Masatepe () is one of the nine municipalities of the Department of

Masaya Masaya () is the capital city of Masaya Department in Nicaragua. It is situated approximately 14 km west of Granada, Nicaragua, Granada and 31 km southeast of Managua. It is located just east of the Masaya Volcano, an active volcano ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. It is located on the plateau of the villages 50 kilometers from

Managua Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...

along the road to Masaya. It belongs to the tourist corridor of " Los Pueblos Blancos" on top of the coffee-producing Volcanic Plateau. The origin of the word "Masatepe" comes from the

Nawat language Nawat (academically Pipil, also known as Nahuat) is a Nahuan language native to Central America. It is the southernmost extant member of the Uto-Aztecan family. Before Spanish colonization it was spoken in several parts of present-day Central ...

and is named after the

Nahua The Nahuas ( ) are a Uto-Nahuan ethnicity and one of the Indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest Indigenous group in Mexico, as well as ...

chiefdom of Masatepek, which was located in the present-day department of Masaya. Masatepek is a combination of the Nawat words ''Masat'' (deer), and ''-tepek'' (hill). The literal translation of Masatepek is "deer hill". The

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

inhabitants of Masaya are the

Nahuas The Nahuas ( ) are a Uto-Nahuan ethnicity and one of the Indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest Indigenous group in Mexico, as well as ...

and the Chorotegas, and the Nahuas who still inhabit the municipality dominate the cocoa production in Masatepe.

History

The name ''Mazatepetl'', meaning in

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

: "Deer Mountain". The population of Chorotega origin, settled in the foothills of the Masaya Volcano, it is important to emphasize that in research deeper envelope the Aboriginal time appears the name ''Mazatepetl'', but Matapalete or Popocatepetl than in Nahuatl means: "Burning Hill". The ancestors settled from the Laguna de Masaya to the Pochote in the margins of the Masaya Volcano, then was moved to Nimboja and Jalapa. According to Chronicles of the colony, 1 September 1528 to 5 May 1529, Fray Francisco de Bobadilla visited Matapalete and named a total of 154 aborigines living in the place. In an article of the year, 1613 historian Fray Juan Torquemada appears registered as municipality Masatepe. In 1835 during the modern era and when Nicaragua had only four departments, Masatepe belonged to

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

Weather and Location

Masatepe is located on top of the Plateau of towns, at an altitude of 475m, the total area can be divided into two main different types of biomes: 1- Rain forest (Usually has native trees and Coffee Plantations. Elv: (400 - 500m) 2- Dry Valley. ( can be found near the coast of the Lagoon, and the Masaya Volcano ). Elv: (90 - 250m) The temperature fluctuates during the year, being mostly warm. During the winter months (November - January) the temperatures become cooler, and there are usually foggy mornings.

Sports

The town is home of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club Deportivo Masatepe.

External links

Alcaldía Municipal de Masatepe
Official Web Site of Masatepe (Spanish)
Masatepe.org
In the internet since 2001. General Information about the city, photos, videos and much more about this city, including a virtual tour (Spanish)
MasatepeCity.com
Information and videos of Masatepe (Spanish)

Web site of the Partnerschaftsverein Kreis Gross-Gerau - Masatepe (German, Spanish)

References

Populated places in Nicaragua Municipalities of the Masaya Department {{Nicaragua-geo-stub