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48-632: The Altiplano Cundiboyacense , the central high plateau in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes before the Spanish conquest , was inhabited by the Muisca , a collection of indigenous people who spoke a version of Chibcha ; Muysccubun . Their egalitarian society and economy was self-sufficient and based on agriculture , trading with various surrounding indigenous groups and

96-652: A central square where the bohío of the cacique was located. They were called "Salt People" because of their extraction of salt in various locations throughout their territories, mainly in Zipaquirá , Nemocón and Tausa . For the main part self-sufficient in their well-organised economy , the Muisca traded with the European conquistadors valuable products as gold , tumbaga (a copper - silver -gold alloy) and emeralds with their neighbouring indigenous groups . In

144-628: A group of 800 conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada left the Caribbean coastal city of Santa Marta on a harsh expedition into the heart of the Andes . This journey, that took one year and the lives of eighty percent of their men, led them into what was called by early chroniclers the " Muisca Confederation ". After submitting the southern Muisca who lived on the Bogotá savanna in April 1537,

192-582: A lack of food Lanchero's party had to slaughter some horses. After two unsuccessful attempts to subjugate the more than 10,000 Muzo, Lanchero marched through Panche territory to the south, the western portion of the current department of Cundinamarca , back towards Bogotá. In early 1559, fifteen years after the discovery of the rich emerald deposits by Diego Martínez, Lanchero returned to Muzo terrain and passed through Maripí . He founded Villa de la Santísima Trinidad de los Muzos , today known as Muzo, on February   20, 1559. On this expedition, Lanchero

240-565: A library. Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense ( Spanish pronunciation: [altiˈplano kundiβoʝaˈsense] ) 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 Altiplano Cundiboyacense comprises three distinctive flat regions;

288-522: A major collection from current Argentina , where the biggest terror bird, Kelenken , roamed the paleopampas in the early Miocene. The forming Andes created a hilly landscape in the regions bordering the former sea inlet from the proto-Caribbean. Other land animals in the Tertiary were the xenungulate Etayoa bacatensis , evidence for which has been found in 1987 in the Bogotá Formation of

336-559: A sign that says "Captain Gonzalo Suárez Rendón, founder of the city of Tunja, built this house in 1539". The building was constructed from 1540 onwards, on the site where the first reunions of the colonists were held in August 1539 and served as the house of the founder and his family. Indigenous chronicles state that the house was in an advanced stage of completion in 1562. In 1570, conquistador Luis Lanchero reported that it

384-466: Is characterised by the cloistered staircases, the painted roof of the central hall and the use of marble . The house consists of two floors and is built around a central garden (patio) in an L-shaped form, with view on the Tunja Valley. The ground floor is built with stone arches and the upper floor built with wood. The architectural style is Andalusian and the front of the building is adorned with

432-657: Is regarded one of eleven archaeological regions of Colombia. The earliest evidence of human occupation in the region has been found in Pubenza , to the west of the Altiplano, dating to 16,000 years BP . On the Altiplano, the oldest findings are dated at 12,400 ± 160 years in El Abra . Slightly younger occurrences of settlement by hunter-gatherers have been discovered at Tibitó , with an estimated age of 11,740 +/- 110 years BP and Tequendama dated at 10,920 ± 260 years BP. In

480-452: The Bogotá savanna , the valleys of Ubaté and Chiquinquirá , and the valleys of Duitama and Sogamoso . The average altitude of the altiplano is about 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) above sea level but ranges from roughly 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). Altiplano in Spanish means "high plain" or "high plateau", the second part is a combination of the departments Cundinamarca and Boyacá . The limits of

528-560: The Sack of Rome in 1527. In 1533, searching for adventure, Lanchero left Europe for what would later become Venezuela with a conquest expedition led by Jerónimo de Ortal . Once there, Lanchero joined the expedition led by Nikolaus Federmann towards the Colombian Andes , reaching the newly founded capital of the New Kingdom of Granada in 1538. He became encomendero of Susa . When in 1539 Hernán Pérez de Quesada took over

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576-640: The Spanish conquest , to the Muisca Confederation . The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors . They were organised in a loose confederation of different rulers ; the zipa of Bacatá , with his headquarters in Funza , the zaque of Hunza , the iraca of the sacred City of the Sun Sugamuxi ,

624-591: The Tenza Valley , to the east of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense where the majority of the Muisca lived, they extracted emeralds in Chivor and Somondoco . The economy of the Muisca was rooted in their agriculture with main products maize , yuca , potatoes and various other cultivations elaborated on elevated fields (in their language called tá ). Agriculture had started around 3000 BCE on

672-526: The Tundama of Tundama , and several independent caciques . The leaders of the Confederation at the time of conquest were zipa Tisquesusa , zaque Quemuenchatocha , iraca Sugamuxi and Tundama in the northernmost portion of their territories. The Muisca were organised in small communities of circular enclosures ( ca in their language Muysccubbun ; literally "language of the people"), with

720-408: The caciques of the Muisca; Sagipa and Quiminnza (the successor of Eucaneme) were decapitated in public spectacles. One of the captains of Hernán Pérez de Quesada was Gonzalo Suárez Rendón , who was sent from Bogotá to Hunza, founding the city of Tunja as second-most Spanish colonial settlement on the Altiplano on August 6, 1539. The Spanish set up a system of encomiendas and Suárez Rendón became

768-551: The mining of halite , giving them the name "The Salt People". They lived in small settlements of ten to one hundred bohíos scattered in the valleys of the Andes. Their system of hierarchy consisted of caciques and priests and the cacique of certain settlements were guarding larger areas. The main leaders of the community were the zipa based in Bacatá and the zaque based in Hunza , today known as Tunja. In April 1536,

816-527: The zipa who succeeded his brother Tisquesusa upon his death; Sagipa , allied with the Spanish to fight the Panche , eternal enemies of the Muisca in the southwest. In the Battle of Tocarema, the allied forces claimed victory over the bellicose western neighbours. In late 1538, other conquest undertakings resulted in more founded settlements in the heart of the Andes. Two other expeditions that were taking place at

864-462: The Altiplano Cundiboyacense is 14 °C (57 °F), ranging from 0 °C (32 °F) to 24 °C (75 °F). The driest months of the year are from December to March, while rain is more common in April, May, September, October and November. From June to August strong winds are present. Hail is common on the Altiplano. The Altiplano Cundiboyacense is surrounded by and contains various Andean unique ecosystems; páramos . 60% of all páramos in

912-516: The Altiplano Cundiboyacense, among others in Bojacá , Bogotá , Chía , Usme , Cogua , Cota , Facatativá , Nemocón , Madrid , Mosquera , Sáchica , Sibaté , Soacha , Subachoque , Suesca , Sutatausa , Tenjo , Tocancipá , Zipacón , Zipaquirá . The ages between 3000 and 1000 years before present corresponds to the Herrera Period , and the era between 1000 BP and 1537, the year of

960-614: The Altiplano are not strictly defined. The high plateau is enclosed by the higher mountains of the Eastern Ranges, with the Sumapaz mountains in the south and Chingaza to the east. The Tenza Valley is located to the east of the Altiplano and the Ocetá Páramo and Chicamocha Canyon are situated to the northeast. The Altiplano is subdivided into three major valleys, from northeast to southwest: The average temperature on

1008-479: The Altiplano, the original vegetation is at risk. Most important city of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense is the Colombian capital Bogotá . Other cities are, from northeast to southwest: The Altiplano Cundiboyacense hosts a number of rivers and lakes. Luis Lanchero Luis Lanchero , also known as Luis Lancheros (?, Castile - 1562, Tunja , New Kingdom of Granada ) was a Spanish conquistador and

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1056-401: The Altiplano. The agriculture of the Muisca was performed on small-scale cropfields, part of more extensive lands, and in a rather egalitarian manner; the higher social classes did not have access to more agricultural products than the lower class Muisca people. Their main difference was in the construction of their houses and access to meat. The predominant agricultural product of the Muisca

1104-593: The Early Cretaceous until the Eocene, the region of the present-day Altiplano was dominated by a marine environment, as part of the long inland sea of northern South America. In these warm tropical seas a fauna of ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs developed, with important finds ( Kronosaurus boyacensis ( El Fósil ), Muiscasaurus , with four nostrils) in the Paja Formation of Villa de Leyva . During

1152-596: The Late Eocene-Early Oligocene (35-30 Mya) epochs, South America became detached from its longest connected former member of Pangea ; Antarctica . The isolation of the South American paleocontinent led to a large biodiversity of New World species. The dominating group of top predators and scavengers for decades of millions of years on the continent were the terror birds . Fossils of terror birds have been found throughout South America, with

1200-508: The biggest lake of Colombia; present-day Lake Tota . Lake Tota is the remnant of a Pleistocene glacial lake higher up the Altiplano to the east. Lake Humboldt is thought to have existed until around 30,000 years ago with as modern remaining water bodies Lake Herrera , wetlands of Bogotá and the Bogotá River . Lake Humboldt had an irregular shoreline with an island in the centre; the present-day Suba Hills . The Altiplano Cundiboyacense

1248-606: The capital of the New Kingdom of Granada , as the colonial lands of the Spanish Empire was called after the home region of the brothers De Quesada in Andalusia , Spain. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada embarked a ship in Cartagena with several other conquistadors for Spain in the first half of 1539 and left the control of the new colony in the hands of his brother. Under his command, various atrocities were committed against

1296-484: The conquest expedition went south and conquered Pasca and other settlements. The Spanish leader returned with his men to the Bogotá savanna and planned new conquest expeditions executed in the second half of 1537 and first months of 1538. On August 6, 1538, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada founded Bogotá as the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada , named after his home region of Granada , Spain. That same month, on August 20,

1344-452: The conquistadors arrived at the northern edge of the Bogotá savanna in Suesca . continued to Lenguazaque that was founded the next day, En route towards the domain of zipa Tisquesusa , the Spanish founded Cajicá and Chía . In April 1537 they arrived at Funza , where Tisquesusa was beaten by the Spanish. This formed the onset for further expeditions, starting a month later towards

1392-480: The earliest ages of human population prehistoric animals as the Cuvieronius , Haplomastodon and Equus amerhippus were living on the Altiplano. Later dated excavations have revealed a transition from a hunter-gatherer society living in rock shelters to open area settlements with Checua and Aguazuque as examples. Various burial sites at Checua have been dated between 8200 and 7800 years BP. During

1440-1027: The earliest phases, the first humans lived together with Pleistocene now extinct mastodons , as the fossil remains of Haplomastodon waringi , Neochoerus and Odocoileus in Soatá indicate. The main part of the diet of the people was formed by white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ). Other mammals included little red brocket ( Mazama rufina ), guinea pigs ( Cavia porcellus ), nine-banded armadillo ( Dasypus novemcinctus ), white-lipped peccary ( Tayassu pecari ), crab-eating fox ( Dusicyon thous ), spectacled bear ( Tremarctos ornatus ), ocelot ( Felis pardalis ), puma ( Felis concolor ), lowland paca ( Agouti paca ), Agouti taczamawskii , Dasyprocta , ring-tailed coati ( Nasua nasua ), western mountain coati ( Nasuella olivacea ), common opossum ( Didelphis marsupialis ) and collared anteater ( Tamandua tetradactyla ). Various archaeological sites with petroglyphs or pictographs have been discovered on

1488-548: The eastern Tenza Valley and the northern territories of zaque Quemuenchatocha . On August 20, 1537, the zaque was submitted in his bohío in Hunza . The Spanish continued their journey northeastward into the Iraca Valley , where the iraca Sugamuxi fell to the Spanish troops and the Sun Temple was accidentally burned by two soldiers of the army of De Quesada in early September. Meanwhile, other soldiers from

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1536-488: The first encomendero of Tunja. The Casa del Fundador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón is located at the eastern end of the central square of Tunja; Plaza de Bolívar , previously called Plaza Suárez Rendón . The house, with present address Carrera 9 #19-56 between the cathedral of Tunja and the Universidad de Boyacá , was built roughly between 1540 and 1570 by 3000 Muisca for the city founder Gonzalo Suárez Rendón . The building

1584-729: The founder of the town of Trinidad de los Muzos , Boyacá , the most important emerald settlement in Colombia. Muzo was founded after twenty years of unsuccessful attempts to subjugate the Muzo to Spanish rule. Lanchero arrived in the New World in 1533 and died impoverished in Tunja in 1562. Luis Lanchero was born in Castile in a noble family. As a young man he was employed in the guard of Spanish king Carlos V , in which role he participated in

1632-409: The governance of Bogotá from his elder brother and founder Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada he organised various expeditions in search of valuables and above all for El Dorado . While de Quesada was not satisfied with Lanchero, he was sent towards the territories of the Muzo in western Boyacá in the first months of 1540. Expeditions into Muzo territories were difficult because of the terrain. Due to

1680-471: The microclimate of the surroundings of Lake Iguaque produces a páramo. Regional geology The Altiplano Cundiboyacense is formed as part of the uplift of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes since Neogene times. Hydrothermal activity in fractures of the forming Andean chain left its trace in the form of the many emeralds found in the western and eastern parts of the Altiplano. From

1728-435: The northwest of the Altiplano was covered with a lake, of which the current Lake Fúquene is a retreating remainder. To the extreme northeast, in Soatá , another Pleistocene lake was present. The largest paleolake in the latest Pleistocene was Lake Humboldt or Lake Bogotá covering the Bogotá savanna . The lake, some 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi) in size, at that time would have been seventy times larger than

1776-438: The often flooded highlands and a system of irrigation and drainage was developed. They cultivated their crops in rows of mounds. A delegation of more than 900 men left the tropical city of Santa Marta in April 1536 and went on a harsh expedition through the heartlands of Colombia in search of El Dorado and the civilisation that produced all that precious gold. The leader of the first and main expedition under Spanish flag

1824-531: The same time; of De Belalcázar from the south and Federmann from the east, reached the newly founded capital and the three leaders embarked in May 1539 on a ship on the Magdalena River that took them to Cartagena and from there back to Spain. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada had installed his younger brother Hernán as new governor of Bogotá and the latter organised new conquest campaigns in search of El Dorado during

1872-492: The second half of 1539 and 1540. His captain Gonzalo Suárez Rendón founded Tunja on August 6, 1539, and captain Baltasar Maldonado , who had served under De Belalcázar, defeated the cacique of Tundama at the end of 1539. The last zaque Aquiminzaque was decapitated in early 1540, establishing the new rule over the former Muisca Confederation . Present-day, due to the large population and agriculture of

1920-624: The south, starting in the previously founded Kingdom of Quito in what is now Ecuador . The conquest of the Muisca on the Altiplano started in March 1537, when the greatly reduced troops of De Quesada entered Muisca territories in Chipatá , the first settlement they founded on March 8. The expedition went further inland and up the slopes of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense into later Boyacá and Cundinamarca . The towns of Moniquirá (Boyacá) and Guachetá and Lenguazaque (Cundinamarca) were founded before

1968-561: The southern Altiplano. The biodiversity and former tranquility of the isolated ecosystem changed during the Pliocene, when the Panama Block emerged from the seas and formed a transferable connection with formerly isolated North America. This Great American Biotic Interchange led to a drastic rearrangement of South American fauna. Migrating species from North America replaced many formerly successful South American animals, among which

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2016-410: The terror birds. The Late Pleistocene of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense has been analysed in detail through various methods based on fossils found on the Altiplano. Pleistocene megafauna inhabited the glacial highlands of the eastern Andean chain. The climate in the glacials and stadials led to the formation of various prehistoric lakes in the valleys of the Altiplano. The Ubaté-Chiquinquirá Valley in

2064-566: The troops split up and Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, his brother Hernán Pérez de Quesada and various others set foot to the northeast, where they reached the territories of the hoa in August 1537. hoa Eucaneme was defeated by the Spanish on August 20, 1537, in his bohío in Hunza. What followed were several other expeditions to parts of the Muisca Confederation and the foundation of the city of Bogotá on August 6, 1538, becoming

2112-475: The world are situated in Colombia. (Specifically, in the department of Boyacá with the most relative area of páramos). Boyacá is the department where 18.3% of the national total area is located. To the south the Sumapaz Páramo (largest in the world) forms a natural boundary of the Altiplano. Chingaza contains páramo vegetation, as does the most beautiful Ocetá Páramo in the northeast. On the Altiplano

2160-448: Was Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada , with his brother Hernán second in command. Several other soldiers were participating in the journey, who would later become encomenderos and take part in the conquest of other parts of Colombia. Other contemporaneous expeditions into the unknown interior of the Andes, all searching for the mythical land of gold, were starting from later Venezuela , led by Bavarian and other German conquistadors and from

2208-592: Was maize and they had numerous words in their language , Muysccubun for the plant, kernels and processing of it. Evidence for maize cultivation predates the Muisca; already in the Herrera Period maize cultivation has been identified based on pollen analysis. The cacicazgos were self-sufficient in their agricultural products and surpluses of maize ( abitago ) were traded for more tropical climate fruits such as pineapples , avocados and Ipomea batatas . The Muisca used terraces for their agriculture on

2256-516: Was accompanied by conquistador Pedro de Ursúa . Muzo was first unsuccessfully founded as Tudela. During the battles against the Muzo, Lanchero was wounded by an arrow in his chest. In 1560 Lanchero handed the governance of Muzo over to the encomenderos , leading to successive struggles over the rich emerald grounds. On October 17, 1560, Lanchero also passed the control of Curipí to the encomienda . After Miguel Diez de Armendariz took control of

2304-464: Was one of the most luxurious mansions of the New Kingdom of Granada. Many conquistadors of the early days of the colony stayed in the house, among which Jerónimo Lebrón de Quiñones , Alonso Luis de Lugo , Hernán Pérez de Quesada and Pedro de Ursúa . The house was made a museum in 1965 and hosts eighty objects of art and history. It is administered by the municipality ( Alcaldía Mayor ) and hosts

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