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86-424: The Mountain, already considered sacred in pre-Columbian times when the area was inhabited by the indigenous Muisca , is a pilgrim destination, as well as a major tourist attraction. In addition to the church, the summit contains restaurants, cafeteria, souvenir shops and many smaller tourist facilities. Monserrate can be accessed by aerial tramway (a cable car known as the teleférico), by funicular , or by climbing,

172-638: A central square where the bohío of the cacique was located. They were called "Salt People" because of their extraction of salt in various locations throughout their territories, mainly in Zipaquirá , Nemocón and Tausa . For the main part self-sufficient in their well-organised economy , the Muisca traded with the European conquistadors valuable products as gold , tumbaga (a copper - silver -gold alloy) and emeralds with their neighbouring indigenous groups . In

258-646: A major festival where ritual offerings were made. It was the only day of the year when the zaque showed his face, as he was considered a descendant of the Sun god. The Muisca mythology is well documented. Many of the writers who contributed to the Chronicles of the West Indies were based in Bogotá. They recorded many of the myths as they were interested in the traditions and culture of the conquered people. The Muisca territory became

344-426: A permanent threat as rivals of the zaque of Hunza , especially for the possession of the salt mines of Zipaquirá , Nemocón and Tausa . The Muisca people were organized in a confederation that was a loose union of states that each retained sovereignty. The confederation was not a kingdom, as there was no absolute monarch, nor was it an empire , because it did not dominate other ethnic groups or peoples. It

430-499: A popular sport of Colombia. Also important were matches of wrestling . The winner received a finely woven cotton blanket from the chief and was qualified as a guecha warrior . Muisca priests were educated from childhood and led the main religious ceremonies. Only the priests could enter the temples. Besides the religious activities, the priests had much influence in the lives of the people, giving counsel in matters of farming or war. The religion originally included human sacrifice , but

516-421: Is a tourist attraction with access by funicular or cable car (both of which charge a fee) or the pilgrimage hiking trail (free). The hiking path is 2.4 km (1.5 mi), where you can walk up the steep hill on a journey that lasts between 50 min and 3 h, over which the elevation increases 600 m (2,000 ft). The average grade of steepness is 25 percent. The hike has been considered dangerous in

602-559: Is common on the Altiplano. The Altiplano Cundiboyacense is surrounded by and contains various Andean unique ecosystems; páramos . 60% of all páramos in the world are situated in Colombia. (Specifically, in the department of Boyacá with the most relative area of páramos). Boyacá is the department where 18.3% of the national total area is located. To the south the Sumapaz Páramo (largest in

688-684: Is hard to compare the Muisca Confederation with other American civilizations, such as the Aztec or the Inca empires as it was more similar to a confederation of states, such as the Achaean League . The Muisca Confederation was one of the biggest and best-organized confederations of tribes on the South American continent. Every tribe within the confederation was ruled by a chief or a cacique . Most of

774-574: Is mainly derived from mythological contexts, but thanks to the Chronicles of the West Indies we do have descriptions of the final period of Muisca history, prior to Spanish arrival. Excavations in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense (the highlands of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments) show evidence of human activity since the Archaic stage at the beginning of the Holocene era. Colombia has one of

860-590: Is regarded one of eleven archaeological regions of Colombia. The earliest evidence of human occupation in the region has been found in Pubenza , to the west of the Altiplano, dating to 16,000 years BP . On the Altiplano, the oldest findings are dated at 12,400 ± 160 years in El Abra . Slightly younger occurrences of settlement by hunter-gatherers have been discovered at Tibitó , with an estimated age of 11,740 +/- 110 years BP and Tequendama dated at 10,920 ± 260 years BP. In

946-560: The iraca , religious ruler of Suamox and modern northeastern Boyacá and southwestern Santander. The territory of the Muisca spanned an area of around 25,000 km (9,700 sq mi) from the north of Boyacá to the Sumapaz Páramo and from the summits to the western portion of the Eastern Ranges . Their territory bordered the lands of the Panche in the west, the Muzo in the northwest,

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1032-462: The zipa , had its capital at Bacatá (now Bogotá ). This southern polity included the majority of the Muisca population and held greater economic power. The northern territory was ruled by the zaque , and had its capital in Hunza, known today as Tunja . Although both areas had common political relations and affinities and belonged to the same tribal nation, there were still rivalries between them. Among

1118-788: The Andes of the north of South America . Their political and administrative organization enabled them to form a compact cultural unity with great discipline. In Spanish, it is called cultura muisca The contributions of the Muisca culture to the Colombian national identity have been many. Pre-Columbian Muisca patterns appear in various seals of modern municipalities located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense , for instance Sopó and Guatavita , Cundinamarca . The remaining Muisca people in central Colombia also have their own seal. The Muisca culture had certain sports which were part of their rituals. The turmequé game, also known as tejo , has survived and became

1204-634: The Bogotá Formation of the southern Altiplano. The biodiversity and former tranquility of the isolated ecosystem changed during the Pliocene, when the Panama Block emerged from the seas and formed a transferable connection with formerly isolated North America. This Great American Biotic Interchange led to a drastic rearrangement of South American fauna. Migrating species from North America replaced many formerly successful South American animals, among which

1290-686: The Guane in the north, the Lache in the northeast, the Achagua in the east, and the Sutagao in the south. At the time of the Spaniard invasion, the area had a large population, although the precise number of inhabitants is not known. Estimates vary from 1 million to over 3 million inhabitants. Their economy was based on agriculture , salt mining, trading , metalworking , and manufacturing . Due to Spanish colonization,

1376-486: The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC). They proposed linguistic and cultural recuperation, defense of the territories nowadays occupied by others, and proposed urban and tourist plans. They support the communities of Ubaté , Tocancipá , Soacha , Ráquira , and Tenjo in their efforts to recover their organizational and human rights. The Muisca people of Suba opposed the drying up of

1462-536: The Paja Formation of Villa de Leyva . During the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene (35-30 Mya) epochs, South America became detached from its longest connected former member of Pangea ; Antarctica . The isolation of the South American paleocontinent led to a large biodiversity of New World species. The dominating group of top predators and scavengers for decades of millions of years on the continent were

1548-563: The Spanish Empire in 1537 at the time of the conquest . Subgroupings of the Muisca were identified chiefly by their allegiances to three great rulers: the hoa , centered in Hunza , ruling a territory roughly covering modern southern and northeastern Boyacá and southern Santander ; the psihipqua , centered in Muyquytá and encompassing most of modern Cundinamarca , the western Llanos ; and

1634-665: The Spanish conquest , to the Muisca Confederation . The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors . They were organised in a loose confederation of different rulers ; the zipa of Bacatá , with his headquarters in Funza , the zaque of Hunza , the iraca of the sacred City of the Sun Sugamuxi ,

1720-571: The Tenza Valley , to the east of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense where the majority of the Muisca lived, they extracted emeralds in Chivor and Somondoco . The economy of the Muisca was rooted in their agriculture with main products maize , yuca , potatoes and various other cultivations elaborated on elevated fields (in their language called tá ). Agriculture had started around 3000 BCE on

1806-651: The Tibabuyes wetland and wanted to recover the Juan Amarillo wetland . They defended the natural reserves like La Conejera , part of the Suba Hills that is considered by the Shelter's Council to be communal land. Suati Magazine ( The Song of the Sun ) is a publication of poetry, literature, and essays about Muisca culture. The community of Bosa made important achievements in its project of natural medicine in association with

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1892-514: The Tundama of Tundama , and several independent caciques . The leaders of the Confederation at the time of conquest were zipa Tisquesusa , zaque Quemuenchatocha , iraca Sugamuxi and Tundama in the northernmost portion of their territories. The Muisca were organised in small communities of circular enclosures ( ca in their language Muysccubbun ; literally "language of the people"), with

1978-579: The pre-Columbian era . Before the Spanish conquest , the Bogotá savanna was inhabited by the Muisca , who were organised in their loose Muisca Confederation . The indigenous people, who had a thorough understanding of astronomy , called Monserrate quijicha caca ; "grandmother's foot". At the solstice of June, the Sun, represented in their religion by the solar god Sué , rises exactly from behind Monserrate, as seen from Bolívar Square . The Spanish conquistadors in

2064-516: The terror birds . Fossils of terror birds have been found throughout South America, with a major collection from current Argentina , where the biggest terror bird, Kelenken , roamed the paleopampas in the early Miocene. The forming Andes created a hilly landscape in the regions bordering the former sea inlet from the proto-Caribbean. Other land animals in the Tertiary were the xenungulate Etayoa bacatensis , evidence for which has been found in 1987 in

2150-519: The zipa who succeeded his brother Tisquesusa upon his death; Sagipa , allied with the Spanish to fight the Panche , eternal enemies of the Muisca in the southwest. In the Battle of Tocarema, the allied forces claimed victory over the bellicose western neighbours. In late 1538, other conquest undertakings resulted in more founded settlements in the heart of the Andes. Two other expeditions that were taking place at

2236-505: The Altiplano Cundiboyacense, among others in Bojacá , Bogotá , Chía , Usme , Cogua , Cota , Facatativá , Nemocón , Madrid , Mosquera , Sáchica , Sibaté , Soacha , Subachoque , Suesca , Sutatausa , Tenjo , Tocancipá , Zipacón , Zipaquirá . The ages between 3000 and 1000 years before present corresponds to the Herrera Period , and the era between 1000 BP and 1537, the year of

2322-401: The Altiplano. The agriculture of the Muisca was performed on small-scale cropfields, part of more extensive lands, and in a rather egalitarian manner; the higher social classes did not have access to more agricultural products than the lower class Muisca people. Their main difference was in the construction of their houses and access to meat. The predominant agricultural product of the Muisca

2408-468: The Geography Commission with Manuel Ancízar and did descriptive studies of the national territory and an inventory of the archaeological sites. The result of the expedition was published in Bogotá in 1889 as Peregrinación Alfa . Argüello García pointed out that the goal of that expedition in the context of the new nation was to underline the pre-Hispanic societies and in that sense, they centered on

2494-520: The Indigenous lands in Suba , a northern region in modern-day Bogotá, which had been recognized and protected by the crown, were taken away by the republican governments following a strategy of suppression of the native culture and ethnic presence in the country's largest urban centres. The Reservation of Cota was re-established on land bought by the community in 1916, and then recognized by the 1991 constitution;

2580-595: The Moon. They developed a vigesimal (based on 20) calendar and knew exactly the timing of the summer solstice (June 21), which they considered the Day of Sué , the Sun god. The Sué temple was in Sogamoso , the sacred city of the Sun and the seat of the Iraca (priest). The Muisca name of the city, Suamox or Sugamuxi , means "City of the Sun". On the solstice , the zaque went to Suamox for

2666-412: The Muisca comes from the testimonies of conquistadors and colonists Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada ; Spanish poet , soldier , and priest Juan de Castellanos (16th century); bishop Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita and Franciscan Pedro Simón (17th century). More recently, Javier Ocampo López and Gonzalo Correal Urrego have contributed notable scholarship. Knowledge of events up until 1450

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2752-418: The Muisca culture as the main model. A similar tendency can be found in the works of Ezequiel Uricoechea . An objection to that point of view came from Vicente Restrepo: his work Los chibchas antes de la conquista española showed them as barbarians. Miguel Triana , in his work La Civilización Chibcha suggested that the rock art symbols were writing. Wenceslao Cabrera Ortíz was the one who concluded that

2838-457: The Muisca were migrants to the highlands; in 1969 he published on this and reported about excavations at the El Abra archaeological site. Those publications opened a new era in the studies of the pre-Hispanic cultures in Colombia. Recent archaeological work has also concentrated on the creation and composition of Muisca goldwork, with this data being made available for wider research. Several ( fossil ) flora and fauna found in Colombia in

2924-549: The Paul VI Hospital and the District Secretary of Health of Bogotá. The community of Cota has reintroduced the growing of quinua , and regularly barter their products at market. Toward the end of 2006 there was a report on the Muisca population: Studies of Muisca culture are abundant and have a long tradition. The first sources come from the Chronicles of the West Indies , which work lasted for three centuries during

3010-562: The Spanish colonies in America. The territory of the Muisca, located in a fertile plain of the Colombian Andes that contributed to make one of the most advanced South American civilizations, became part of the colonial region named Nuevo Reino de Granada . Much information about the Muisca culture was gathered by the Spanish administration and by authors such as Pedro de Aguado and Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita . The viceregal era contributed to

3096-463: The ancient territory of the Muisca . The Altiplano Cundiboyacense comprises three distinctive flat regions; the Bogotá savanna , the valleys of Ubaté and Chiquinquirá , and the valleys of Duitama and Sogamoso . The average altitude of the altiplano is about 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) above sea level but ranges from roughly 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). Altiplano in Spanish means "high plain" or "high plateau",

3182-583: The area of the Muisca have been named after the people. Two volcanoes on Jupiter 's moon Io have been named after the Muisca religion and mythology. Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense ( Spanish pronunciation: [altiˈplano kundiβoʝaˈsense] ) is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá . The altiplano corresponds to

3268-648: The area the name Valle de los Alcázares ("Valley of the Palaces"). The houses had small doors and windows, and the dwellings of the higher rank citizens were different. The Muisca used little furniture as they would typically sit on the floor. Rivalries between the zaque and the zipa were taken advantage of by the Spaniards as they conquered the heart of what would be Colombia. Some of them, such as Sebastián de Belalcázar , Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada , and Nicolás de Federman , interested in locating El Dorado , discovered

3354-401: The arrival of the Spanish invaders. They left abundant traces of their occupation that have been studied since the 16th century, and allow scientists to reconstruct their way of life. It is possible that the Muisca integrated with more ancient inhabitants, but the Muisca were the ones who molded the cultural profile and the social and political organization. Their language, a dialect of Chibcha ,

3440-502: The biggest lake of Colombia; present-day Lake Tota . Lake Tota is the remnant of a Pleistocene glacial lake higher up the Altiplano to the east. Lake Humboldt is thought to have existed until around 30,000 years ago with as modern remaining water bodies Lake Herrera , wetlands of Bogotá and the Bogotá River . Lake Humboldt had an irregular shoreline with an island in the centre; the present-day Suba Hills . The Altiplano Cundiboyacense

3526-725: The chicha is produced. Since 1989, there has been a process of reconstruction of the Indigenous councils by the surviving members of the Muisca Culture. Muisca Councils currently working are Suba , Bosa , Cota , Chía , and Sesquilé . The councils had an Assembly in Bosa on 20–22 September 2002, called the First General Congress of the Muisca People . In that congress, they founded the Cabildo Mayor del Pueblo Muisca , affiliated to

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3612-505: The climb to the hilltop. In 1650, four gentlemen met with the archbishop as well as Juan de Borja, the head of the Tribunal of Santa Fé de Bogotá, in order to secure permission to build a small religious retreat on the top of Monserrate. The founders decided to establish the hermitage retreat in the name of Monserrat's Morena Virgin. Her sanctuary was located in Catalonia , near Barcelona , giving

3698-485: The conquest expedition went south and conquered Pasca and other settlements. The Spanish leader returned with his men to the Bogotá savanna and planned new conquest expeditions executed in the second half of 1537 and first months of 1538. On August 6, 1538, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada founded Bogotá as the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada , named after his home region of Granada , Spain. That same month, on August 20,

3784-448: The conquistadors arrived at the northern edge of the Bogotá savanna in Suesca . continued to Lenguazaque that was founded the next day, En route towards the domain of zipa Tisquesusa , the Spanish founded Cajicá and Chía . In April 1537 they arrived at Funza , where Tisquesusa was beaten by the Spanish. This formed the onset for further expeditions, starting a month later towards

3870-474: The earliest ages of human population prehistoric animals as the Cuvieronius , Haplomastodon and Equus amerhippus were living on the Altiplano. Later dated excavations have revealed a transition from a hunter-gatherer society living in rock shelters to open area settlements with Checua and Aguazuque as examples. Various burial sites at Checua have been dated between 8200 and 7800 years BP. During

3956-1023: The earliest phases, the first humans lived together with Pleistocene now extinct mastodons , as the fossil remains of Haplomastodon waringi , Neochoerus and Odocoileus in Soatá indicate. The main part of the diet of the people was formed by white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ). Other mammals included little red brocket ( Mazama rufina ), guinea pigs ( Cavia porcellus ), nine-banded armadillo ( Dasypus novemcinctus ), white-lipped peccary ( Tayassu pecari ), crab-eating fox ( Dusicyon thous ), spectacled bear ( Tremarctos ornatus ), ocelot ( Felis pardalis ), puma ( Felis concolor ), lowland paca ( Agouti paca ), Agouti taczamawskii , Dasyprocta , ring-tailed coati ( Nasua nasua ), western mountain coati ( Nasuella olivacea ), common opossum ( Didelphis marsupialis ) and collared anteater ( Tamandua tetradactyla ). Various archaeological sites with petroglyphs or pictographs have been discovered on

4042-636: The early colonial period replaced the Muisca temples by catholic buildings. The first primitive cathedral of Bogotá was constructed on the northeastern corner of Bolívar Square in 1539, a year after the foundation of the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada . In the 1620s, the Cofradia de la Vera Cruz ("Brotherhood of the True Cross") began using the Monserrate's hilltop for religious celebrations. As time passed, many devoted residents of Bogotá began participating in

4128-536: The eastern Tenza Valley and the northern territories of zaque Quemuenchatocha . On August 20, 1537, the zaque was submitted in his bohío in Hunza . The Spanish continued their journey northeastward into the Iraca Valley , where the iraca Sugamuxi fell to the Spanish troops and the Sun Temple was accidentally burned by two soldiers of the army of De Quesada in early September. Meanwhile, other soldiers from

4214-446: The existence of the colonial New Kingdom of Granada . After the independence wars in 1810, there was a surge of interest in the study of the Muisca culture. Indigenous Colombians established the capital of their republic in Bogotá, the former viceroyal city, which was the capital of the confederation of the zipa , and was known as Bacatá . Research shows that this site was the cradle of an advanced society whose process of consolidation

4300-605: The forming Andean chain left its trace in the form of the many emeralds found in the western and eastern parts of the Altiplano. From the Early Cretaceous until the Eocene, the region of the present-day Altiplano was dominated by a marine environment, as part of the long inland sea of northern South America. In these warm tropical seas a fauna of ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs developed, with important finds ( Kronosaurus boyacensis ( El Fósil ), Muiscasaurus , with four nostrils) in

4386-465: The goddess. The legend grew until the term became a metaphor for any place where great wealth may be found or made. The Muisca did not construct large stone structures. They didn't use the abundant rock to leave monumental ruins as has happened with other American cultures. Their houses were built with materials such as clay, canes, and wood. The houses had a conical form, most of them to the point that Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada , founder of Bogotá , gave

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4472-504: The importance of Bogotá, and people from the area would play an important role in the fights for independence and republican consolidation. After independence in 1810, the new state dissolved many of the Indigenous reservations. The one in Tocancipá was dissolved in 1940. The one in Sesquilé was reduced to 10% of its original size. Tenjo was reduced to 54% of its original size after 1934, and

4558-600: The last resistance and the territories of the Confederations were shared by Belalcazar, Federmann, and De Quesada. Later the Spanish Crown would elect De Quesada as the man in charge, with the title adelantado de los cabildos de Santa Fe y Tunja . When the Muisca structure disappeared under the Spanish Conquest, the territory of the Confederations of the zaque and zipa were included in a new political division within

4644-541: The most ancient archaeological sites of the Americas: El Abra , which is estimated to be approximately 13,000 years old. Other archaeological traces in the region of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense have led scholars to talk about an El Abra Culture: In Tibitó , tools and other lithic artifacts date to 9740 BCE; on the Bogotá savanna, especially at Tequendama Falls , other lithic tools dated a millennium later were found that belonged to specialized hunters. Human skeletons were found that date to 5000 BCE. Analysis demonstrated that

4730-583: The most powerful of the American Post-Classic stage , mainly because of the precious resources of the area: gold and emeralds. When the Spaniards arrived in Muisca territory they found a rich state, with the Muisca Confederation controlling mining of the following products: The Muisca traded their goods at local and regional markets with a system of barter . Items traded ranged from those of basic necessity through to luxury goods. The abundance of salt, emeralds, and coal brought these commodities to de facto currency status. Having developed an agrarian society,

4816-406: The mountain the name Monserrate. Some people believe Montserrat was chosen to be the patron saint, due to one of the founders, Pedro Solis, having an uncle who had previously served as abbot in the Montserrat sanctuary. By 1656, Father Rojas had been assigned guarding the sanctuary and ordered the carving of a crucifix and a statue of Jesus Christ. After this statue was taken off the cross, it earned

4902-441: The name "El Señor Caído" ("The Fallen Lord"). Originally, these sculptures were placed inside a small chapel dedicated to the adoration of Christ instead of being placed inside the religious retreat itself. As time passed, more and more people began visiting the sanctuary in order to see the statue of Jesus, rather than the matron saint of Monserrat. By the 19th century, the statue of "The Fallen Lord" had gained so much attention, that

4988-433: The northeast. The Altiplano is subdivided into three major valleys, from northeast to southwest: The average temperature on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense is 14 °C (57 °F), ranging from 0 °C (32 °F) to 24 °C (75 °F). The driest months of the year are from December to March, while rain is more common in April, May, September, October and November. From June to August strong winds are present. Hail

5074-435: The northwest of the Altiplano was covered with a lake, of which the current Lake Fúquene is a retreating remainder. To the extreme northeast, in Soatá , another Pleistocene lake was present. The largest paleolake in the latest Pleistocene was Lake Humboldt or Lake Bogotá covering the Bogotá savanna . The lake, some 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi) in size, at that time would have been seventy times larger than

5160-438: The often flooded highlands and a system of irrigation and drainage was developed. They cultivated their crops in rows of mounds. A delegation of more than 900 men left the tropical city of Santa Marta in April 1536 and went on a harsh expedition through the heartlands of Colombia in search of El Dorado and the civilisation that produced all that precious gold. The leader of the first and main expedition under Spanish flag

5246-445: The past, but now is patrolled by police and is much safer. Muisca people The Muisca (also called Chibcha ) are an Indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense , Colombia , that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest . The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan language family , also called Muysca and Mosca . They were encountered by conquistadors dispatched by

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5332-467: The people used terrace farming and irrigation in the highlands. Main products were fruits , coca , quinoa , yuca and potatoes . Another major economic activity was weaving. The people made a wide variety of complex textiles. The scholar Paul Bahn said: "the Andean cultures mastered almost every method of textile weaving or decoration now known, and their products were often finer than those of today." The Muisca were an agrarian and ceramic society of

5418-464: The people were members of the El Abra Culture. Scholars agree that the group identified as Muisca migrated to the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Formative era (between 1000 BCE and 500 CE), as shown by evidence found at Aguazuque and Soacha . Like the other formative-era cultures of America, the Muiscas were transitioning between being hunter-gatherers and becoming sedentary farmers. Around 1500 BCE, groups of agrarians with ceramic traditions came to

5504-411: The population of the Muisca has drastically decreased and assimilated into the general population. The descendants of the Muisca are often found in rural municipalities including Cota , Chía , Tenjo , Suba , Engativá , Tocancipá , Gachancipá , and Ubaté . A census by the Ministry of Interior Affairs in 2005 reports a total of 14,051 Muisca people in Colombia. Much of the historic knowledge about

5590-416: The practice may have been extinct by the time of the Spanish conquest, as there are no first-hand Spanish accounts. Oral tradition suggests that every family gave up a child for sacrifice , that the children were regarded as sacred and cared for until the age of 15, when their lives were then offered to the Sun-god, Sué . The cult of the Muisca centered on two main deities; Sué for the Sun and Chía for

5676-437: The preferred way of pilgrims. The climbing route was previously closed due to wildfires and landslides caused by a drought, but it reopened in 2017. All downtown Bogotá, south Bogotá and some sections of the north of the city are visible facing west, making it a popular destination to watch the sunset over the city. Every year, Monserrate and its neighbour Guadalupe attract many tourists. The history of Monserrate goes back to

5762-401: The recognition was withdrawn in 1998 by the state and restored in 2006. In 1948 the state forbade the production of chicha , a corn-based alcoholic drink. This was a blow to the culture and economy of the Muisca. The ban remained until 1991. Since then, the "Festival of the chicha, maize, life, and joy" is celebrated every year in Barrio La Perseverancia, a neighborhood in Bogotá where most of

5848-433: The region from the lowlands. They had permanent housing and stationary camps, and worked the salty water to extract salt. In Zipacón there is evidence of agriculture and ceramics. The oldest settlement of the highlands dates to 1270 BCE. Between 800 BCE and 500 BCE, a second wave of migrants came to the highlands. Their presence is identified by multicolor ceramics, housing, and farms. These groups were still in residence upon

5934-494: The rich plains of Cundinamarca and Boyacá . The presence of the Spaniards gave hope to both sovereigns that, were they to make one Confederation, they could prevail in a war against the Spaniards. But the Spaniards prevailed. The reaction of the chief leaders and the people did little to change the destiny of the Confederations. The Spanish executed the last Muisca sovereigns, Sagipa and Aquiminzaque , in 1539 and 1540 respectively. In 1542 Gonzalo Suárez Rendón finally put down

6020-417: The same time; of De Belalcázar from the south and Federmann from the east, reached the newly founded capital and the three leaders embarked in May 1539 on a ship on the Magdalena River that took them to Cartagena and from there back to Spain. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada had installed his younger brother Hernán as new governor of Bogotá and the latter organised new conquest campaigns in search of El Dorado during

6106-443: The sculpture to the Virgin of Montserrat was removed from the hill as the center piece of the sanctuary and replaced with "El Señor Caído". The mountain has retained the name Monserrate afterwards. Ever since then, for more than four centuries, pilgrims and citizens have hiked the mountain to offer their prayers to the shrine of "El Señor Caído". Both Monserrate and its neighbor Guadalupe Hill are icons of Bogota's cityscape. The hill

6192-492: The seat of the colonial administration for the New Kingdom of Granada (Spanish: Nuevo Reino de Granada ). The origin of the legend of El Dorado (Spanish for "The Golden One") in the early 16th century may be located in the Muisca Confederation . The zipa offered gold and other treasures to the Guatavita goddess. To do so, the zipa covered himself with gold dust and washed it off in the lake while tossing gold trinkets into

6278-548: The second half of 1539 and 1540. His captain Gonzalo Suárez Rendón founded Tunja on August 6, 1539, and captain Baltasar Maldonado , who had served under De Belalcázar, defeated the cacique of Tundama at the end of 1539. The last zaque Aquiminzaque was decapitated in early 1540, establishing the new rule over the former Muisca Confederation . Present-day, due to the large population and agriculture of

6364-566: The second part is a combination of the departments Cundinamarca and Boyacá . The limits of the Altiplano are not strictly defined. The high plateau is enclosed by the higher mountains of the Eastern Ranges, with the Sumapaz mountains in the south and Chingaza to the east. The Tenza Valley is located to the east of the Altiplano and the Ocetá Páramo and Chicamocha Canyon are situated to

6450-616: The south, starting in the previously founded Kingdom of Quito in what is now Ecuador . The conquest of the Muisca on the Altiplano started in March 1537, when the greatly reduced troops of De Quesada entered Muisca territories in Chipatá , the first settlement they founded on March 8. The expedition went further inland and up the slopes of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense into later Boyacá and Cundinamarca . The towns of Moniquirá (Boyacá) and Guachetá and Lenguazaque (Cundinamarca) were founded before

6536-416: The territories there were four chiefdoms: Bacatá , Hunza , Duitama , and Sogamoso . The chiefdom was composed by localities. The tribes were divided into Capitanías (ruled by a capitan). There were two kinds: Great Capitania ( sybyn ) and Minor Capitania ( uta ). The status of Capitan was inherited by maternal lineage. The Muisca legislation was consuetudinary , that is to say, their rule of law

6622-410: The terror birds. The Late Pleistocene of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense has been analysed in detail through various methods based on fossils found on the Altiplano. Pleistocene megafauna inhabited the glacial highlands of the eastern Andean chain. The climate in the glacials and stadials led to the formation of various prehistoric lakes in the valleys of the Altiplano. The Ubaté-Chiquinquirá Valley in

6708-433: The tribes were part of the Muisca ethnic group, sharing the same language and culture and forming relations through trade. They united in the face of a common enemy. The army was the responsibility of the zipa or zaque . The army was made up of the güeches , the traditional ancient warriors of the Muisca. The Muisca Confederation existed as the union of two lesser confederations. The southern confederation, headed by

6794-462: The waters. This tradition was well known outside the Confederation, as far as the Caribbean Sea ; the Spaniards were attracted by stories of a "city of gold" that did not exist. Indigenous people sometimes got rid of the avaricious Spaniards in that way, pointing them in the direction of other peoples. Lake Guatavita was explored by conquistadors who were looking for gold offerings from the zipa to

6880-438: The world) forms a natural boundary of the Altiplano. Chingaza contains páramo vegetation, as does the most beautiful Ocetá Páramo in the northeast. On the Altiplano the microclimate of the surroundings of Lake Iguaque produces a páramo. Regional geology The Altiplano Cundiboyacense is formed as part of the uplift of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes since Neogene times. Hydrothermal activity in fractures of

6966-448: Was Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada , with his brother Hernán second in command. Several other soldiers were participating in the journey, who would later become encomenderos and take part in the conquest of other parts of Colombia. Other contemporaneous expeditions into the unknown interior of the Andes, all searching for the mythical land of gold, were starting from later Venezuela , led by Bavarian and other German conquistadors and from

7052-585: Was maize and they had numerous words in their language , Muysccubun for the plant, kernels and processing of it. Evidence for maize cultivation predates the Muisca; already in the Herrera Period maize cultivation has been identified based on pollen analysis. The cacicazgos were self-sufficient in their agricultural products and surpluses of maize ( abitago ) were traded for more tropical climate fruits such as pineapples , avocados and Ipomea batatas . The Muisca used terraces for their agriculture on

7138-455: Was cut short by the Spanish conquest. This search for an identity resulted in giving emphasis to the Muisca culture and overlooking other native nations, which were seen as wild people. Researchers wrongly concluded that the Muisca culture inhabited a previously empty land and that all archeological finds could be attributed solely to the Muisca. In 1849 president Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera invited Italian cartographer Agustín Codazzi , who led

7224-459: Was determined by long-extant customs with the approval of the zipa or zaque . This kind of legislation was suitable to a confederation system, and it was a well-organized one. The natural resources could not be privatized: woods, lakes, plateaus, rivers and other natural resources were common goods. Chibcha , also known as muysca , mosca , or muysca cubun , belongs to the Chibchan languages . It

7310-401: Was spoken across several regions of Central America and the north of South America . The Tairona culture and the U'wa , related to the Muisca culture, speak similar languages, which encouraged trade. The Muisca used a form of hieroglyphs for numbers. Many Chibcha words were absorbed or "loaned" into Colombian Spanish: The Muisca had an economy and society considered to have been one of

7396-462: Was very similar to those peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta ( Kogui , Ijka, Wiwa , and Kankuamo ) and the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy ( U'wa ). Zipa Saguamanchica (ruled 1470 to 1490) was in a constant war against aggressive tribes such as the Sutagao , and especially the Panche , who would also make difficulties for his successors, Nemequene and Tisquesusa . The Caribs were also

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