Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
n
Department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
Central Boyacá Province
The Central Boyacá Province () is a province of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. The province is formed by fifteen municipalities, including the departmental capital Tunja.
Municipalities
Cómbita • Cucaita • Chíquiza • Chivatá • ...
. Cómbita is situated on the
Altiplano Cundiboyacense
The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () 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 Alti ...
and borders
Arcabuco
Arcabuco is a town and municipality in the Ricaurte Province, part of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. Arcabuco is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense with the urban centre at an altitude of . The municipality borders Moniquirá and Gá ...
and the department of
Santander
Santander may refer to:
Places
* Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain
* Santander Department, a department of Colombia
* Santander State, former state of Colombia
* Santander de Quilichao, a m ...
in the north,
Sotaquirá
Sotaquirá is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. Sotaquirá is situated in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes with the small urban center at an altitude of at from Tunja. ...
Oicatá
Oicatá is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, Departments of Colombia, Department of Boyacá Department, Boyacá, Colombia. The urban centre is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at an altitude of and a distance of f ...
in the east, department capital
Tunja
Tunja () is a city on the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, in the region known as the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, 130 km northeast of Bogotá. In 2018 it had a population of 172,548 inhabitants. It is the capital of Boyacá department an ...
at away and
Motavita
Motavita is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the Central Boyacá Province. It covers approximately .Official website Cómbita
History
Cómbita was in the time before the arrival of the Spanish
conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
es inhabited by the
Muisca
The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...
, organized in their loose
Muisca Confederation
The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', '' iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. The ...
. The
ruler
A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines.
Variants
Rulers have long ...
of the northern Muisca was the ''
zaque
When the Spanish arrived in the central Colombian highlands, the region was organized into the Muisca Confederation, which had two rulers; the ''zipa'' was the ruler of the southern part and based in Muyquytá. The ''hoa'' was the ruler of the n ...
'' of
Hunza Hunza may refer to:
* Hunza, Iran
* Hunza Valley, an area in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan
** Hunza (princely state), a former principality
** Hunza District, a recently established district
** Hunza River, a waterway
** Hunza Peak, a mou ...
, modern day Tunja. The ''
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 Spa ...
'' of Cómbita was loyal to the ''zaque''.
In the
Chibcha language
Chibcha, Mosca, Muisca, Muysca (*/ˈmɨska/), or Muysca de Bogotá, was a language spoken by the Muisca people of the Muisca Confederation, one of the many Indigenous peoples in Colombia, indigenous List of pre-Columbian cultures, cultures of ...
of the Muisca, Cómbita means either "Hand of the jaguar and wheel of life" or "Force of the summit".Etymology Cómbita - Excelsio.net
Modern Cómbita was founded in 1586.Foundation of Cómbita - El Tiempo
Economy
The economical activities of Cómbita are
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 people to ...
;
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 Unit ...
es,
barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...
,
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
,
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. Th ...
and
pea
The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...
s, and
livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
farming.
Born in Cómbita
*
Pedro Medina Avendaño
Pedro Medina Avendaño (14 September 1915 – 31 August 2012) was a Colombian lawyer and poet, author of the Anthem of Bogotá and the Anthem of Boyacá, he was also known as the "Poet of the Anthems".
Medina, son of Pedro Medina Niño an ...
, Colombian lawyer and poet
*
Nairo Quintana
Nairo Alexánder Quintana Rojas, Order of Boyacá, ODB, (born 4 February 1990) is a Colombian racing cyclist, who rides for UCI ProSeries, UCI ProTeam .
Nicknamed "Nairoman" and "El Cóndor de los Andes", Quintana is a specialist climber, known ...
, professional cyclist, Giro d'Italia general classification winner,
Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...
general classification winner, 2nd place in the
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
of
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
and
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
*
Dayer Quintana
Dayer Uberney Quintana Rojas (born 10 August 1992 in Cómbita) is a Colombian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam . He is the younger brother of fellow professional cyclist Nairo Quintana, who also rides for the team. His first profess ...
, professional cyclist, brother of Nairo
*
Ismael Sarmiento
José Ismael Sarmiento Riaño (born July 15, 1973 in Cómbita, Boyacá Department, Boyacá) is a retired male road bicycle racing, road cyclist from Colombia. He was nicknamed "Pocholo" during his career.
Major results
;1995
:2nd in Stage 8 199 ...