The richest museum in the world Bashny.Net

In the capital of Colombia, Bogota, is the Gold Museum. Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) holds within its walls thousands of unique works of art of pre-Columbian era, during which gold was considered the material embodiment of the creative energy of the sun.



Looking at the tremulous shine and shimmer of precious exhibits wandering unwittingly elusive feel cold and the involvement of these things to the death of many Indian empires. How many of them were thrown out of the thirst for gold, which swept Europe gold lured the Spaniards over the ocean, gold drove the Portuguese to the east, gold ... gold ... gold - that's the only requirement white men landed on any newly discovered coast
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Let's see what you can see there ...



Gold Museum in Bogota - one of the richest museums in the world, which collected more than 29 thousand jewelery - real works of art masters of the pre-Columbian era. Founded gold museum was in 1932 and today it exhibits more than 34 thousand pieces of gold. At the moment, all things were created by more than five hundred years ago.



Craft zolotoobrabotki, originated in the lower reaches of the Cauca River, famous master of many Colombian tribes.

It is said that the conquistadors came on American soil, and seeing how little the natives appreciate gold, concluded that this metal in their lands must be myriad.

Indians, realizing that it is this metal could distract attention from attempts Conquistadors conquest of their lands and the enslavement of indigenous people began to create legends about large deposits of gold for others, the more remote inland areas in turn. Thus, there is a legend that the Spaniards call El Dorado (from the Spanish word -oro- gold, literally - gilded). It was here the first time and the notion of a fabulous El Dorado, who later became a symbol of wandering unfound treasure and disappeared without a trace expeditions around the world.

Initially, relying on information obtained from the Indians, the Spaniards thought that the main deposits of gold were on the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. According to the stories, there is a town where everything was made of gold, even the clothes their settlers. In this way, the natives of coastal regions have tried to distance themselves from the conquerors, and that is why the conquistadors rushed enthusiastically to develop the internal regions of the country, often leaving aside other tasks assigned to them by the Spanish crown.

Imagination conquistadors broke out even more when they reached the area Guatavita - a small village and a small lake in the Andes Mountains near the city of Bogota, where people lived Muiska - part Chibchas tribe. On this lake when coming to power of a new leader following the ritual took place.

"Heir to the throne stripped completely and smeared his body sticky clay, then peppered him with golden sand and put it on a large number of gold ornaments, together with other leaders of the raft he was sent on a voyage to the middle of the lake. The highlight of the holiday was swimming heir, then all present were thrown into the lake water gold jewelry ... Then back to the shore and began the feast in honor of the new leader.. »

Nevertheless, the actual amount of gold that was found in this area was much less than what they expected conquistadors.

Colombian Indians in the days of the conquistadors surprised last for his ability to fuse gold with copper and platinum, is probably why the Colombian gold, valued higher than gold Peruvian - Inca descendants. They knew how to make and surprisingly sophisticated jewelry, unfortunately, very few of these exhibits has reached our days. After the Spaniards were interested solely in weight of gold, rather than its artistic value.

Especially valuable is the "Golden raft", dated 1200-1500 years BC. On the platform stands a large golden Indian chief surrounded by 12 soldiers.

The conquistadors began the conquest of Indian lands in the 16th century, they were mercilessly plundered and devastated temples Indians, not shrinking in search of gold and ruin the graves.

During the period from 1537 to 1840 years from Colombia was removed about 35 million (yes, million!) Ounces of gold. There was even a new "profession" - uakeros (in the Indian dialect "huaca" means the sanctuary), meaning hunters who looted Indian burial

. Many treasures were removed and scientific purposes, a lot of foreign historians and archaeologists have been studying pre-Columbian era. As a result, unique exhibits dispersed all over the world and ended up in museums and private collections in Madrid, New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin and Leipzig.

And only thanks to enthusiasts Colombia has not lost all their wealth. Among them are the brothers Vicente and Ernesto Restrepo. One hundred years ago, these archeologists and ethnographers vocation gathered a huge collection of things-muiskov Indians. French Americanist Paul Rivet has initiated the creation of the museum in Bogota for the preservation and exhibition of these treasures.

So in 1939 when the Bank of the Republic of Colombia was created by Gold Museum. Unparalleled Museo del Oro is a national pride Colombians. Museum Foundation cherishes the exhibits in the form of ingots, nuggets, utensils, coins, statues, weapons armor, death masks, bas-reliefs, glasses and even a mummy, covered with ornaments. There is in the museum's collection raw emeralds, weighing several kilograms.



At the beginning of the exhibition presented a huge golden shell, or rather a golden replica of the old, no longer existing shell. The museum has plenty of exhibits, of which we can say - done in a big way. Oh, what, why, and apparently ancient gold jewelers always enough! Hit the size of beads and bracelets, as well as made of gold, household items, fishing hooks, for example.

There are so delicate and graceful little things that even I can not believe that they have been manufactured using the most primitive tools and clay forms. Here and there on the exhibits you can see master prints fingers, which once was the basis of the false assumption Europeans manual processing method of hot gold the Indians. In fact, just the prints remained on the clay mold for casting, and now, centuries later, you can see them on the gold things.

Gold Museum in Bogota not only demonstrates the treasure glorious ancestors, but also simultaneously introduces visitors to some of the customs of the Indians. On display are a lot of small vessels to store lime and small sticks to extract lime.

It turns out, the Indians chewed with lime coca leaves, but it was not an ancient drug, as it may seem at first glance. In the difficult conditions of high coca leaves helped to get rid of drowsiness and headaches, and lime to enrich the body with minerals.

The indelible impression on visitors leaving the hall last visit Gold Museum, is more like a huge, darkened storeroom, filled with 12 thousand gold products. When the hall is lit a bright light, admiring gaze of visitors appears radiant splendor.

It's amazing how the Indians in those days with the help of primitive hand tools can produce fairly complex and beautiful products. Some of them even survived fingerprints wizard. There is a version that the Indians were treated with red-hot gold manually. But it was easier, but no less interesting. It turns out that the prints were left on the clay forms and imprinted themselves on the product during casting.

It is worth noting that the indigenous population of the country in gold are treated differently, it was considered a sacred metal that can collect and transmit the energy of the sun. Made of gold products are often used in everyday life and during ceremonies.

Gold in Colombia exists everywhere: in different colors and qualities to men and women (and men not to smaller quantities than women), even the yellow flag represents the Colombian gold, symbolizing the power and wealth of the country

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