This is probably the most famous piece in Bogotá‘s Museo del Oro (Gold Museum). It is a stunning miniature scene depicting the Musica’s El Dorado ceremony, when the new chief assumed his powers. The ceremony involved him painting himself with gold dust and dumping gold and jewels into a highland lake as an offering to his god. As you can imagine it fed the myth of El Dorado, the city of gold, and hundreds of Spaniards were taken with searching for this mythical place.
In the end, the gold of the Musica people fed the Spaniards desire for the Americas. By the 1540s the gold hungry Spaniards were searching feverishly for gold deposits. Sure they found some, but most of it was used by the indegenous people for religious reasons, not for wealth.
The Museo del Oro has an amazing collection of over 55,000 gold pieces. The goldsmith abilities of the indigenous peoples are incredible, we saw varieties of knives, figurines and statues depicting gods in addition to various ritual items and masks. The museums collection is breathtakingly stunning and although we loved Colombia for it’s culture and people, this museum was one of our favorites on the entire continent. Believe me, you’ve never seen craftsmanship like this in gold. It’s certainly worth the trip to Bogota!
To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series. Colombia was one of our favorite countries on our trip, one that surprised us in only pleasant ways. You can read more about our travels in Colombia. The northern coast around Cartagena would be a great place to look for late deal holidays!
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