Bogota

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History

The area of modern Bogotá was first populated by groups of indigenous people who migrated south based on the relation with the other Chibcha languages; the Bogotá savanna was the southernmost Chibcha-speaking group that exists from Nicaragua to the Andes in Colombia. The civilization built by the Muisca, who settled in the valleys and fertile highlands of and surrounding the Altiplano Cundiboyacense (modern-day departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá and small parts of Santander), was one of the great civilizations in the Americas. The name Muisca Confederation has been given to a loose egalitarian society of various chiefs (caciques) who lived in small settlements of maximum 100 bohíos. The agriculture and salt-based society of the people was rich in goldworking, trade and mummification. The religion of the Muisca consisted of various gods, mostly related to natural phenomena as the Sun (Sué) and his wife, the Moon; Chía, rain Chibchacum, rainbow Cuchavira and with building and feasting (Nencatacoa) and wisdom (Bochica). Their complex luni-solar calendar, deciphered by Manuel Izquierdo based on work by Duquesne, followed three different sets of years, where the sidereal and synodic months were represented. Their astronomical knowledge is represented in one of the few extant landmarks of the architecture of the Muisca in El Infiernito outside Villa de Leyva to the north of Bogotá. The first populations inhabiting the present-day Metropolitan Area of Bogotá were hunter-gatherers in the late Pleistocene. Dating to around 12,500 BP, the oldest evidence of human activity was discovered in El Abra, north of Zipaquirá. Other excavations in a rock shelter southwest of the city in Soacha provided ages of ~11,000 BP; Tequendama. Since roughly 0 AD, the local Muisca people…

Geography

Bogotá is located in the southeastern part of the Bogotá savanna (Sabana de Bogotá) at an average altitude of above sea level. The Bogotá River running NE-SW crosses the sabana, forming Tequendama Falls (Salto del Tequendama) to the south. Tributary rivers form valleys with villages, whose economy is based on agriculture, livestock raising and artisanal production. The sabana is bordered to the east by the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes mountain range. The Eastern Hills, which limit city growth, run from south to north, forming east of the downtown the Guadalupe and Monserrate mountains. The western city limit is Bogotá River. The Sumapaz Paramo (moorland) borders the south and to the north Bogotá extends over the plateau up to the towns of Chía and Sopó. Most of the wetlands in the Bogotá region have disappeared. They covered nearly 50,000 hectares in the 1960s, compared to only 727 in 2019, for a disappearance rate of 98%. Bogotá features a subtropical highland climate with uniform precipitation (Köppen: Cfb, Trewartha: Cfll). The average temperature is , varying from on sunny days to on rainy days. Dry and rainy seasons alternate throughout the year. The driest months are December, January, July and August. The warmest month is March, bringing a maximum of . The coolest nights occur in January, with an average of in the city; fog is very usual in early morning, 220 days per year, whilst clear sky sunny full days are quite unusual. On 8 February 2017, Bogotá recorded a temperature of 25.1°C, the highest in the city in sixty years, according to the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM). In February 2020, Bogotá recorded a temperature of −6.3°C, one of the lowest in the city in recent years, according to the IDEAM. The colonial…

Most-observed species

• Great Thrush

  Turdus fuscater Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837 · Aves
  26,348
• Rufous-collared Sparrow

  Zonotrichia capensis (P.L.S.Müller, 1776) · Aves
  24,472
• Eared Dove

  Zenaida auriculata (Des Murs, 1847) · Aves
  23,822
• Sparkling Violetear

  Colibri coruscans (Gould, 1846) · Aves
  19,220
• Southern House Wren

  Troglodytes musculus J.F.Naumann, 1823 · Aves
  12,974
• Black Vulture

  Coragyps atratus (Bechstein, 1793) · Aves
  12,183
• Brown-bellied Swallow

  Notiochelidon murina (Cassin, 1853) · Aves
  11,297
• Tropical Kingbird

  Tyrannus melancholicus Vieillot, 1819 · Aves
  11,162

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2025-07-10
  5 km W of Villapinzón, Colombia
• M 4.4 — 2025-07-07
  12 km N of Paratebueno, Colombia
• M 4.5 — 2025-06-23
  11 km NE of Medina, Colombia
• M 4.2 — 2025-06-08
  7 km NNE of Medina, Colombia
• M 4.5 — 2025-06-08
  2 km WSW of Paratebueno, Colombia
• M 4.2 — 2025-06-08
  7 km WNW of Paratebueno, Colombia