Lake Parime and Manoa – El Dorado's City of Gold
Manoa · Lake Parime · El Dorado de Parime · Lake of Manoa
Conquistador 1530–1740 map life; indigenous Wapishana seasonal flood memory kernel·Manoa? (Akawaio/Wapishana misheard) + Spanish/English cartographic invention·🇬🇾 Guayana Highlands, Lake Parime – Rupununi / Orinoco-Amazon divide (hypothesized Sipapu? Amuku), Guyana
http://www.geographicus.com/mm5/cartographers/sanson.txt · Public domain
About
About Lake Parime and Manoa – El Dorado's City of Gold
Vast inland lake (100–170 miles long on Raleigh 1596 and Hondius 1598 maps) fed by Orinoco, said to house island city Manoa with golden-roofed palaces – the El Dorado that drew Raleigh (1595 Guiana), Keymis, and Acquña. Kernel: seasonal Lake Amuku (Parime) in North Rupununi, Guyana–Brazil – actually ~5 km savanna floodpan described by Brett 1850, not mega-lake. 1740 Santa Rosa 1740 expedition proved lake imaginary; later Hondius Lake Parime confused with White Sea! Modern sat proves no Holocene megalake there; myth sustained by Rupununi savanna seasonal inundation + Kuwai Wiphure quartz city? El Dorado gilded-man (zipa) original at Lake Guatavita (Colombia) conflated.
Why it mattersLargest South American phantom lake; demonstrates how indigenous 'parime' = large water (probably meaning Orinoco tributary) mistranslated into inland sea; drove Orinoco cartography for 150 years.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Did paleolake ever exist Pleistocene? Sediments yes but much older seism
Theories
- 01Seasonal Rupununi savanna inundation + mirror-like quartzite Pavillon?]] misread as vast lake from Itabos hills
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Claimed Manoa golden city on lake island
- Period
- Conquistador 1530–1740 map life; indigenous Wapishana seasonal flood memory kernel
- Culture
- Manoa? (Akawaio/Wapishana misheard) + Spanish/English cartographic invention
- Purpose
- El Dorado – gilded-man ritual city incorrectly extrapolated to Amazon
- Abandoned
- Never existed beyond floodpan hamlets
- Rediscovered
- 1595 Raleigh The Discoverie; 1740 Nicolas de Santa Rosa disproves; 1839– Schomburgk corrects to Amuku
- Excavation
- Not applicable
1539
Quesada's zipa gilded-man at Guatavita conflated with Amazon Manoa
1595–96
Raleigh publishes lake Parime map (Hondius engraves 1598) – centre of El Dorado hunt
1740
Spanish expedition finds only small Amuku savanna lake – Hondius error exposed
1990+
Landsat shows Rupununi paleolake sediments but no 170-mile Holocene lake
On the ground
Structures & features
3.5000° N · 59.5000° W · 120 m · 4 mapped features
Lake Parime nominal center (Raleigh's lake)
phantom lake center3.5N -59.5W hypothesized 170-mi lake – does not exist
3.5000° N · 59.5000° WLake Amuku (real kernel floodpan)
seasonal pan5 km pan in North Rupununi savanna – source of rumor
3.7000° N · 59.8000° WManoa island (mythic golden city)
phantom cityIsland city claimed at eastern lake shore
3.6000° N · 59.2000° WLake Guatavita (true gilded-man lake)
lakeActual 35 m sacred lake Colombia where zipa ritual occurred 4.98N -73.77W – conflated
4.9800° N · 73.7700° W
Gallery