. He was the royal geographer to King George III. He replaced Thomas Jefferys in that role.
The title of "geographer to the king" was given to various people in t ...
which shows the "Golden Lake or Lake Parime, called likewise Parana Pitinga i.e. White Sea, on the Banks of which the Discoverers of the 16th century did place the Imaginary city of Manoa del Dorado".
Map from 1840
by Robert Schomburgk
Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (5 June 1804 – 11 March 1865) was a German-born explorer for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missio ...
showing Lake Amucu
Notes
References
{{Authority control
Parime
Exploration of South America
Lost places
Colonial Brazil
Geography of Guyana
Geography of Roraima
Geography of Venezuela
History of Guyana
History of Roraima
History of Venezuela
Parime
Maps of the history of the Americas
Fictional locations in South America
Former lakes of South America