Museo del Oro

Lonely Planet review

The Gold Museum is in the fine colonial mansion known as the Casa de la Aduana (Customs House). It has an interesting collection of Tayrona objects, mainly pottery and gold, as well as artifacts of the Kogi and Arhuaco Indians. Don't miss the impressive model of Ciudad Perdida, especially if you plan on visiting the real thing.

In pre-Columbian times, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast was home to various indigenous communities, of which the Tayronas, belonging to the Chibcha linguistic family, were the dominant and most developed group. The Tayronas (also spelt Taironas) are believed to have evolved into a distinctive culture since about the 5th century AD. A millennium later, shortly before the Spaniards came, the Tayronas had developed into an outstanding civilization, based on a complex social and political organization and advanced engineering.

The Tayronas lived on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada where they constructed hundreds of settlements, all of a very similar pattern. Due to the rugged topography, a large number of stone terraces supported by high walls had to be built as bases for their thatched wooden houses. The groups of terraces were linked by a network of paths and stairways, all made of stone slabs.

Recent surveys have pinpointed the location of about 300 Tayrona settlements scattered over the slopes, once linked by stone-paved roads. Of all these, the Ciudad Perdida (Lost City), discovered in 1975, is the largest and is thought to have been the Tayrona 'capital.'

Tayrona was the first advanced indigenous culture encountered by the Spaniards in the New World, in 1499. It was here, in the Sierra Nevada, that the conquerors were for the first time astonished by Indian gold, and the myth of El Dorado was born.

The Spaniards crisscrossed the Sierra Nevada, but met with brave resistance from the Indians. The Tayronas defended themselves fiercely, but were almost totally decimated in the course of 75 years of uninterrupted war. A handful of survivors abandoned their homes and fled into the upper reaches of the Sierra. Their traces have been lost forever.