History Main / CityOfGold

* Subverted in LFrankBaum's TheWonderfulWizardOfOz. The Great Oz makes everyone believe that the Emerald City is made of emeralds, by making visitors wear green glasses while they are in the city.

* The Emerald City in ''TheWizardOfOz'' ([[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]]).

This is a place where what we consider wealth-- precious metals, jewels, ivory, cappuccinos, ipods, etc-- are everywhere and in great abundance. Even the "beggars" are rich and the most ramshackle building could put a pharaoh's tomb to shame. And the kings? They'd make Croesus [[strike:green]] gold with envy. RichieRich would probably find the place ostentatious and tacky. It makes FluffyCloudHeaven look [[AsceticAesthetic practically spartan]] in comparison. When people say it's where the roads are paved with gold, they're talking ''[[LiteralMetaphor literally]]''. Visitors like the IntrepidMerchant, MrViceGuy and GuileHero may become rich after visiting this place with little more than a pouch full of whatever's lying on the ground, it's so rich. We could go on, but basically this is the TreasureRoom as an entire city or even country.

[[caption-width-right:300:Wouldn't that gold bell be really hard to ring and sound real crummy?]]

* Shandia in OnePiece.

* The Twenty One Balloon focus on a hidden society built around a gigantic diamond mine. They bankroll their utopian society by selling diamonds to the outside world, and are smart enough to to hide the extent and source of their wealth, selling only small amounts on given expedition and switching ports routinely.

If the City of Gold is ''not'' a hidden elf village, they may be shrewd enough to create an artificial scarcity by only trading a little of their riches with the outside, to avoid collapsing their economies and rendering their wealth worthless to all. Or they might just let the {{Funny Foreigner}}s load up a gold plater wheelbarrow with diamonds and send them on their way.

** More specifically: This is the city of New Jerusalem. As described in the Revelation, the streets are gold - pure gold, like glass. (Translucent gold?) The foundations of the city are described as twelve precious and semi-precious gemstones. (Interestingly, sapphire is mentioned but ruby is not.) The city gates are pearl - and since at least one translation describes the twelve gates as being carved from a single pearl (each, presumably), it's probably the real deal. Also, the place is described as huge - over 2,532,139,147 cubic miles of space, much of which will presumably be gold (the streets, the buildings, etc.) Now ''that's'' a golden city!

* There is a joke about a guy going to heaven and bringing his most treasured posession. A perfect 1000 carat huge block of gold. St. Peter says "What! you brought Pavement!"

* ''TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'' deals with several of these, believe it or not.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The Spanish sent numerous expeditions into the Americas looking for Cibola, the fabled City of Gold. Ironically, the natives of one tribe they worked to death mining for gold were sitting on a treasure unaccountably vast: all of the natives' jewelry was made of platinum, which the Spanish conquistadors considered [[WorthlessYellowRocks Worthless Silver Rocks]] and threw vast quantities of platinum in the Amazon river looking for the "good stuff". Problem was, only the natives knew how to work platinum, and they were all dead.
[[/folder]]

* The Spanish sent numerous expeditions into the Americas looking for Cibola, the fabled City of Gold. Ironically, the natives of one tribe they worked to death mining for gold were sitting on a treasure unaccountably vast: all of the natives' jewelry was made of platinum, which the Spanish conquistadors considered [[WorthlessYellowRocks Worthless Silver Rocks]] and threw vast quantities of platinum in the Amazon river looking for the "good stuff". Problem was, only the natives knew how to work platinum, and they were all dead.

[[quoteright:342:[[OnePiece http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Shandora_358.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:342:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Shandora_358.jpg]]

[[TheRoadToElDorado http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ElDorado_6389.jpg]]
[[caption-width:330:{{Mayincatec}} paradise.]]

* Subverted in L Frank Baum's TheWonderfulWizardOfOz. The Great Oz makes everyone believe that the Emerald City is made of emeralds, by making visitors wear green glasses while they are in the city.

* The Twenty One Balloon focus on a hidden society built around a gigantic diamond mine. They bankroll their utopian society by selling diamonds to the outside world, and are smart enough to to hide the extent and source of their wealth, selling only small amounts on given expedition and switching ports routinely.

** More specifically: This is the city of New Jerusalem. As described in the Revelation, the streets are gold - pure gold, like glass. (Translucent gold?) The foundations of the city are described as twelve precious and semi-precious gemstones. (Interestingly, sapphire is mentioned but ruby is not.) The city gates are pearl - and since at least one translation describes the twelve gates as being carved from a single pearl (each, presumably), it's probably the real deal. Also, the place is described as huge - 2,532,139,147 cubic miles of space, much of which will presumably be gold (the streets, the buildings, etc.) Now ''that's'' a city!

Compare AdvancedAncientAcropolis, ShiningCity, ConspicuousConsumption. May induce GoldFever.

See also AdvancedAncientAcropolis and ShiningCity. May induce GoldFever.

* In the Dreamlands sequence from ''ANightInTheLonesomeOctober'', Snuff and Greymalk explore a [[HPLovecraft Lovecraft-inspired]] dream city in which rare and exotic construction materials are commonplace. Entering an alley, they walk past an ornately-gilded ''trash can'' made of semiprecious stone and finest ceramic.

* In the Dreamlands sequence from ''A Night In The Lonesome October'', Snuff and Greymalk explore a [[HPLovecraft Lovecraft-inspired]] dream city in which rare and exotic construction materials are commonplace. Entering an alley, they walk past an ornately-gilded ''trash can'' made of semiprecious stone and finest ceramic.