Route del Dorado

General information

Destination
Bogota, Colombia

Program details

Pass through the doors of one of Bogata's most visited museums and de dazzled by the world's largest pre-Hispanic gold collection with about thirty-four thousand pieces of gold and tumbaga, about twenty-five thousand objects in ceramic, stone, shell, bone and textiles, which are from different indigenous cultures settled in present Colombia before the arrival of Europeans.



Continue with a visit to the sacred Guatavita lake, where you can hike to the ancient sacred lake, one of the sacred lakes of the Indian Tribe of the Muiscas, and where the ritual of the investiture of the new Zipa (Cacique) was performed; according to tradition, it was on a raft richly ornamented reeds; her body was covered entirely with gold dust; at her feet, a large pile of gold and emeralds was placed as an offering to the gods and braziers to burn a kind of incense called moque, the people that were standing on the banks threw pieces of gold and other precious stones into the waters.



This is just one of the origins of the legend of El Dorado. The famous Balsa Muisca on display at the Museo del Oro is evidence that such rituals were held in the lakes of the region and you will trace the same paths where once the zipas walked to this unique and special place.