El Dorado is Spanish for “the golden one” and is a legend that began with the story of a South American tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and would dive into a lake of pure mountain water.
The legend originates in present-day Colombia, where conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada first found the Muiscas, a nation in the modern day Cundinamarca and Boyacá highlands of Colombia, in 1537. The story of Muisca rituals was brought to Quito by Sebastián de Belalcázar’s men; mixed with other rumors, there arose the legend of ‘El Dorado’ (meaning the Golden Man rather than a place – ‘el indio dorado’, the golden Indian or ‘El Rey Dorado’, The Golden King).