The Tenza Valley ( Spanish: ''Valle de Tenza'') is an intermontane valley in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. The valley stretches over the southeastern part of the department of Boyacá and the northeastern part of Cundinamarca. It is located east of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and in the time before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, as the Altiplano was inhabited by the Muisca in the higher altitudes and the Tegua in the lower areas to the east.

Etymology

The Tenza Valley is named after Tenza which means in Chibcha: "Behind the mouth" or "Going down at night".Etymology Tenza
- Excelsio.net

Geography and geology

The Tenza Valley is situated in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes at altitudes between approximately in the northwest and in the southeast. The Lengupá River, part of the Orinoco drainage basin, flows through the valley and connects the higher altitude Altiplano Cundiboyacense with the

Llanos Orientales The Llanos ( Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grassland ...

.El Valle de Tenza, tesoro natural en el Piedemonte Llanero
/ref> The Une, Villeta, Socha, Macanal and Bogotá Formations outcrop in the valley. The valley is rich in water.El Valle de Tenza, destino turístico para todos
- El Tiempo The average temperature is .

History

The Tenza Valley was inhabited by the Muisca before conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada entered the central highlands of Colombia. The Tenza Valley 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 ...

'' who was loyal to the '' zaque'' based in Hunza, present-day Tunja.Muisca people
- Pueblos Originarios On the fertile lands of the valley the indigenous people elaborated their

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 ...

.Principales valles de Boyacá
/ref> The valley was also important in the economy of the Muisca, hosting the important

emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr. and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991) ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York, p ...

resources of Chivor and

Somondoco Somondoco is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá. This town and larger municipal area are located in the Valle de Tenza. The Valle de Tenza is the ancient route connecting the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and the Llanos. ...

. Archaeologist Juanita Sáenz Samper has discovered three agricultural terraces and five cemeteries hosting one grave and pertaining to pre-Columbian times. The research in the Tenza Valley has also uncovered typical grey

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelai ...

s of the area, called ''Valle de Tenza Gris''.Investigacíon arqueológica en el bajo Valle de Tenza, Boyacá
/ref>

Modern times

The Chivor Reservoir, producing 8% of Colombia's hydroelectric energy, is located in the Tenza Valley. Despite the pleasant climate compared to the colder regions of Boyacá, the Tenza Valley is not touristic.Valle de Tenza, tesoro entre montañas
- El Espectador

Economy

The temperate climate of the Tenza Valley allows for a variety in agriculture. Main products cultivated are

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. ...

, yuca,

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Un ...

es, papa criolla, sugarcane,

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,

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

, fique,

arracacha Arracacha (''Arracacia xanthorrhiza'') is a root vegetable that originates in the Andes, whose starchy taproot is a popular food item across South America where it is a major commercial crop. Common names Being a South American plant, its most ...

, peas, beans,

cucumber Cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the Cucurbitaceae family that bears usually cylindrical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.pumpkin A pumpkin is a vernacular term for mature winter squash of species and varieties in the genus '' Cucurbita'' that has culinary and cultural significance but no agreed upon botanical or scientific meaning. The term ''pumpkin'' is sometimes u ...

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in Sout ...

es,

chirimoya The cherimoya (''Annona cherimola''), also spelled chirimoya and called chirimuya by the Inca Empire, Inca people, is a species of edible fruit-bearing plant in the genus ''Annona'', from the family Annonaceae, which includes the closely relate ...

oranges An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae (see list of plants known as orange); it primarily refers to ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related ''Citrus × ...

avocado The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to Americas, the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerica, Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Pre-Columb ...

es,

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centurie ...

s, mandarines,

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within modern-day southern Mexico and ...

maracuyá ''Passiflora edulis,'' commonly known as passion fruit, is a vine species of passion flower native to southern Brazil through Paraguay and northern Argentina. It is cultivated commercially in tropical and subtropical areas for its sweet, seedy ...

guayaba Guava () is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava ''Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), native to Mexico, Central America, the ...

and

lulo ''Solanum quitoense'', known as naranjilla (, "little orange (fruit), orange") in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Panama and as lulo (, from Quechua languages, Quechua) in Colombia, is a tropical perennial plant from northwestern South America. The spec ...

. In terms of

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 economic ...

, the emerald mines of Chivor and Somondoco are important.

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as stratum, rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen ...

mines and

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

extraction form another part of the mining business in the valley.

Salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quanti ...

is mined on a minor scale in

Sutatenza Sutatenza () is a town and municipality in the Eastern Boyacá Province of the department of Boyacá, Colombia. It is located from the Colombian capital Bogotá and from the department capital Tunja. Sutatenza borders Somondoco, Guateque, Ten ...

and

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 dr ...

is exploited in

Macanal Macanal is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the Neira Province. The urban centre is located in the Tenza Valley in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes at an elevation of but parts ...

Municipalities in the Tenza Valley

References

External links

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Cycling route in the Tenza Valley
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Video of the Tenza Valley
{{Authority control Valleys of Colombia Geography of Boyacá Department Geography of Cundinamarca Department Muisca