The Gold Museum (Spanish: El Museo del Oro) is a museum located in Bogotá, Colombia. It displays an extraordinary selection of its pre-Hispanic gold work collection - the biggest in the world - in its exhibition rooms on the second and third floors. Together with other pottery, stone, shell, wood and textile archaeological objects, these items, made of what to indigenous cultures was a sacred metal, testify to the life and thought of different societies which inhabited what is now known as Colombia before contact was made with Europe.

In 1939 the Bank of the Republic began helping to protect the archaeological patrimony of Colombia. The object known as Poporo Quimbaya was the first one in a collection. It has been on exhibition for 65 years. The museum houses the famous Muisca's golden raft found in Pasca, Colombia, that represents the El Dorado ceremony. The heir to the chieftaincy assumed power with a great offering to the gods.

In this representation he is seen standing at the centre of a raft, surrounded by the principal chieftains, all of them adorned with gold and feathers. The museum has a collection of 55,000 pieces. 6,000 pieces are on display in their expanded building. There are bilingual discriptions of almost all exhibits. On the first floor is the museum's main entrance, the shop and a restaurant, The Gold Museum Restaurant and Café. On the second floor the exposition begins, the Main Room is called People and Gold in prehispanic Colombia. Through its glass cases it displays the goldsmith work of the different cultures which inhabited Colombia before the Spanish people arrived; the room is divided into different halls for every culture; Calima, Quimbaya, Muisca, Zenu, Tierradentro, San Augustín, Tolima, Tayrona and Uraba, and a special room called After Columbus (Despues de Colón).

The exposition continues on the third floor, with The Flying Chamanic and The Offering. The first shows the process of Chaman's Ceremony with its different gold pieces, the second is divided into three parts; the Offering Room, the Offering Boat and the Lake. At the end of the exposition there's a Profunditation Room with artistic videos about the most important gold pieces of the museum. (Wikipedia)

Photo: Mario Carvajal