The Gold Museum in Bogota is one of Columbia’s most important museums with an extraordinary collection of Pre Hispanic gold work on display. The museum has more than 34,000 pieces of gold, belonging to the indigenous cultures who lived more than 500 years ago, during the Inca Empire and long before it. The pieces on display represents the largest collection of pre-Columbian South American gold work in the world, and together with pottery, woodwork, textile and other archeological objects, they tell the stories of more than a dozen indigenous societies which inhabited what is now known as Colombia before contact was made with Europe.

The indigenous people of South America were rich in gold and silver. These people had­ been mining the Andes and working with the precious metal for thousands of years, creating finely crafted treasure and jewelry. Their use of gold was religious and ceremonial, as a beautiful offering to the gods or a sign of status and power.

An exhibit at the Gold Museum in Bogota. This gold mask was made between 200 BC to 900 AD. Photo credit