El Dorado is the name of a Muisca tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and, as an initiation rite, dove into a highland lake. Later it became the name of a legendary "Lost City of Gold", which fascinated explorers since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors. No evidence for its existence has been found.
Imagined as a place, El Dorado became a kingdom, am empire, and the city of this legendary golden king. In pursuit of the legend, Francisco Orellana and Gonzalo Pizarro departed from Quito in 1541 in a famous and disastrous expedition towards the Amazon Basin, as a result of which Orellana became the first person known to navigate the Amazon River all the way to its mouth.
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