Guatavita Lagoon sits at 3,100 meters elevation in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, roughly 75 km northeast of Bogotá. This small crater lake — just 19.8 hectares in surface area — gave birth to one of the most enduring legends in the Americas: El Dorado. For the Muisca civilization, which at the time of Spanish contact numbered an estimated 500,000 to one million people and ranked among the most advanced pre-Columbian societies in South America, the lagoon was a sacred site where the investiture of each new Zipa (paramount chief) took place. The golden ritual performed here — in which the new ruler was coated in gold dust and made offerings to the waters — was so extraordinary that it launched centuries of treasure-seeking expeditions and shaped European mythology about the New World.
The circular shape of the lake suggests a possible meteorite impact origin, though geological debate continues. What is certain is that the Muisca considered it a portal between the physical and spiritual worlds. The famous Muisca Raft, a gold votive figure discovered in 1969 in a ceramic vessel near Pasca, Cundinamarca, is now the centerpiece of Bogotá’s Gold Museum and provides archaeological confirmation that these ceremonies actually took place.
Guatavita comes from the Chibcha language GUA-TA-VITA, which translated into Spanish means “tillage of the tip” or “end of the mountain range”, as stated by the linguist Joaquín Acosta Ortegón in his Chibcha dictionary. The Chronicler Fray Pedro Simón, in his “Historical News”, said that Guatavita was called Guatafita, which means “thing set on high”, stating that it was the Spaniards who made the change from F to V to give it more phonetic sweetness to that name.
Origins of El Dorado Legend
According to the Muisca tradition, in Guatavita the cacique Sua was married to a beautiful princess from another tribe. Sua was very fond of chicha and bacchanals, and his wife, with whom he had a daughter, fell in love with a warrior who was courting her.
The lovers were caught by Sua, and he subjected the warrior to horrendous tortures, to the point of taking his heart out and serving it to his wife. The woman fled in despair, took her daughter in her arms and dove with her into the lagoon.
The cacique ordered the priests to recover his family. They informed him that the woman was now living under water, where a large snake had betrothed her. The cacique demanded that his daughter be brought to him, and they brought him a child without eyes. Sua, disheartened, returned her to the waters and ordered that from that day on, the best emeralds and gold filigrees be thrown into the lagoon (if you want to know about filigrees watch our video Santa Fe de Antioquia). The purpose of the ceremony was to beg the queen to ask the gods for prosperity and bonanza for her people.
Every full moon, Guatavita’s snake emerged from the waters to remind the people about the offerings, the priests watched his appearance as a sign of prosperity.
The Golden Indigenous
With the Spanish invasion, the ritual acquired a new meaning. They were told that a ritual was carried out when a new cacique, usually the nephew, son of a sister of the previous cacique, was in power.
The heir prepared himself within a six years period before the ceremony. He had to purify himself through fasting, and confined himself in a cave where he could not see the sun or eat food with salt or chili.
Some chroniclers have narrated it this way:
“…In that Guatavita lagoon, a great raft of reeds was made, decorated as brightly as possible… They undressed the successor, smeared him with a sticky soil and sprinkled him with gold powder and ground, so that in the raft everything was covered with this metal…
The golden indigenous man made his offering by pouring all the gold and emeralds he carried into the middle of the lagoon, and the four chiefs who went with him did the same. During the way back to land in the raft, they started a party, with bagpipes and “fotutos”, with dances in their own way, with which ceremony they received the new cacique who was recognized as lord and prince …”
From this ceremony was taken that so celebrated name of El Dorado.
The Muisca Raft: Archaeological Evidence
The most compelling physical evidence of the El Dorado ceremonies came to light in 1969, when a farmer discovered a ceramic vessel in a cave near Pasca, Cundinamarca. Inside was a gold alloy figure depicting a raft carrying a central figure flanked by attendants — matching colonial-era descriptions of the Zipa’s investiture ritual with remarkable precision. The piece, measuring approximately 19.5 cm long and weighing 287 grams, is crafted using the lost-wax casting technique (tumbaga), demonstrating the sophisticated metallurgical knowledge of the Muisca.
Beyond the raft, archaeologists have recovered numerous tunjos (small votive figurines) from lakes and caves across Muisca territory. These flat, stylized human figures were created specifically as offerings to the gods and were never intended for display. The Gold Museum in Bogotá houses over 34,000 gold objects from pre-Columbian Colombia, with the Muisca collection forming one of its most significant holdings. The Muisca were not primarily gold miners — they acquired raw gold through trade networks extending to the Magdalena River valley — but their goldworking artistry, particularly in the creation of ceremonial objects, was among the finest in the Americas.
The Search for the Treasure
The history of the “golden indigenous” gave rise to the “El Dorado”, a mythical place that the conquistadors sought from the Andes to the Amazon, with such eagerness that within a week, in 1539, three expeditions led by Sebastián de Belalcázar, Nicolás de Federmán and Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, from Peru, Venezuela and Santa Marta, respectively, coincided in Guatavita.
There were several attempts to drain the lagoon to find its hidden treasures, among which the most important were that of Captain Lázaro Fonte, who was able to extract several pieces of fine gold, and that of Antonio de Sepúlveda in the 16th century, who also managed to remove emeralds and ceramic pieces.
In 1580, a merchant named Juan Sepulveda employed 5,000 indigenous men and dug a canal to drain it. The water level dropped as much as 20 meters, but then the canal collapsed and the King of Spain refused to continue financing the enterprise. Sepulveda had to abandon, despite having rescued several pieces of filigree and an emerald the size of a fist.
Unsuccessful attempts continued throughout the colony, but the legendary gold continues to fuel treasure hunters’ dreams to this day. In an old German book published in 1911, for example, there is even a photograph, supposedly real, of the totally drained lagoon.
In the book is narrated that some W. Cooper, representative of the English company Contractors Limited, had shown two German tourists photographs of objects taken from the lagoon as rings, snakes, frogs and men’s heads, made of gold. This Cooper told them that the value of the gold found since 1909 amounted to at least 500 pounds, which paid several times the investment of the expedition.
Recovery of Guatavita Lagoon
What is certain is that the Guatavita lagoon, when you visit it for the first time, is smaller than you could imagine… given the size of the legend!. But the sad thing is that this happened after it was emptied of more than half its contents by gold diggers, English and Germans, among others, until the end of the 19th century. These treasure hunters opened a hole in the mountain to drain the water to take out the gold pieces that rested at the bottom of the lagoon.
Fortunately, the failure of all these expeditions appeased the greed of the gold diggers. Initially, the place was reduced to abandonment, and at the beginning of the 21st century the park was closed to the public to try to recover it.
Today, a good part of its splendor has been reborn, with the frailejones, bromeliads, lichens, arnicas and multicolored mosses. The true treasure is the lagoon and the páramos of Colombia, because from there the water flows to all the surrounding regions.
Currently, the lagoon is located in an environmentally protected area where you can access a trail that crosses an impressive mountainous area, full of vegetation and typical species of the Colombian páramo.
We recommend you to visit the Guatavita Lagoon after visiting the Golden Museum in Bogotá.
How to Get to Guatavita Lagoon
Guatavita town is located 75 kilometers northeast of Bogotá, bordering the municipalities of Sesquilé and Machetá to the north; Gachetá and Junín to the east; Guasca and Sopó to the south; and Tocancipá and Gachancipá to the west.
However, Guatavita Lagoon is 8 km from the road that borders the Tominé reservoir, besides the town.
The Guatavita lagoon today is a Regional Natural Reserve of the System of Protected areas of Colombia. Entrance fee for foreigners is around of 13,000 COP (3.5 USD). After paying, you will be led by a local specialized guide, in small groups, through a natural path along the paramo.
Local guides are from the Muisca community which still inhabits the region.
Ecology & Conservation of the Guatavita Watershed
Guatavita Lagoon sits within the high Andean páramo ecosystem, surrounded by vegetation adapted to cold, wet conditions above 3,000 meters. The slopes around the lake support frailejones (Espeletia spp.), bromeliads, lichens, mosses, and native shrubs — plant communities that function as natural water catchments, absorbing moisture from clouds and slowly releasing it into the watershed. This hydrological role makes the Guatavita páramo critical for the water supply of surrounding municipalities.
The lagoon is classified as a Regional Natural Reserve under the administration of the Corporación Autónoma Regional (CAR). After centuries of physical damage from drainage attempts — including the canal visible today that was cut through the rim in the 16th century — the site was closed to the public in the early 2000s for ecological restoration. Since reopening, access is strictly controlled: visitors follow a designated trail with Muisca community guides, and no objects may be removed from the site. The restoration has allowed native páramo vegetation to recover significantly, though the lake’s water level remains permanently reduced from historical drainage efforts.
Accommodation Near Guatavita Lagoon
You can find accommodation in the town of Guatavita or in the nearby parks associated with the reservoir circuit that exist throughout the region. This accommodation, offered by the parks, is of the shared cabin type, with a minimum cost of 215,000 COP (60 USD), depending on the number of people.
Recommendations
To enjoy it to the fullest, we recommend you take comfortable, warm and waterproof clothing, as the average temperature of the place is 13ºC and rainfall is frequent. However, none of this will prevent you from having a deep connection with nature and with the ancestral past that this lagoon hides, and that makes it an authentic cultural heritage of the country.
If you want to know more about Colombian nature tours, or want to visit Guatavita Lagoon, follow us, write us comments, or just contact us.
References
- Corporación Autónoma Regional CAR
- Sacred Places of America. Juan Tafur. OCEANO-AMBAR, 2009.
- Wikipedia
- Colparques Website
- El Tiempo News Archives
- Pueblos Originarios Cosmogonía Blog
Sara Colmenares holds a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Ecology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Master’s degree in Botany from the same institution. Her doctoral research focused on palm ecology in the Atlantic Forest, supported by the Rufford Foundation conservation grant.
A published researcher in the Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology and a member of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), Sara has presented her work at international conferences across Latin America and beyond. She was awarded the COLCIENCIAS “Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda” fellowship, one of Colombia’s most competitive academic distinctions for young researchers.
Sara founded the Sula nature tourism brand in 2018, applying her scientific expertise to develop birding and wildlife experiences across Colombia’s six natural regions. Her fieldwork took her from the cloud forests of the Andes to the Amazon basin, the Pacific coast, and the plains of the Orinoquía. She combined deep ecological knowledge with firsthand experience to create content that is both scientifically accurate and practically useful for nature travelers.
She holds a B.Sc. in Biology from the National University of Colombia, where she also taught plant ecophysiology. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English.