Talk:Lake Guatavita

Untitled
Anybody know how deep the lake is? We hear in the article that it was lowered by 3 metres and then later by 20, but it would be nice to get some perspective for that. I've been unable to find the answer myself. ~ CZeke (talk) 03:33, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
 * The lake has been restored to its original depth by rainwater, snowmelt, and runoff. The reported depth is anywhere from 40 to 400 meters.  Noone knows how deep it is, since all activity on or in the lake is prohibited, as a protected area.Sbalfour (talk) 15:10, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

serpent of the lake tale
This has all the characteristics of a Tall Tale. There's no citation. It does not appear in the article Muisca mythology, which is both thorough and thoroughly footnoted. It is not in Juan Rodriguez Freyle's original chronicle El Carnero (see El Dorado article for excerpt). It appears to me that someone possibly many years ago, exaggerated Freyle's original account and it's been replicated ad infinitum ever since. It's what I call a 'web fable'. Someone has already flagged this article as containing original research, and I've flagged the section as of dubious accuracy. I'm willing for the tale to be in the encyclopedia if it is held in place by a scholarly citation to an original published source, (and that would date to the 16th century). Even if there is such a citation, the tale doesn't belong in this factual article about a feature of Colombian geography - it belongs in the article Muisca mythology, or possibly Colombian mythology. Striking the tale from the article.Sbalfour (talk) 15:21, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

missing information; structure for the article
I've tagged the article for specific missing information. The whole article is sparse and needs structure. I may suggest the following aspects (sections, probably): Sbalfour (talk) 19:39, 2 March 2014 (UTC)
 * hydrology - what streams flow into or out of the lake; groundwater sources (springs); how does this lake get filled and avoid overflowing? How deep is it?
 * geology - how did this lake get to be a crater?
 * ecology - what's the local biome, and is the lake a vital part of it?
 * anthropology and history - native peoples and European contact with them that formed the history of the lake
 * geography - if one was to look for this lake, what would you want to know?

section Historical attempts to recover the gold merged into El Dorado#Lake Guatavita gold
The section was substantially duplicated here and in El Dorado. It should be fully elaborated, but only in one place or the other, and a reference to the main article in the other place. I've decided that whether gold is or isn't, was or wasn't in the lake has little to do with physical description of a geographical feature of Colombia, but is central to the myth of El Dorado. I've therefore cut-and-pasted the entire section from here to the El Dorado article. I've added a note here about the tourist attraction value of the legend associated with the gold in the lake, and a pointer to the main article, which is now El Dorado.Sbalfour (talk) 00:45, 3 March 2014 (UTC)