The legends surrounding El Dorado changed over time, as it went from being a man, to a city, to a kingdom, and then finally to an empire.
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15 Facts About El Dorado
2.
Second location for El Dorado was inferred from rumors, which inspired several unsuccessful expeditions in the late 1500s in search of a city called Manoa on the shores of Lake Parime or Parima.
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3.
El Dorado went about all covered with powdered gold, as casually as if it were powdered salt.
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4.
El Dorado is applied to a legendary story in which precious stones were found in fabulous abundance along with gold coins.
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5.
The concept of El Dorado underwent several transformations, and eventually accounts of the previous myth were combined with those of a legendary lost city.
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6.
El Dorado was brought thither all the way blindfold, led by the Indians, until he came to the entrance of Manoa itself, and was fourteen or fifteen days in the passage.
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7.
Meanwhile, the name of El Dorado came to be used metaphorically of any place where wealth could be rapidly acquired.
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8.
El Dorado is sometimes used as a metaphor to represent an ultimate prize or "Holy Grail" that one might spend one's life seeking.
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9.
El Dorado led those of his followers who survived back to Coro in 1546.
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10.
In 1536, stories of El Dorado drew the Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada and his army of 800 men away from their mission to find an overland route to Peru and up into the Andean homeland of the Muisca for the first time.
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11.
Quesada believed this might have been El Dorado and decided to postpone his return to Santa Marta and continue his expedition for another year.
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12.
El Dorado ordered Orellana to continue downstream, where he eventually made it to the Atlantic Ocean.
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13.
El Dorado died a poor man, and is buried at the church in the small town of Guatavita.
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14.
El Dorado filed for bankruptcy and ceased activities in 1929.
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15.
El Dorado was encouraged by the account of Juan Martinez, believed to be Juan Martin de Albujar, who had taken part in Pedro de Silva's expedition of the area in 1570, only to fall into the hands of the Caribs of the Lower Orinoco.
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