# Gviana siue Amazonvm Regio.

- By: Willem Blaeu
- Date: 1635
- Classification: Painting
- Credit line: This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, a specialist dealer in rare maps and other cartography of the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as part of a cooperation project.
- Museum: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1635_Blaeu_Map_Guiana,_Venezuela,_and_El_Dorado_-_Geographicus_-_Guiana-blaeu-1635.jpg)
- Rights: Public domain
- Picture: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/1635_Blaeu_Map_Guiana%2C_Venezuela%2C_and_El_Dorado_-_Geographicus_-_Guiana-blaeu-1635.jpg/1920px-1635_Blaeu_Map_Guiana%2C_Venezuela%2C_and_El_Dorado_-_Geographicus_-_Guiana-blaeu-1635.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This is G. Blaeu's remarkable c. 1635 map of the northeastern parts of South America , Lake Parima (Parime Lacus), and the route to El Dorado. Blaeu initially issued this map in 1630 and variants were published well in to the 1660s. This example dates to the 1635 German edition of Blaeu's atlas. The map covers from Isla Margarita and the Orinoco Delta eastward as far as Tampico and southwards as far as the Amazon River. This region of South America generated considerable European interest in the early 17th century following the publication of Sir Walter Raleigh's fascinating Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful EMPIRE Of GUIANA . Raleigh's expedition traveled down the Orinoco River in search of the Kingdom of El Dorado. Today we know that El Dorado did not exist, but was rather an amalgam of very real tribal traditions and the European lust for gold. Nonetheless, in the 16th century, tales of El Dorado were common conversation along the port cities of the Spanish Main. Having explored a considerable distance down the Orinoco, Raleigh's expedition found itself mired in a remote tribal village at the onset of the rainy season. While waiting for an opportunity to return…