The Claim
There’s millions worth of gold and treasure at the bottom of Lake Guatavita
El Dorado is the tale most commonly associated with a mystical lost city hidden somewhere in the jungle, but the tale is actually connected to a priest of the Muisca people who inhabited this land before it was discovered by Spanish colonisers.
Lake Guatavita is located in the Colombian section of the Andes and was first thought to have been formed by salt deposits dissolving over time to create a round sink hole type lake. But back in the days of the Muisca people it was a holy place and often the site of various god pleasing rituals.
The tale of El Dorado relates to one such priest of the Muisca civilisation who was said to cover himself in gold dust and swim out into the lake, often throwing valuables into the water such as gold and gems to please the gods. The tale of the hidden tribal city somewhere in the jungle that contains all the gold and riches of its people is actually the tale of Paititi.
It is not known exactly what was thrown into the lake or how often this took place as the Muisca did not record such things, but after the Spanish heard about how a local population were just throwing gold into a lake, they were naturally interested. The first Spanish explorer to reach the lake was a man by the name of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, who is believed to have arrived mid 1537, though some sources place his arrival in the previous year.
The Spanish had started to hear about the lake as early as 1531 from the locals but were never given an exact location. After Quesada reached the area he made first contact between the Spanish and Muisca people, which went exactly the same way that every other encounter between the Spanish and local tribes went.
The area was quickly took over but the first expedition to retrieve the gold from the lake didn’t happen until 1545. Before this small gold items were recovered near the shores but nothing substantial, though it was enough to confirm that the tales could be true, so they tried to drain the lake in 1545 which didn’t work. They only managed to lower the water level slightly and didn’t get anywhere near the bottom, but this was enough to recover numerous items of value.
The Spanish didn’t have better luck in their future attempts as they simply didn’t have the technology to drain such a big lake and on one occasion they attempted to section of parts of the lake and perform a part drainage on sections at a time which is said to have badly failed and resulted in the deaths of several hundred people.
After this there’s been numerous attempts by various people and groups to recover the goodies, but apart from a few bits and pieces nothing substantial has been found. The reason for this might be explained by the most recent major effort to drain the lake which happened in 1911. The company hired managed to drain the entire lake and even though they found a few bits of treasure, the mud at the bottom of the lake is said to have set solid when it made contact with the air and since the gold is supposed to have been down there for almost 500 years there’s the very real chance it could have sank well below the mud.
The project was abandoned after the bottom was cleared of any surface treasure as its not known where any gold may have sank and how far down they’d have to drill to find it, and with it taking great effort and cost to keep the lake empty the project was called off.
There’s a load of treasure at the bottom of Lake guatavita, could that be true?
Well yes it could, and not only could it be true it probably is. Even though these early tribes were considered quite primitive they were the first ones to utilise the use of gold in the region. Any large surface deposits and mines would have been untouched at this point, and south American tribes were well known for being rich in gold, with it even being used for jewelry amongst the peasant classes.
It was also well known for being used as an offering to the gods, with many records from European colonists to south America claiming the sacred sites of settlements to contain by far the most gold.
As for throwing it into a lake to please the gods this is exactly the kind of thing they used to do. These tribes used to worship anything they didn’t understand, from mountains and lakes to the sun and moon, often having separate gods for each. If their lake god was somehow related to perhaps harvest or war or health, it would make sense to them that to please the lake god they’d have to offer something to the lake.
Today even swimming in the lake is banned by the Colombian government and the area is also known to be quite dangerous, with various criminal organisations operating in the area. So will it ever be found?, well with the area being as bad as it is and the Colombian government not being keen on supporting expeditions, combined with there not being any actual guaranteed “proof” there’s wealth down there, its unlikely anyone will find it in the near future.
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