1. Searching for El Dorado
WORLD HISTORY READERS
Level 1-②
Searching for El Dorado

2. El Dorado What did Europeans hope to find in El Dorado?
A beautiful city full of gold with golden streets
Because it would make them rich.
Why did they want to find the city of gold?
Why did the Europeans believe there was a place of great wealth hidden somewhere?
Because they had already found people in South America with gold.
South America

3. A New Land
A ceremony in Bolivia
Andean people today
Why did many explorers travel thousands of kilometers to the new land?
What strange things did Europeans find in South America?
To find gold.
They had a different culture with different languages and customs. They also had different music and ceremonies.
How were the people in the new land different?
Strange trees, strange plants, strange flowers, strange animals, and people with strange customs

4. The Real El Dorado Did the Spanish find the gold?
Ancient Muisca Art in Gold
The Andes Mountains, Columbia
Did the Spanish find the gold?
They found only small amounts of gold. Many people died due to the fights with the local people.
Who did the Spanish hear was the real El Dorado?
They heard the real El Dorado was a person, the head of the Muisca people.

5. A New King
What did the Muisca people do during the ceremony when they chose a new king?
They covered the body of the king with little pieces of gold.
Then they took him in a boat to the middle of Lake Guatavita.
The king jumped into the water and washed off the gold.
Then the people threw gold and jewels into the lake.

6. The lmportance of Gold trade
Gold dust
How was gold used in important ways by the Muisca people?
They used gold as an offering to their gods. They also gave gold to others for salt, feathers, shells, and other things.
They didn’t have much gold but used it for many things.

7. How to Get the Gold
What did the Spanish find when they emptied some of Lake Guatavita?
They found hundreds of pieces of gold. However, they did not find the large amount of gold they wanted.
When did they empty some of the lake?
In the year 1545

8. Sir Walter Releigh What did Sir Walter Raleigh think about El Dorado?
He thought the city was called Manoa. He tried to find it using some old maps.
Did he find the city? If not, who found the lost city?
He never found the city, but he learned many things about the people and country. No one ever found a lost city or any mountains of gold.

9. The Meaning of El Dorado Today
What does El Dorado mean today?
Today, El Dorado can mean a place of great riches, or it can be the name of a town where gold has been found. Sometimes it just means success or a flower or even a movie theater.
It was only a legend. El Dorado lives, it seems, in our hearts and dreams.

10. Vocabulary explorer n. golden adj.
a person who travels to places where no one has ever been in order to find out what is there
golden adj.
made of gold

11. Vocabulary feather n. lake n. a large area of water surrounded by land
one of the many soft, light things that cover a bird's body
lake n.
a large area of water surrounded by land

12. Vocabulary shell n. edge n.
the hard outer covering of something, especially nuts, eggs, and some animals
edge n.
the outer or furthest point of something

13. Vocabulary ceremony n. king n.
a formal religious or public occasion, typically one celebrating a particular event or anniversary
king n.
the male ruler of a country, who holds this position because of his royal birth