History Main / CityOfGold

This is a place where what we consider wealth -- precious metals, jewels, ivory, cappuccinos, iPods, etc. -- are everywhere and in great abundance. There's likely NoPoverty, the only kind of "filthy" the "beggars" will be is filthy rich; and the most ramshackle building could put a pharaoh's tomb to shame. And the kings? They'd make Croesus green with envy. ComicBook/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]]''. In some cases, even the ''inhabitants themselves'' are [[ChromeChampion made of gold]]. Visitors like the IntrepidMerchant, MrViceGuy and GuileHero may become rich after visiting this place with little more than a pouch full of the [[AllNaturalGemPolish precious gems 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.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: RealLife]]

* In the first installment of the [[VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune Uncharted]] series, Nathan Drake goes looking for El Dorado on an uncharted island. [[spoiler: He finds that it is not a city, but a statue of gold (which just so happens to be [[CursedItem cursed]].)]]

-->-- '''Don Fernando de Guzman''', ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod''

* The mythical [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Cities_of_Gold_(myth) Seven Cities of Gold]], sought by conquistadors. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado found two of them, Cíbola and Quivira, but both were just ordinary little villages.

* On the Music/{{Rush}} album ''Music/ClockworkAngels'', one of the tracks is called "Seven Cities of Gold", about the dreams of the album's protagonist as he's WalkingTheEarth.

* In ''The Lion's Cavalcade'', the poem about the jaguar queen of El Dorado begins "No sun ever shone upon lost El Dorado" ... because if it did then the reflections from all the gold would be blinding.

* Not an actual city, but ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' has the Golden Temple, which transports you to the {{Bonus Level Of|Hell}} {{Fluffy Cloud|Heaven}} [[NintendoHard Hell]].

* The [[FaunsAndSatyrs satyr-like beast]] from the Music/{{Genesis}} song "Music/ATrickOfTheTail" comes from a utopian city of gold.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Wouldn't a solid gold fiddle weigh hundreds of pounds and sound crummy]]?]]

The City of Gold usually has one of two rather strange sets of local economics. In one, despite the wanton abundance of riches, everyone still considers gold and rubies to be valuable. This can be especially pronounced because the City Of Gold is usually a HiddenElfVillage that isn't trading with the outside world. This usually happens in works aimed at children that can't spend the time on a proper economic lecture on the effects of scarcity or excess on a local economy.

Compare CrystalLandscape, AdvancedAncientAcropolis, ShiningCity, ConspicuousConsumption, GoldFever (which this can induce), GoldMakesEverythingShiny.

-->--'''Don Fernando de Guzman''', ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod''

* The Lost City from ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies 2: It's About Time'', which takes place in a {{Mayincatec}} city made of gold as tropical plants fend off jungle explorer zombies seeking to invade the City. It has golden tiles that produce extra sun for any plants planted on them.

* In a downplayed example there were a number of countries that were considered this by the countries around. Medieval China, especially [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27an Chang'an]] (now known as Xian) during the Tang Dynasty and [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople Constantinople]] are just two examples. This was partly due to travelers tales and partly because there was a relative difference in wealth.

* A 1940's sci-fi pulp short story ''Men of Honor'' by Will Garth has space explorers coming across a city of gold and stealing as much as they can carry off with them. On returning to their rocketship they find that the aliens, puzzled as to why they'd want a worthless metal, have removed the equivalent weight in valuable steel from the hull of the Earthmen's rocketship. After all fair exchange, etc...

* Mayfair Games' 3rd-party D&D supplement ''Dwarves'' includes a description of a city in which the street to the Temple District is paved with fine marble slabs, in which engraved holy text and symbols have been filled with gold to highlight them. [[RealityEnsues Because the stones and their gold infill aren't very sturdy, carts and draft animals aren't allowed on the street, but must divert to outlying routes to avoid wearing down the valuable paving materials.]]

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' has Sovereign Homeworld being a futuristic golden metropolis spanning MULTIPLE planets.(Though it could just be a stylistic choice rather than it being literally made of gold).

* A fairly common trope in various [[ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck Uncle Scrooge]] and DonaldDuck stories. The Gilded Man is far more interested in silver than gold -- while the ducks themselves are actually after a [[MacGuffin rare postage stamp]]. ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987''' [[FiveEpisodePilot Valley of Golden Suns]] has a ridiculous amount of gold, while a ComicBook/DuckTales comic "The Doomed of Sarras" had an exoplanet with an entire desert of WorthlessYellowRocks. The Uncle Scrooge story "Filthy Rich" features "beggars" in Upper Crustovia with the sign "Please give! Needy family! Down to our last billion dollars!" There have to be many more examples.

* In the Dreamlands sequence from ''[[Creator/RogerZelazny A Night In The Lonesome October]]'', Snuff and Greymalk explore a [[Creator/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.
* ''[[Literature/TheTwentyOneBalloons]]'' focuses 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 hide the extent and source of their wealth, selling only small amounts on a given expedition and switching ports routinely.

* The beast from the Music/{{Genesis}} song "A Trick Of The Tail" claims to have come from a city of gold.

* The TropeCodifier was the mythical El Dorado. Conquistadors assumed there must be a mythical city of gold because the locals of Lake of Guatavita supposedly had so much gold, they tossed it in the lake casually as if it were worthless. What they didn't understand was that the locals' wealth came from ''salt'', a highly desired product they sold for gold -- which they threw in the lake as a sacrifice to their god. They didn't devalue gold -- just the opposite.