Cundinamarca Department

The Departamento de Cundinamarca is a province in the center of Colombia. It encompasses the metropolitan area (Distrito Capital Santa Fe de Bogota ). The Boyacá Province is bordered on the northeast by the province, Meta is in the south and west are Tolima and Caldas.

Mainly potatoes, onions, coffee, and sugar cane are grown. Cundinamarca is also an important producer of milk. The region is rich in mineral resources. There are coal, iron, salt, limestone, emerald and quartz deposits. Cundinamarca is the industrial heart of Colombia. Here are factories in the food and beverage industry, textile processing, machinery and Ausrüstungsbaues, the chemical and petroleum-refining industry, metal processing and paper production.

Cundinamarca is the 'Land of the Condor ' and is located in the mountains of the Andes.

Cundinamarca was before the Spanish conquest the center of the Chibcha who had built a major empire between the Inca and the Mesoamerican cultures. In the high altitude lakes Cundinamarcas sacrificed their kings that were completely covered with gold dust, the gods of gold and emeralds and there was the legend of El Dorado ( ' the Gilded ').

Worth seeing is the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá in.

Geography

The province of Cundinamarca surrounding the Colombian capital Bogotá and covers the entire territory of the Sabana de Bogotá, a 2600 m high plateau. The eastern boundary of the province of Meta runs approximately on the main ridge of the Eastern Cordillera, the western and southern boundary along the rivers Sumapaz and Magdalena. The highest mountains significantly exceed the 3000 - m limit.

The climate varies due to the large differences in altitude ( about 2600 m Bogotá, Girardot 200 m ), but is due to the total exposure of the western mountain slopes generally rainy.

History

The Sabana de Bogotá region until the arrival of the Spaniards the territory of the Muisca civilization that inhabited the area around present-day Bogotá since about 1100 AD. On the western slope of the Eastern Cordillera were living representatives of Panche culture. The Muisca are particularly known for the legend of El Dorado.

European settlement began with the meeting of Nicholas spring man and Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada on the plateau of Bogota and the joint creation of the same settlement in 1538. Thereafter, the settlement initially concentrated on the western part of the province since the Magdalena River as a transportation route to the sea and thus to Europe gained great importance. For example, the cities Tocaima and Anolaima originated in the 16th century as stations on the arduous journey from the banks of the Magdalena up to Bogotá.

Administrative subdivision

The 116 municipalities Cundinamarcas are in the list of Municipalities in the Departamento de Cundinamarca.