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Episode 2: Famous Expeditions

Episode 2: Famous Expeditions

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 Episode 2: Famous Expeditions Title: El Dorado: Chasing Shadows of Gold - Part 2: Famous Expeditions Summary: From the edge of Venezuela's Gran Sabana, Jack Maddox chronicles the most famous expeditions to find El Dorado, focusing on Sir Walter Raleigh's fatal obsession with the golden city. The episode explains how the legend migrated eastward to Guiana and transformed into the kingdom of Manoa on the shores of the mythical Lake Parime. Maddox examines how maps combined fantasy with science to perpetuate the myth despite repeated failures to locate it, and traces the evolution from gold-seeking conquistadors to scientific explorers like Richard Spruce and Alfred Russel Wallace, who sought different treasures in the Amazon's biodiversity. The episode concludes by exploring recent archaeological discoveries suggesting that advanced pre-Columbian civilizations in the Amazon may have been the real "treasure" all along.

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