Colombia’s capital sits 2,640 meters above the sea
Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and largest city, averages about 2,640 meters on the Bogotá savanna of the eastern Andes. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada founded it as New Kingdom of Granada capital on 6 August 1538 after conquering Muisca lands.
Bogotá sits on a high plateau, the Bogotá savanna, in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes, which makes it the world’s third-highest capital, with a cool climate all year. It covers 1,587 square kilometres in 20 localities and produces nearly a quarter of Colombia’s GDP. Its El Dorado airport, named after the legend, moves more cargo than any other in Latin America.
People lived nearby at least 12,500 years ago, at El Abra north of Zipaquirá. By the 15th century the plateau belonged to the Muisca, a Chibcha-speaking people perhaps half a million strong on the savanna and up to two million across their confederation. They farmed maize on irrigated terraces, brewed chicha, still sold in central Bogotá, and were known as the Salt People because their women made salt from brine. Markets met every four days to trade salt for gold, coca, cotton, and tropical fruit.
The Spanish came in search of the El Dorado legend. Jiménez de Quesada left Santa Marta in April 1536 with 800 soldiers; only 162 remained when they reached Muisca land in March 1537. The ruler Tisquesusa fell defending Funza, and European diseases later killed 65 to 85% of the Muisca in what is now Boyacá within a century.
The city was founded with twelve reed huts, one for each apostle, and a first mass, under the name Our Lady of Hope. The crown renamed it Santafé in 1540, and it later became seat of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Following independence at the Battle of Boyacá in 1819, Simón Bolívar renamed it Bogotá to honour the Muisca.
Source: Bogotá
