Guadalupe Hill is a high hill located in the Eastern Hills, uphill from the centre of

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

, Colombia. Together with its neighbouring hill Monserrate it is one of the landmarks of Bogotá. At the top of the hill a hermitage and a high statue has been erected. The statue was elaborated by sculptor Gustavo Arcila Uribe in 1946 and is accompanied by a chapel dedicated to

Our Lady of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe (), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (), is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with four Marian apparitions to Juan Diego and one to his uncle, Juan Bernardino reported in December 1531, when t ...

. Guadalupe Hill is the type locality of the Guadalupe Group, a

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

sedimentary sequence of sandstones and shales of thick. The formation is being thrust on top of younger strata by the reverse

Bogotá Fault The Bogotá Fault () is a major inactive slightly dextral oblique thrust fault in the department of Cundinamarca in central Colombia. The fault has a total length of , while other authors designate a length of , and runs along an average north-no ...

as a result of the ongoing

Andean orogeny The Andean orogeny () is an ongoing process of orogeny that began in the Early Jurassic and is responsible for the rise of the Andes mountains. The orogeny is driven by a reactivation of a long-lived subduction system along the western margin o ...

. The hill is the source for the Manzanares and El Chuscal creeks that flow westwards onto the

Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a savanna#Savanna ecoregions, montane savanna, located in the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the center of Colombia. The Bogotá savanna has an extent of and an average altitude of . The savanna is si ...

. Historically, Guadalupe Hill was an important sacred site for the indigenous

Muisca The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Muisca spe ...

, who inhabited the Bogotá savanna and surrounding regions before the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

. During the colonial period, Guadalupe Hill contained a cross and the hermitage that was destroyed by various

earthquakes An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they c ...

in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On Sundays, Guadalupe Hill and its chapel and statue are visited by tourists and pilgrims from Bogotá, accessing the hill either by road and public transport or via a walking trail to the hilltop.

Etymology

Guadalupe Hill is named after Our Lady of Guadalupe of Badajoz, not -as is commonly believed- after the famous

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

.Cerro de Guadalupe, una joya bogotana que no puede dejar de visitar
/ref>

Geology

The Guadalupe Hill is the type locality for the

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

Guadalupe Group, a sequence of three formations of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

s and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

s; Arenisca Dura, Plaeners, Arenisca de Labor and Arenisca Tierna. The thickness of the Guadalupe Group, defined as formation by some authors, at Guadalupe Hill is .Guerrero Uscátegui, 1992, pp. 4–5 Approximately 53% of the Eastern Hills consists of the Guadalupe Group.Wiesner Ceballos et al., 2007, p. 16 The Guadalupe Group is thrusted on top of the younger

Guaduas Guaduas () is a municipality and town in Colombia, in the Lower Magdalena Province department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca, about 117 km from Bogotá. It is an agricultural and tourist center of some importance with a populati ...

and Cacho Formations by the

.Geological Map Bogotá, 1997 The NNW-SSE trending eastward dipping

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. I ...

forms a barrier for

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

s.Velandia & De Bermoudes, 2002, p. 42 The creeks (''quebradas'') Manzanares and El Chuscal originate from Guadalupe Hill.Wiesner Ceballos et al., 2007, p. 32

History

Guadalupe Hill in the times before the

was one of the sacred hilltops in the

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

of the

, the indigenous inhabitants of the

. They considered the hills sacred and buried their dead in the mountains. The people, organised in a loose confederation of leaders, the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', ''iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andes, Andean highlands of what is today Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Spanis ...

, had an advanced knowledge of

archaeoastronomy Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultur ...

and constructed various temples honouring

Sué Sué, Xué, Sua, Zuhe or Suhé was the deity, god of the Sun in the Muisca religion and mythology, religion of the Muisca. He was married to Moon goddess Chía (goddess), Chía.Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.4, p.33 The Muisca people, Muisca and their Mu ...

, the god of the Sun, throughout their territories. Guadalupe Hill in

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

times was called in their language Muysccubun ''quijicha guexica'', "grandfather's foot".Bonilla Romero, 2011, p. 14 Seen from Bolívar Square, at the winter

solstice A solstice is the time when the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly sun path, excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around 20–22 June and 20–22 December. In many countries ...

of December, Sué rises exactly over Guadalupe Hill and at the

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun appears directly above the equator, rather than to its north or south. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise directly east and set directly west. This occurs twice each year, arou ...

es of March and September in the valley between Monserrate and Guadalupe.Bonilla Romero et al., 2017, p. 153 At the time of the conquest, the Eastern Hills were a forested natural boundary of the Bogotá savanna. During the early colonial period, the Spanish constructed a cross on Guadalupe Hill as a symbol to protect the capital of the

New Kingdom of Granada New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

. The wood of the trees of the Eastern Hills were used for construction and heating in the city that grew steadily until the 19th century. This led to deforestation and erosion in the Eastern Hills and when

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

visited Santa Fe de Bogotá in 1806, he noted "that there was not a single tree left until the open area of Choachí".Camargo Ponce de León, s.a., p. 6 The first replanting of trees took place in 1855, and a second phase of reforestation happened in 1940.Wiesner Ceballos et al., 2007, `p. 17Wiesner Ceballos et al., 2007, p. 18 In 1801,

Francisco José de Caldas Francisco José de Caldas (October 4, 1768 – October 28, 1816) was a Neogranadine lawyer, military engineer, self-taught naturalist, mathematician, geographer and inventor (he created the first hypsometer), who was executed by orders of Gene ...

recalculated the height of Guadalupe Hill.De Caldas, 1801, p. 365

Hermitage and statue

The first hermitage on Guadalupe Hill was built in 1656 and blessed during a pilgrimage on September 8 of that year. The hermitage was destroyed by the

1743 Events January–March * January 1 – The Verendrye brothers, probably Louis-Joseph and François de La Vérendrye, become the first white people to see the Rocky Mountains from the eastern side (the Spanish conquistadors ...

1785 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Burmese Konbaung Dynasty annexes the Mrauk U Kingdom of Arakan. ** The first issue of the '' Daily Universal Register'', later known as ''The Times'', is published in London. * January 7 &nd ...

and

1827 Events January–March * January 5 – The first regatta in Australia is held, taking place in Tasmania (called at the time ''Van Diemen's Land''), on the River Derwent at Hobart. * January 15 – Furman University, founded in 1826, b ...

. During the presidency of

Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera Tomás Cipriano Ignacio Maria de Mosquera y Figueroa Arboleda Salazar, Prieto de Tovar, Vergara, Silva, Hurtado de Mendoza, Urrutia y Guzmán (September 26, 1798 – October 7, 1878) was a Colombian general, political figure, and slaveholder ...

, the hermitage was reconstructed, but affected again by the 1917 Bogotá earthquake. The hermitage was rebuilt in 1945 by Jorge Murcia Riaño and blessed by

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Ismael Perdomo. In 1946, the high statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe, sculpted by Gustavo Arcila Uribe, was constructed on top of Guadalupe Hill. In 1967, the chapel and road leading up to it were constructed.

Tourism

The Guadalupe Hill and the statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe are among the main touristic attractions of Bogotá. The top of the hill offers a viewpoint (''mirador'') for the Colombian capital. The hill can be accessed via a walking trail, used by pilgrims since colonial times, or by the road to

Choachí Choachí is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province of the department of Cundinamarca. The municipality borders La Calera in the north, Ubaque in the south, in the east Fómeque and westward of Choachí is the Colombian ca ...

via the Avenida Circunvalar.El Cerro de Guadalupe
/ref> Public transport to Guadalupe Hill leaves on Sundays from Carrera 10 with Calle 6. Since 1997, a running contest is held to ascend the Guadalupe Hill.Ascenso al cerro de Guadalupe
–

El Espectador ''El Espectador'' () is a nationally circulated Colombian newspaper founded by Fidel Cano Gutiérrez in 1887 in Medellín and published since 1915 in Bogotá. It was initially published twice a week, 500 issues each, but some years later became ...

Every Sunday, the chapel on the hill receives tourists between 7:00 in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon.Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
On the first Sundays of the month, a mass is held from 8:00 to 10:00 AM and at noon.

Gallery

File:VISTA CERRO DE GUADALUE MONSERRATE.JPG, Guadalupe Hill from Monserrate File:Bogota Business District.JPG, Guadalupe Hill behind the business district of Bogotá File:Av Jiménez cra 15.JPG, Clouds over Guadalupe Hill
from Avenida Jiménez File:Bog - Virgen de Guadalupe.JPG, Our Lady of Guadalupe statue File:Btá - Virgen de Guadalupe.JPG, Head of the statue

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links

*
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
*
Seismic history of Bogotá
{{Bogotá Altiplano Cundiboyacense Geography of Bogotá Three-thousanders of the Andes Tourist attractions in Bogotá Hills of Colombia