Guatavita is a municipality and town of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

in the Guavio Province of the department of Cundinamarca. Guatavita is located 75 km northeast of the capital

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 ...

. It borders Sesquilé and Machetá in the north, Gachetá and Junín in the east, Guasca in the south and in the west are Tocancipá and Gachancipá.Official website Guatavita
- accessed 05-05-2016

History

Before the

Spanish conquest of the Muisca The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca people, Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andes, Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. They were organised in a loose M ...

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. (Do not confuse with The Altiplano or the Altiplano Nariñense, both fur ...

, the central plateau in the Colombian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, the area was inhabited by the

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 ...

organized in their

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 ...

. Guatavita was ruled by a ''

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

'' who was a powerful figure consulted by the ''

zipa When the Spain, 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 Funza, Muyquytá. The ''Zaque'' was the ...

s'' of Bacatá and the '' zaques'' of Hunza. Guatavita was specialized in

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

working. An important temple 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 Sun god 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 Muisca was constructed in Guatavita. In the Guatavita Lake the new ''zipa'' was inaugurated in rituals performed by the ''cacique'' of Guatavita, represented by the famous golden

Muisca raft The Muisca raft (''Balsa Muisca'' in Spanish language, Spanish), sometimes referred to as the Golden Raft of El Dorado, is a pre-Columbian Votive offering, votive piece created by the Muisca people, Muisca, an Andean people of Colombia in the Cor ...

. Around 1490 the

Battle of Chocontá The Battle of Chocontá was one of a series of battles in the ongoing conflict between the northern and southern Muisca of pre-Columbian central Colombia. The battle was fought 1490 in the vicinity of Chocontá. An army of 50,000 southern Muisc ...

took place where ''zaque'' Michuá was supported by the ''cacique'' of Guatavita and lost with their outnumbered army of 60,000 guecha warriors against the ''zipa''

Saguamanchica Saguamanchica (died Chocontá, 1490) was the second ruler (''zipa'') of Muyquytá, as of 1470. His '' zaque'' enemy ruling over the northern area of the Muisca territory was Michuá. Alternative spellings of his name are Sacuan Machica, Sagua ...

. Both

Muisca rulers 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 ''Zaque'' was the ruler of th ...

died in this battle.History of the Muisca
- Banco de la República - accessed 05-05-2016 Modern Guatavita was founded on March 18, 1593, by Miguel de Ibarra. Guatavita was rebuilt on higher ground in the mid-1960s due to the construction of the Tominé Reservoir, which intentionally flooded the area of the town.

Etymology

In the

Chibcha language Chibcha, Mosca, Muisca, Muysca (*/ˈmɨska/ * �mʷɨska, or Muysca de Bogotá is a language spoken by the Muisca people, one of the many indigenous cultures of the Americas. The Muisca inhabit the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of what today is th ...

of the Muisca, Guachetá means "end of the farming fields" or "point of the mountain range".

Economy

Main economical activities in Guatavita are

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

. In terms of agriculture most common are

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es,

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

and

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

s. Tourism is mainly in the weekends when craft markets open in town.

Guatavita Lake

The sacred and ceremonial Lake Guatavita, of the

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 ...

is located nearby, within the Sesquilé municipality of

Almeidas Province Almeidas Province (, ) is one of the 15 provinces in the Cundinamarca department, Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. Almeidas borders to the east with the Boyacá Department to the north with the Ubaté Province, to the west with the Central Savann ...

Climate

Gallery

File:Plaza de guatavita.jpg, Central square File:OBELISCO GUATAVITA.JPG, Obelisk File:Tejados y casas blancas.JPG, Typical houses File:CasaIndigenaLagunaDeGuatavita.JPG, Reconstructed ''bohío'' of the Muisca File:Comercio en Guatavita (Centro Artesanal).jpg, Crafts market File:Flores violetas y parque.JPG, Flowers and park File:Guatavita view.JPG, Rural area File:Represa de Tominé 1.jpg, Tominé Reservoir

References

External links

Photos of Guatavita
*
Nature and Culture of Guatavita
{{Authority control Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department Populated places established in 1593 1593 establishments in the Spanish Empire Populated places of the Muisca Confederation