It was then the conquistadors who brought and built the legend of El Dorado, along with what the indigenous people of that time told them.

The legend has several versions: one of them is that they say that in a tribe hidden in the middle of the jungle, the indigenous people used to bury their dead in the Guatavita Lagoon. They say that the deceased were wrapped in sheets, placed in a canoe and surrounded with candles, flowers, and a large amount of jewelry and treasures. 

Then the canoe was sunk with everything on top of it.

They also say that once a year, in the Guatavita Lagoon, the indigenous people offered sacrifices to their gods in which they gathered a large number of jewels and treasures to be carried to the middle of the lagoon by the chief, who was only covered . by a layer of gold. According to the story, this was the golden chieftain, who would throw all the treasure into the water.

History also tells that every time a new chief took office, the Muiscas organized a great ceremony. The heir, son of a sister of the previous chief, who had previously purified himself by fasting for six years in a cave where he could not see the sun, was taken to the edge of the lagoon, where the priests undressed him, anointed his body with a sticky resin, they sprinkled him with gold dust, gave him his new chieftain's scepter and made him follow a raft of reeds with his ministers and the sheikhs or priests, without any of them, out of respect, looking at his face.