The Guatavita Lake or Lagoon is the door to the treasure promised by the legend of El Dorado. The Muiscas, of the Chibcha family, an indigenous civilization that achieved a similar development of the Aztecs or the Incas, considered this lagoon sacred, the place where they passed from the physical to the spiritual world and where they carried out the most sacred rituals, offering objects of gold and precious stones to the waters. This history has obsessed men from all over the world, especially from the conquest to the first decades of the 20th century. Europeans and Americans tried tirelessly to drain the lake to find the gold that lived at the bottom of the water, but it is said that the goddess of the lagoon is still there, protecting her offerings.
From a geological approach, which looks in depth at the relationship between the earth, its formation, the formation of this mountaintop lagoon and its connection to the legends, myths and cultural traditions of the indigenous peoples, this paper explores the values and cultural significance that the Guatavita Lagoon had for both the communities of this region and the European colonisers, which has endured to this day.
Topic: Heritage and Geology
Language: English
Year: 2020
