Legado de una ciudad perdida

The Ecotopia 2121 project predicts the future of 100 super-ecofriendly cities across the globe -- as though they have survived climate change and gone on to flourish anew. Today, we highlight the future of El Dorado.

Cada doce años más o menos, se desentierra una "Ciudad Perdida". Previamente confinadas a la leyenda, o a unos pocos textos, o tal vez completamente olvidadas por completo, las Ciudades Perdidas resurgen de vez en cuando para confrontarnos con historias de cómo vivía la gente en tiempos pasados. A pesar de estar envueltas en un misterio milenario, las Ciudades Perdidas suelen estar llenas de significado simbólico para quienes viven en el momento en que son redescubiertas. Cuentan historias de la Edad de Oro pasada y nos deleitan con formas de vida social hasta ahora desconocidas. Para algunos, refuerzan las fábulas sobre el apocalipsis; advirtiéndonos que las grandes civilizaciones pueden acabar en el olvido. Y en la era de la eco-catástrofe, donde la extinción humana es entretenida por mentes serias, Lost Cities ofrece advertencias saludables sobre la desaparición y el colapso.

In this scenario, the Lost City of El Dorado is stumbled upon again deep within the Colombian rainforest, re-emerging from myth into the reality. In myth, El Dorado was a City of Gold; dazzling golden temples filled with golden statues and gardens full of golden flowers. None of this is too far-fetched, at all, since the Pre-Columbian cities of the Aztecs and the Incas were viewed in the same way to the eyes and minds of Spanish conquistadores in the 16th Century.

However, when El Dorado is re-discovered, in 2121, hidden between the Andes and the Amazon, it reveals what was once a complex and unique society but there’s no gold at all lying within the city.

Outside of the boundaries of the city, however, gold artwork aplenty is found submerged in nearby swamp-waters, lying at the bottom of lakes and rivers, and abandoned within caves. As archeological explorations proceed, El Dorado is revealed to be a city of the Muisca, an ethnic group who inhabited parts of Columbia before Europeans settled there. Large sections of the Muisca did not see gold as mere metal for exchange, or as way to display one's riches. Rather, it was spiritually-embodied sacred matter. And a way to make offerings back to Nature.

La naturaleza era sagrada, el oro provenía de la naturaleza, un regalo-espíritu del dios sol, y de regreso a la naturaleza debería ser entregado.

For the complete story of El Dorado 2121, see the Ecotopia 2121 project book.