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Since the 1500s, the Legend of El Dorado has described a Lost of City of Gold, a myth that drove hordes of conquistadors into South American jungles in pursuit of riches. Rediscovered records and artifacts have now revealed the remarkable origin story of this legend. It began with Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada’s campaign into the highlands of Colombia, where he encountered a thriving society rich in gold and emeralds, the Muisca confederation of tribes.

Within Southeast Colombia's Orinoco River basin, a series of massive rocky sandstone mesas, called tepuis, rise up from the dense humid jungle. Since ancient times the cliffs of these mountains were important cultural sites. They served as shelters, navigational way points, communal gathering sites, and as giant canvases for their rock art, to communicate their mythologies, histories and exploits. One such stretch of these tepuis, La Serranía de La Lindosa, contains some of most extensive and...

Within Colombia's mountainous southwest, high in the Alto Magdalena river basin, are the ancient remains of a network of tribal chiefdoms. Many of the locals in this area still get around on horseback, which is also a great way to travel between the archeological sites. This is a steep, mountainous landscape, of dense jungle checkered with coffee and banana plantations. Through the last century much of the forest has been cleared to make way for this farmland, and in the process dozens of ear...