History Fix
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Ep. 167 El Dorado: How the Mythical City of Gold Was Actually Always a Person

Dela

Of course we’re going to El Dorado! Or, at least, we’re going to meet him? Because, when you take a look at the primary sources, where this myth of El Dorado, the city of gold, really came from, it becomes immediately apparent that El Dorado was never a city at all… he was a person. El Dorado, the gilded one, was first described as a wealthy leader who covered his body in gold dust and then washed it off in a sacred lake. The Spanish simply took that and ran with it. If this king had enough gold that he could wash it away, discard it, every single night, he must be extraordinarily wealthy. In fact, he must live in an entire city made of gold. But that, of course, was a stretch based entirely on cultural misunderstandings and downright greed. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop man after man - Spanish, German, English - from trying, and failing, to find this imaginary city of gold.  

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