To visit the gold museums at Cartagena and Santa Marta in Colombia is to travel between history and legend. The certainty that vast gold treasures and precious stones were hidden in these large territories gave rise to El Dorado legend..

The floods of large Colombian rivers, Magdalena and Cauca provide the pleasures given by water and contain the most important deposit of South America used from ancient times. The first expedition made to Zenú was sent from Urabá (near the Colombian border with Panama) in 1515, followed by a larger one in 1534, under the command of Pedro de Heredia, then governor of Cartagena de Indias. To discover gold in Zenú lands was easy for the conquerors at first sight, since the artificial hills which emerged from the savannas were the tombs where their inhabitants placed the cherished metal. Cartagena´s treasurer official -who belonged to Heredia's expedition- refers the presence of funerary tumulus which turned since then in the conquerors' first interest in the area: "On the way, we found a village by the name of Cenú, there the number of inhabitants was not large, nor in the village nor in the area, thirty thousand pesos in gold were found in the village. We then learnt from the own Indians who were captured there that the small heaps of land seen along the village were tombs and they had gold." Near the large Temple of Zenú, Spaniards saw gold little bells hanging on tree branches. "Near this sanctuary (Finzenú) was a small mountain, covered by different kinds of trees of wide and thinner trunks, fine gold bells in an ordered line were hanging from the branches, they were not well carved since their shapes resemble that of a pharmacist's metal mortar, some of them were really big:" (Simón 1) The society known as Sinú was amphibian and flourished between the 5th and 10th centuries after Christ. Its long network of artificial channels extended over San Jorge, Sinú, Cauca and Magdalena rivers allowed the population to control the flood system of one or another river, leading the water surplus to its natural outlets, using the sediment and forming a long communication network through rivers.

The Seduction of Nature There are representations of human figures of different sizes and costumes, on some occasions wearing woven hats and items in the hands to indicate their rank and position. On display are also birds of attractive crests and colorful feathers, water birds, felines and caymans. Four kinds of items in gold work are displayed as the most characteristic and chiefly distributed in the Caribbean plains: decorative ends of batons, cast filigreed earguards, nose rings with horizontal attachments and mammalian-shaped pectorals.

Museums of Cartagena, A Historical Legacy The Great Zenú region comprises territories of the present Colombian departments of Bolívar, Sucre, Córdoba and a part of Antioquia. The most beautiful colonial city of the Americas is located in Bolívar, the celebrated Cartagena de Indias founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia.The real capital of colonial South America was Cartagena de Indias. Cartagena de Indias has been declared a "Historical and Cultural Heritage of Mankind" by UNESCO. Bolívar Square is the heart of the historical area. On a side, the Palacio del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición (Palace of the Holy Office of the Inquisition), established in Cartagena in 1610. Its juris-diction was extended along the whole Caribbean for two centuries. The building was erected in 1770 and today is the headquarters of the Museum of History and the Academy of Cartagena's History. Opposite the former building is Sinú's Gold Museum in a restored colonial house. Phone: 65 52 12. This Gold Museum displays Sinú culture: artifacts, models, air photographs of the old systems of channels, ceramics and gold work. The Museum participates in projects as the reconstruction of a part of Zenú. The Museum participates in projects as the reconstruction of a part of Zenú's prehispanic hydraulic system. Efforts have been made at rescuing Zenú's technology to recover these fertile lands, flooded most of the year. The technology of over two thousand years still contributes to the development of the 21st century.

Tayronas, Spirituality throughout the Gold

Santa Marta is the oldest Hispanic city of Colombia. Its location was chosen for the security of its immense bay along the Caribbean bank. A beautiful colonial building, named Casa de la Aduana (Customs House), houses the Archeological Museum. It exhibits a good collection of pieces belonging to Tayrona culture. On a side of the large house are on display, ceramics, some necklaces, models of Tayrona cities and photographic panels showing the rites of current aboriginal population of the Sierra de Santa Marta. The well-preserved chamber of the museum conserves special gold items of an exceptional value. The shadow of the hall, contrasting with the light of the show windows, creates a mysterious halo that increases the spiritual value emerging from the pieces. The museum is located on Calle 14, in the very heart of the city. Its visiting hours is from 8 a.m. to 12 m. And from 14 p.m. to 18 p.m. Phone: 21 09 53. Santa Marta's Sierra Nevada (Snowy Hill) is one of the highest mountainous ranges of the world by the sea. It starts on the Caribbean bank and reaches 6,000 m above the sea level with perpetual snow. The ancient aboriginal populations settled on the diverse thermal steps from the sea level to 2,800 m high, while in the cold high barren plateaus and high lakes of glacial origin, there they had sites devoted to their cult. Over 200 Tayrona settlements have been located, thanks to the science of archeology. At present, Pueblito is the most visited of them all, since the impressive Lost City is at a distance of three days of walk. The archeological remains speak of a rather developed culture in such fields as urban engineering and gold work. The Tayronas built large cities with hundreds of houses, built on the rocks without using cohesive materials.

GOLD, A BRIDGE TOWARD THE OTHER WORLD For the Indians, the meaning of gold pieces were double. It was the link among three worlds: that found down the mountain slopes, the land and the sky where gods live and also the original world , before time was born and consequently, death. On the other hand, the representations of human beings, real and fantastic animals and the combinations of men and beasts, by which they tried to recover that very moment before death, when all human beings were made of gold. Many pendants from Tayrona culture, portrayed the representation of men and animals, a merge that should have corresponded to both the totemic representation and the magic intention of seizing the powers of the animals there represented. The Tayronas used the process called lost wax to melt gold pieces. With beeswax the objects to be reproduced was shaped. Wax was also added in the necessary channels for the entrance of the molten metal. The model was then covered by different wax layers. After drying, the mold was placed on fire and the wax was molten, leaving a hole in the interior. The molten metal was placed on the mold and once cold, the latter was broken to take out the metallic piece.