(Spanish: "The Golden") Legendary golden city sought by Spanish explorers in the New World.
It was the fabulously wealthy land of a king who was said to have been covered with gold dust so many times that he was permanently gilded. Many Spanish and English expeditions in the Americas were sent in search of El Dorado. In 1540 Francisco Vazquez de Coronado ventured as far north as Kansas seeking the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola . Walter Raleigh searched for El Dorado in vain in South America, leading an expedition up the Orinoco River in 1595.