Gold Museum

Our next stop was at the Gold Museum. At home, I have a copy of '1000 Places to See Before You Die'. In it, when I checked before the start of this trip, one of the essential places to visit in Colombia is the Gold Museum. I was very happy to be doing it on our first full day in the country!

The museum displays a selection of pre-Columbian gold and other metal alloys, such as Tumbaga, and contains the largest collection of gold artefacts in the world. These items testify to the life and thought of the different indigenous societies that lived in present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

The most important exhibit in the museum is the tiny Muisca golden raft found in Pasca in 1969. It represents the ceremony of the new zipa (ruler) of Muyquytá, the basis for the El Dorado myth. The heir to the chieftaincy assumed power with a great offering to the gods. In this representation, he is seen standing at the centre of a raft, surrounded by the principal chieftains, all of them adorned with gold and feathers.

It was fascinating to explore the museum with Gina as our guide. Her knowledge and gift for storytelling really gave meaning to what we were seeing.

Outside the museum, a group of adults and children were painting patterns on a plain wall surrounding a communal space as part of a community project to improve their neighbourhood.Read more