El Dorado El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden one"), originally "El Hombre Dorado" ("The Golden Man") or "El Rey Dorado" ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish Empire to describe a mythical tribal chief ("zipa") of the Muisca native people in then Spanish colonial province of Colombia, who, as an initiation rite, covered himself with gold dust and submerged in Lake Guatavita. 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. A second location for El Dorado
Raleigh's El Dorado Expedition Guyana after 1796 when the Essequibo (part of the Dutch Guyana) was taken by the English, who had initiated the massive introduction of settlers and slaves for their plantations. By the early 19th century, as more explorers came to the region, Lake Parime's existence was definitively disproved and there was a theory that the seasonal flooding of the Rupununi savannah may have been misidentified as such. Raleigh's El Dorado Expedition Raleigh's El Dorado expedition, also known as Raleigh's first voyage to Guiana, was an English military and exploratory expedition led by Sir Walter Raleigh that took place during the Anglo–Spanish