Cáqueza () is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. The town, located on the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () 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 the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alt ...

, is from the capital

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest ...

. The municipality borders Fosca in the south,

Ubaque Ubaque is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province of the department of Cundinamarca. Ubaque borders the municipalities Choachí in the north, Fómeque in the east, Cáqueza and Chipaque in the south and in the west is the ...

in the north, Une and

Chipaque Chipaque is a municipality and town in the Eastern Province of the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia. The municipality of is located at an altitude of in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes with its westernmost part situated in the ...

in the west and

Quetame Quetame is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The urban centre of Quetame is located at from the capital Bogotá at an altitude of . The municipality borders Fómeque in the no ...

in the east.Official website Cáqueza
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Etymology

The name Cáqueza comes from

Chibcha 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 lang ...

and means "Region or enclosure without forest".

History

The area of Cáqueza in the times before the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predec ...

was inhabited by the

Muisca 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 l ...

and Cáqueza was ruled by the ''

zipa When the Spanish arrived in the central Colombian highlands, the region was organized into the Muisca Confederation, which had two rulers; the ''zipa'' was the ruler of the southern part and based in Muyquytá. The ''hoa'' was the ruler of the ...

'' based in

Bacatá Bacatá is the name given to the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation on the Bogotá savanna. It mostly refers to an area, rather than an individual village, although the name is also found in texts referring to the modern settlement of ...

. Modern Cáqueza was founded on October 23, 1600 by Luis Enríquez.

Economy

Main economic activities in Cáqueza are

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 peop ...

and

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to anima ...

farming. Important agricultural products are

bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes t ...

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

pea The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

s and

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 oni ...

Born in Cáqueza

* Daniel Alejandro Torres, Colombian footballer

Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caqueza Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department Populated places established in 1600 1600 establishments in the Spanish Empire Muisca Confederation Muysccubun