Sáchica is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

situated approximately west of Tunja in the Ricaurte Province of the department of Boyacá. Sáchica borders Sutamarchán and Villa de Leyva in the north, in the east

Chíquiza Chíquiza () is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. Chíquiza was called San Pedro de Iguaque until July 17, 2003 when the name was changed to Chíquiza. The municipality is situa ...

Samacá Samacá is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. It borders Cucaita, Tunja and Ventaquemada in the east, Ráquira in the west, Sáchica, Sora and Cucaita in the north and Ventaqu ...

and Ráquira in the south and in the west Ráquira and Sutamarchán.Official website Sáchica
- accessed 07-05-2016 Sáchica is known as the national capital of

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the on ...

History

In the centuries before the arrival of the Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

es, Sáchica was ruled by a ''

cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a S ...

'' loyal to the '' zaque'' of Hunza. Evidence of long inhabitation has been found in the form of petroglyphs made by the Muisca who were organized in the Muisca Confederation. The Muisca had their own

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

where their main gods were Sué (the Sun) and Chía; the Moon. In Sáchica monuments to both celestial bodies have been constructed. Modern Sáchica was founded on July 16, 1556, by Juan Velasco and Carlos Rojas. In 1574 a total of 2500 indigenous people were living in Sáchica, presently only 5% is indigenous, the remainder

mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though thei ...

. In the Chibcha language of the Muisca, Sáchica means "our present domain", "fortress" or "mansion of the sovereign".

Rock art

In a rock shelter in Sáchica, rock art in the form of pictographs has been discovered. The archaeologist Eliécer Silva Celis pioneered in the study of them in the 1960s. Later research has been performed by Carl Henrik Langebaek, Diego Martínez, Álvaro Botiva, Pedro Argüello García, and others. The black, red and white rock art is present at an altitude of at and shows human faces, Suns, maize, eyes, mountains, masks, and other figures. The rock art has been produced in rock shelters of

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: * Lower (surname) * Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) * Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also *Nizhny Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Н� ...

formations.Silva Celis, 1962, p.12

Economy

Sachiquense economy is based on religious

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

; onions and

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es, and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

;

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

Trivia

* The

ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, alt ...

'' Platypterygius sachicarum''(Now '' Kyhytysuka sachicarum''), found in the Paja Formation of Villa de Leyva, has been named after Sáchica

Gallery

File:11 Iglesia de Sáchica Boyacá.JPG, Central square and church File:Parque Sáchica.JPG, Central square File:9 Interior iglesia de Sáchica Boyacá.JPG, Church interior File:Gondava panorámica.jpg, Gondava Lake File:Sachica Calvario 3.JPG, View of Sáchica File:Sachica Calvario 1.JPG, View of Sáchica File:Sáchica 5.JPG, View of Sáchica File:Sáchica 6.JPG, View of Sáchica File:Sachica granjas.JPG, Farmlands File:Sáchica cultivos.JPG, Farmlands File:Sachica cebolla.JPG, Onion fields File:Sachica rocas sedimentarias.JPG, Sedimentary rocks File:13 Monumento parque de Sáchica Boyacá.JPG, Monument to the Sun File:Sáchica, alegoría a la luna.JPG, Monument to the Moon

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sachica Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1556 1556 establishments in the Spanish Empire Muisca Confederation Muysccubun Muisca and pre-Muisca sites Rock art in South America