More than 34,000 pieces of gold in the Museum of Gold (Museo del Oro) from all of the major pre-Hispanic cultures of Colombia. The guide books note if you only see one thing in Bogota, make it this museum. After visiting it, I would have to agree. If you take the guided tour in English (we should have!), you could get more of the history surrounding the pieces. The pieces were beautifully displayed and the building well guarded.

Some of my photos are below but it’s hard to do the collection justice.

The next set of photos are from the last exhibit. You enter a black room and haunting Colombian music begins. Lights begin to dance on the wraparound glass panels in this circular room, revealing thousands of gold pieces suspended in the “waters of Lake Guatavita”, again referring to the legend of El Dorado. It was a very moving exhibit. As we were going in, I asked the attendant if it was also in English and he said yes, English. And every other language, I found out. Only music, lights and gold – no words.