Laguna de Guatavita
| Laguna de Guatavita | ||
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| Geographical location | Cundinamarca , Colombia | |
| Location close to the shore | Guatavita , sesquile | |
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| Coordinates | 4 ° 58 '39 " N , 73 ° 46' 30" W | |
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The Laguna de Guatavita ( Lagoon of Guatavita ) is a small mountain lake northeast of Bogotá . The lake is located at an altitude of over 3000 m in the mountains of Cundinamarca in the area of the municipality of Sesquilé . It became famous because of the Eldorado myth.
Muisca and Eldorado
The Guatavita Lake was the most revered of the five sacred lakes of the Muisca , which should all be inhabited by snake deities. The Muisca were an Indian people in today's Colombia . According to an old Indian legend, the crater-shaped lake was created after a huge stone ( meteor ) fell from the sky and bored through the earth.
Guatavita was probably actually the scene of the Eldorado legend (see “Legend” there). What is unknown, however, is how much of this is true and what is invented.
Gold finds
Gold artifacts have already been found at the bottom of the lake, but not as many as the legend suggests. The artifacts include a. Tunjos , which have also been discovered in other lakes, coins, emeralds , cult objects and gold nose rings from the 7th century.
Try to drain the lake
In 1545 the Spaniards Lázaro Fonte and Hernán Perez de Quesada , the brother of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada , used the dry season at that time and skimmed off the water with pumpkin skins in just three months. The water level fell 3 m and released gold objects and gold coins worth 3000 to 4000 pesos.
In 1580 the Spanish merchant Antonio de Sepúlveda tried to dry the lake. Together with about 8,000 Indians he wanted to "cut open" the bank and drain the water, but after the water level fell by about 20 m, the walls of the deep trench collapsed and blocked the drainage channel. Hundreds of Indian workers died in the process. The project then had to be ended. Antonio de Sepúlveda discovered some gold objects, such as discs or symbols of deities, and emeralds.
José Ignacio Paris (Don "Pepe" Paris), a friend of Simón Bolívar , tried like Antonio de Sepulveda to drain the lake in the 1820s, but the company failed due to poor excavation work and the lack of funds.
The British entrepreneur Hartley Knowles managed to completely drain the water by building a tunnel in 1898, but the exposed lake floor was covered with a meter-thick layer of mud that was inaccessible. The next day they tried to remove the mud with shovels, but the sun hardened the mud floor. Shortly afterwards, the mud blocked the tunnel and the lake filled with water again. Hartley Knowles discovered a number of objects valued at around £ 500.
In 1965 the Colombian government declared the mountain lake Guatavita a national heritage, ending all attempts to drain the lake.
