Case file · Folklore / legend
Walter Raleigh's El Dorado voyage
In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh sailed up the Orinoco to the Caroní river looking for Manoa, the city of 'El Dorado', and published The Discovery of Guiana the next year.
1595 CE · 8.35, -62.70 · status: legend
The account
Raleigh repeated the tale of Juan Martínez, a Spaniard said to have been led blindfold to Manoa and to have lived there seven months. The book made Guiana a byword for hidden gold in England.
The sceptical view
Raleigh never reached any city; his book was also promotion for investors, and he admitted much of it was hearsay.
Connections in the atlas
- The Ewaipanoma, headless men of the Caura
- Antonio de Berrío's search for Manoa
- Raleigh's last expedition and San Thomé
- Lake Parime on the maps