An Indian king who covered himself with gold.......maybe these were banks...........gold kept in caves...........and El Rey Dorado..........Golden King..............was the bank keeper..........who knows.....

Lake Guatavita

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This article is about a lake. For the town, see Guatavita.

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (March 2014) Click [show] for important translation instructions. [show] View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|es|Laguna de Guatavita}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Lake Guatavita
Location	Sesquilé, Cundinamarca
Coordinates	4°58′38″N 73°46′32″W / 4.97722°N 73.77556°W / 4.97722; -73.77556Coordinates: 4°58′38″N 73°46′32″W / 4.97722°N 73.77556°W / 4.97722; -73.77556
Primary inflows	Rain
Basin countries	Colombia
Max. length	700 metres (2,300 ft)
Max. width	700 metres (2,300 ft)
Surface area	19.8 hectares (49 acres)
Max. depth	125 metres (410 ft)
Surface elevation	3,000 metres (9,800 ft)
References	[1][2][3]

The zipa used to cover his body in gold dust and, from his raft, he offered treasures to the Guatavita goddess in the middle of the sacred lake. This Muisca tradition became the origin of El Dorado legend. Muisca raft in the Gold Museum, Bogotá, Colombia

Votive objects found at the bottom of Lake Guatavita in the British Museum.^[4]

Lake Guatavita (Spanish: Laguna de Guatavita or Lago Guatavita) is located in the Cordillera Oriental of the Colombian Andes in the municipality of Sesquilé, in the Almeidas Province, Cundinamarca department of Colombia, 57 kilometres (35 mi) north-east of Bogotá, capital of Colombia.
The lake is circular and has a surface area of 19.8 hectares. The earlier theories of the crater's origin being a meteorite impact, volcanic cinder, or limestone sinkhole are now discredited. The most likely explanation is that it resulted from the dissolution of underground salt deposits from an anticline,^[3] resulting in a kind of sinkhole.
There are hot springs nearby in the municipality of Sesquilé, which means "hot water".
While the existence of a sacred lake in the Eastern Ranges of the Andes associated with Indian rituals involving gold was known to the Spaniards earlier, possibly as early as 1531, its location only discovered in 1537 by conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada while on an expedition to the highlands of the Eastern Ranges of the Andes in search of gold. This brought the Spaniards into first contact with the Muisca people inhabiting the region around Bogota and the nearby Lake Guatavita.
The lake is now a focus of ecotourism, and its association with the legend of El Dorado is also a major attraction.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Etymology
• 2 Muisca mythology
• 3 Trivia
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Etymology[edit]

The name of the lake is derived from Chibcha, the language of the Muisca: gwa: mountain or gwata, gwate: high elevation, or gwatibita: high mountain peak; hence, a pool at a high mountain peak.^[5] Another meaning is "End of the farmfields".^[6]

Muisca mythology[edit]

Main article: El Dorado

See also: Muisca mythology

Lake Guatavita was reputedly one of the sacred lakes of the Muisca, and a ritual conducted there is widely thought to be the basis for the legend of El Dorado, "the golden one". The legend says the lake is where the Muisca celebrated a ritual in which the Zipa (named "El Dorado" by the Conquistadores) was covered in gold dust, then venturing out into the water on a ceremonial raft made of rushes, he dived into the waters, washing off the gold. Afterward, trinkets, jewelry, and other precious offerings were thrown into the waters by worshipers. A few artifacts of gold and silver found at bottom hold proof to this claim; however, to date, attempts to drain the lake or salvage the gold (see Lake Guatavita gold) have yielded no more than these.

Trivia[edit]

Lake Guatavita is where Fanny Lú filmed her music video for her song No Te Pido Flores

See also[edit]

Colombia portal

• Muisca religion
• Guatavita myth
• Lake Iguaque, another sacred lake of the Muisca
• Siecha Lakes, other lakes implicated in the El Dorado legend
• Tominé Reservoir, which buried the old town of Guatavita
• Tunjo, offer pieces in Lake Guatavita
• Gold Museum, Bogotá, where archaeological objects from the lake are displayed

References[edit]

1. Jump up ^ (Spanish) Google Maps Area Calculator
2. Jump up ^ (Spanish) Google Maps Elevation Finder
3. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Dietz ,R.S.; McHone, J.F. (1972). "Laguna Guatavita: Not Meteoritic, Probably Salt Collapse Crater". Meteoritics 7 (3): 303. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1972.tb00444.x. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
4. Jump up ^ British Museum Collection
5. Jump up ^ M. Louis Ghisletti, Los Mwiskas, Bogota, 1954
6. Jump up ^ (Spanish) Official website Guatavita