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Lake Guatavita (Spanish: ''Laguna de Guatavita'' or ''Lago Guatavita'') is located in the Cordillera Oriental of the Colombian Andes in the municipality of Sesquilé, in the Almeidas Province, Cundinamarca department of Colombia, 35 miles north-east of Bogotá, capital of the Republic of Colombia. The lake is circular and about a quarter mile in diameter, formed by what appears to be a crater. The earlier theories of the crater's origin being a mereorite impact, volcanic cinder, or limestone sinkhole are now discredited. The most likely explanation is that it resulted from the dissolution of underground salt deposits from an anticline, resulting in an unusual kind of sinkhole . There are hot springs nearby giving the name of the nearby Municipality of Sesquilé, which means hot water. While the existence of a sacred lake in the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes associated with Indian rituals involving gold was known to the Spaniards earlier, possibly as early as 1531, its location wasn't discovered until 1537 by conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada while on an expedition to the highlands of the eastern Andes in search of gold. This brought the Spaniards into first contact with the Muisca native peoples inhabiting the region around Bogota and the nearby Lake Guatavita. The name of the lake is derived from Spanish ''laguna'': pool or pond, and ''Guatavita'' from Chibcha (language of the Muisca people) ''gwa'': mountain or ''gwata'', ''gwate'': high elevation, or ''gwatibita'': high mountain peak; hence, a pool at a high mountain peak.〔M. Louis Ghisletti, Los Mwiskas, Bogota, 1954〕 The lake is now a focus of ecotourism, and its association with the legend of El Dorado is also a major attraction. Lake Guatavita is where Fanny Lú filmed her music video for her song No Te Pido Flores. ==Muisca mythology== (詳細はsacred lakes of the Muisca, and a ritual conducted there is widely thought to be the basis for the legend of El Dorado, "the golden one". The legend says the lake is where the Muisca celebrated a ritual in which the Zipa (named "El Dorado" by the Conquistadores) was covered in gold dust, then venturing out into the water on a ceremonial raft made of rushes, he dived into the waters, washing off the gold. Afterward, trinkets, jewelry, and other precious offerings were thrown into the waters by worshipers. A few artifacts of gold and silver found at bottom hold proof to this claim; however, to date, attempts to drain the lake or salvage the gold (see Lake Guatavita gold) have yielded no more than these. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lake Guatavita」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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