Fray Marcos and the city of Cíbola

After Esteban's death in 1539, Fray Marcos de Niza reported that he had seen from a hill a city of Cíbola larger than Mexico City, feeding the legend of the Seven Cities of Gold and launching Coronado's 1540 expedition.

1539 CE · 34.98, -108.83 · status: explained

The account

Coronado found the Zuni pueblos, stone-and-adobe towns with no gold, and cursed the friar's report. The quest moved east to Quivira on the Plains.

The sceptical view

Historians doubt Marcos got close enough to see Hawikuh at all; the golden city was an old Iberian legend of seven bishops' cities.

Connections in the atlas

• Quivira, the city of gold
• The death of Esteban at Hawikuh

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Seven Cities of Gold