The Eastern Hills (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

: ''Cerros Orientales'') are a chain of hills forming the eastern natural boundary of the

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 capital Bogotá. They are part of 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 ...

, the high plateau of the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

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 Eastern Hills are bordered by the

Chingaza National Natural Park Chingaza National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Chingaza) is located in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, northeast of Bogotá, Colombia in the departments of Cundinamarca and Meta. The elevation in the park, to the ea ...

to the east, the

Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a montane savanna, located in the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the center of Colombia. The Bogotá savanna has an extent of and an average altitude of . The savanna is situated in the Eastern Range ...

to the west and north, and the

Sumapaz Páramo Sumapaz Páramo (Spanish: ''Páramo de Sumapaz'' - meaning "Utterly peaceful moorland" ) is a large páramo ecosystem located in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense mountain range, considered the largest páramo ecosystem in the world. It was de ...

to the south. The north-northeast to south-southwest trending mountain chain is long and its width varies from . The highest hilltops rise to over the western flatlands at . The Torca River at the border with Chía in the north, the ''boquerón'' (wide opening) Chipaque to the south and the valley of the

Teusacá River The Teusacá River is a river in the Eastern Hills of Bogotá and on the Bogotá savanna. It is a left tributary of the Bogotá River, Colombia. The river of long originates at an elevation of at the Alto Los Tunjos, Santa Fe, and flows northw ...

to the east are the hydrographic limits of the Eastern Hills. Geologically, the Eastern Hills are the result of the westward compression along the Bogotá Fault, that thrusted the lower Upper Cretaceous rocks of the

Chipaque Formation The Chipaque Formation ( es, Formación Chipaque, K2cp, Kc) is a geological formation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The formation is also described as Gachetá Formation, named after Gachetá, in the area o ...

and

Guadalupe Group The Guadalupe Group ( es, Grupo Guadalupe, K2G, Ksg) is a geological group of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The group, a sequence of shales and sandstones, is subdivided into three formations; Arenisca Dur ...

onto the latest Cretaceous to Eocene sequence of the Guaduas,

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

, Cacho and Regadera Formations. The

fold and thrust belt A fold and thrust belt (FTB) is a series of mountainous foothills adjacent to an orogenic belt, which forms due to contractional tectonics. Fold and thrust belts commonly form in the forelands adjacent to major orogens as deformation propagates ou ...

of the Eastern Hills was produced by the

Andean orogeny The Andean orogeny ( es, Orogenia andina) is an ongoing process of orogeny that began in the Early Jurassic and is responsible for the rise of the Andes mountains. The orogeny is driven by a reactivation of a long-lived subduction system along ...

with the main phase of tectonic compression and uplift taking place in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, the Eastern Hills were covered by glaciers feeding a large

paleolake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

(Lake Humboldt) that existed on the Bogotá savanna and is represented today by the many

wetlands of Bogotá Wetlands of Bogotá, Colombia are important areas of the capital city, and their development has become increasingly important for the area north of the Andes. A reserve for fauna and flora, the wetlands provide for the preservation and reproduct ...

. The main tourist attractions of the Eastern Hills of Bogotá are the

Monserrate Monserrate (named after Catalan homonym mountain ''Montserrat'') is a high mountain over 10,000 feet high that dominates the city center of Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia. It rises to above the sea level, where there is a church (built in ...

and

Guadalupe Hill Guadalupe Hill is a high hill located in the Eastern Hills, uphill from the centre of Bogotá, Colombia. Together with its neighbouring hill Monserrate it is one of the landmarks of Bogotá. At the top of the hill a hermitage and a high statue ...

s, the former a pilgrimage site for centuries. Other trails in the Eastern Hills follow the creeks of La Vieja, Las Delicias and others. The busy road Bogotá – La Calera crosses the Eastern Hills in the central-northern part and the highway between Bogotá and Villavicencio traverses the southernmost area of the hills. The eastern side of the Eastern Hills is part of the municipalities La Calera,

Choachí Choachí is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province of the department of Cundinamarca. The municipality borders La Calera in the north, Ubaque in the south, in the east Fómeque and westward of Choachí is the Colombian capit ...

Ubaque Ubaque is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province of the department of Cundinamarca. Ubaque borders the municipalities Choachí in the north, Fómeque in the east, Cáqueza and Chipaque in the south and in the west is the Colo ...

and

Chipaque Chipaque is a municipality and town in the Eastern Province of the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia. The municipality of is located at an altitude of in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes with its westernmost part situated in the Ea ...

. The Eastern Hills were sparsely populated in pre-Columbian times, considered sacred by the indigenous

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 ...

. The native people constructed temples and shrines in the Eastern Hills and buried their dead there. The Guadalupe and Monserrate Hills, important in

Muisca religion Muisca religion describes the religion of the Muisca people, Muisca who inhabited the central highlands of the Colombian Andes before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca. The Muisca formed a Muisca Confederation, confederation of holy Muisca ruler ...

and

archaeoastronomy Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultur ...

, are the hilltops from where

Sué Sué, Xué, Sua, Zuhe or Suhé was the deity, god of the Sun in the Muisca religion and mythology, religion of the Muisca. He was married to Moon goddess Chía (goddess), Chía.Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.4, p.33 The Muisca people, Muisca and their Mu ...

, the Sun, rises on the December and June

solstice A solstice is an event that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around June 21 and December 21. In many countr ...

s respectively, when viewed from the present-day Bolívar Square. The construction and expansion of the Colombian capital in Spanish colonial times caused excessive deforestation of the Eastern Hills. Reforestations were executed in the 1930s and 1940s. Large parts of the Eastern Hills are designated as a natural reserve with a variety of flora and fauna, endemic to the hills. Despite its status as a protected area, the Eastern Hills lie in an urban setting with more than ten million inhabitants and are affected by mining activities, illicit construction, stream contamination, and frequent forest fires. Several proposals to fight the environmental problems have been written in the past decades.

Description

The Eastern Hills cover an area of approximately , are oriented north-northeast to south-southwest along a length of , have a width between and range in elevation from . They border the Colombian capital Bogotá to the east. The main hills are Cerro Guadalupe at and

at .Cerros Orientales
– Alcaldía BogotáCerro Monserrate
– official websiteCerro de Guadalupe
/ref> Other hills are Aguanoso, Pico del Águila, El Cable, El Chicó, El Chiscal, La Laguna, Pan de Azúcar and La Teta. From north to south, the rural areas of the localities of

Usaquén Usaquén is the 1st locality of Bogotá, capital of Colombia. It is located in the north of the city. This district is mostly inhabited by upper middle and upper class residents. It is designated as Bogotá's #1 locality, while being a separate ...

Chapinero Chapinero is the 2nd locality of Bogotá, capital of Colombia. It is located in the north of the city and is one of the more affluent districts of the city. This district is mostly inhabited by upper class residents. The boundaries are Calle 39 ...

, Santa Fe, San Cristóbal and

Usme Usme is the 5th locality of the Capital District of Bogotá, capital city of Colombia. Usme is located in the south of Bogotá, bordering to the north the localities of San Cristóbal, Rafael Uribe Uribe and Tunjuelito, to the west the locali ...

are part of the Eastern Hills.Audiencia CAR, 2006, p.42 Of the area of Santa Fe, 84.5% is rural area, located in the Eastern Hills.Martínez Montoya, 2010, p.29 The

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Chía, La Calera,

and

are partly in the Eastern Hills. The Cerros Orientales are an important water source for the Colombian capital. The San Rafael Reservoir, administered by the municipality La Calera, is east of the Eastern Hills.

Etymology

Bogotá, and as a result the Eastern Hills of Bogotá, are named after the original main settlement of the Muisca;

Bacatá Bacatá is the name given to the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation on the Bogotá savanna. It mostly refers to an area, rather than an individual village, although the name is also found in texts referring to the modern settlement of Fu ...

. Bacatá in Muysccubun means "(enclosure) outside of the farmfields" or "limit of the farmfields",Correa, 2005, p.213 referring to the seat of the ''

zipa 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 ...

'' in present-day

Funza Funza () is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Western Savanna Province, of the department of Cundinamarca. Funza is situated on the Bogotá savanna, the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense with the urban centre at an altit ...

on the right bank of the

Bogotá River The Bogotá River is a major river of the Cundinamarca department of Colombia. A right tributary of the Magdalena River, the Bogotá River crosses the region from the northeast to the southwest and passing along the western limits of Bogotá. The ...

. Bacatá is a combination of ''bac'' or ''uac'',''uac''
- Muysccubun Dictionary online ''ca'',''ca''
- Muysccubun Dictionary online and ''tá'',''ta''
- Muysccubun Dictionary online meaning "outside", "enclosure" and "farmfield(s)" respectively. Alternative spellings are ''Muequetá'', or ''Muyquytá'',''Muyquytá''
- Muysccubun Dictionary online and the word is transliterated in ''

Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada ''Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada'' (English: ''Summary of the conquest of the New Kingdom of Granada'') is a document of uncertain authorship, possibly (partly) written by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada be ...

'' as ''Bogothá''.''Epítome'', p.85

Geography

Geographically, the Eastern Hills form part of the

, the high plateau in the

of the Colombian

. The natural boundaries of the Eastern Hills are the

in the north and west, the hills of

in the east and the mountains of

in the south. The northern hydrographic limit is the Torca River at the border with Chía, the southern limit the ''boquerón'' Chipaque and the eastern hydrographic boundary is formed by the

Geology

The rocks forming the Eastern Hills range in age from

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...

and are covered by sub-recent sediments of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

and

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

. The contact between the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

to Lower Paleocene Guaduas and Late Paleocene

Cacho Formation The Cacho Formation ( es, Formación Cacho, E1C, Tpc, Tec) is a geological formation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The predominantly sandstone formation with thin intercalated beds of shales dates to the ...

s is discordant, indicating the first uplift of the Andes. Between the Eocene and Pleistocene a

hiatus Hiatus may refer to: *Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure *Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species ''Hiatus fulvipes'' *Globa ...

is present, where the Pleistocene formations are followed by

unconsolidated sediments.Geological Map Bogotá, 1997 The

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...

–

Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded by t ...

got its name from the village Chipaque and is the oldest stratigraphical unit

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial ...

ping in the eastern flank of the Eastern Hills. It comprises laminated organic to highly organic shales and mudstones with intercalated sandstone beds. The overlying Guadalupe Group, of

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campanian s ...

age, consists of four formations, from base to top: Arenisca Dura, Plaeners, Arenisca de Labor, and Arenisca Tierna. Some authors define the Guadalupe Group as a

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

and call the individual formations,

members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

.Guerrero Uscátegui, 1992, p.4 The thickness of the Guadalupe Group in its type localities Guadalupe and El Cable Hills is .Guerrero Uscátegui, 1992, p.5 The

competent Competence may refer to: *Competence (geology), the resistance of a rock against deformation or plastic flow. *Competence (human resources), a standardized requirement for an individual to properly perform a specific job *Competence (law), the me ...

hilltops of the Eastern Hills are represented by the resistant members of the Guadalupe Group; in the northern parts of the Cerros Orientales they comprise the Labor and Tierna members and are in the southern area represented by the Arenisca Dura. Concordantly overlying the Guadalupe Group is the Maastrichtian to Early Paleocene

Guaduas Formation The Guaduas Formation ( es, Formación Guaduas, K2P1G, K2E1G, KPgg, KTg, TKg, Ktg) is a geological formation of the Middle Magdalena Basin and the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The predominantly shale with coalb ...

, composed of well-laminated compacted grey shales and calcitic claystones with sandstone banks and in the lower parts of the stratigraphical sequence numerous

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

beds. In the synclinal of the Bogotá savanna, the thickness of Guaduas varies between . The Late Paleocene Cacho Formation, a relatively thin stratigraphical unit following the Guaduas Formation, white, yellow and reddish in colour, is represented by thick sandstone banks with intercalations of thin shale beds. The Bogotá Formation, named after the capital, is a Paleocene to

Lower Eocene In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age or lowest stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by the Eocene Lutetian Age. The Ypresian ...

argillaceous unit, concordantly overlying the lower Paleogene sequence. The formation is composed of grey, purple and red shales with

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

ceous sandstone beds towards the top of the stratigraphical unit. The thickness in the subsurface of the Bogotá savanna ranges from and outcrops at the edges of the flatlands. In this formation fossils of the

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, cam ...

'' Etayoa bacatensis'', named after the name for the savanna and its main settlement in present-day

, used by the native

;

, have been found.Villarroel, 1987, p.241''Etayoa bacatensis''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org The estimated size of the South American hoofed mammal was that of a dog.Un xenungulado del Paleoceno de la Sabana de Bogotá
– Paleontología en Colombia Other fossilised fragments found in the Bogotá Formation are molds of '' Stephania palaeosudamericana'' and '' Menispina evidens''.''Stephania palaeosudamericana''
–

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

''Menispina evidens'' 1
–

''Menispina evidens'' 2
–

Discordantly overlying the Lower Eocene is the

Middle Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn ...

Regadera Formation The Regadera Formation ( es, Formación Regadera, E2r, Tpr) is a geological formation of the Bogotá savanna, Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The predominantly sandstone and conglomeratic formation, with pink shal ...

, consisting of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

itic and

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...

-rich thick medium- to coarse-grained to conglomeratic sandstone beds intercalated with thin pink claystones. The total thickness of the Regadera unit is very variable throughout the area. Following the Regadera Formation is the discordant

Late Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "daw ...

Usme Formation The Usme Formation ( es, Formación Usme, Tsu, Teu) is a geological formation of the Bogotá savanna, Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The formation consists of a lower part with predominantly shales with intercala ...

, named after the locality in southeastern Bogotá, for the most part located in the Eastern Hills. The unit with a total thickness of consists of a lower member composed of grey shales with occasional fine-grained sandstone layers and an upper member of coarse-grained quartzarenites and conglomerates. The Usme Formation represents the last Paleogene stratigraphic unit before the hiatus of approximately 30–35 million years.Guerrero Uscátegui, 1992, p.6 While the Bogotá savanna contains two other formations; the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Subachoque Formation The Subachoque Formation ( es, Formación Subachoque, Q1su) is a formation (geology), geological formation of the Bogotá savanna, Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Cordillera Oriental (Colombia), Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The formation cons ...

, present in the subsurface of the foreland area of the Eastern Hills. The

Tunjuelo Formation The Tunjuelo Formation, Río Tunjuelo or Río Tunjuelito Formation ( es, Formación Tunjuelo, Q1tu, Qpt, Qcc) is a formation (geology), geological formation of the Bogotá savanna, Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Cordillera Oriental (Colombia), Eastern R ...

, named after the

Tunjuelo River The Tunjuelo or Tunjuelito River is a river on the Bogotá savanna and a left tributary of the Bogotá River. The river, with a length of originates in the Sumapaz Páramo and flows northward through the Usme Synclinal to enter the Colombian capit ...

that is fed by the Eastern Hills creeks in the south and the Sumapaz Mountains to the southeast, is the last consolidated stratigraphical unit. Coarse-grained Quaternary fluvio-glacial deposits as a result of the Eastern Hills run-off through the San Cristóbal, San Francisco and Arzobispo rivers and the many creeks, intercalate with clays and conglomerates. The Tunjuelo Formation has a maximum thickness of .Guerrero Uscátegui, 1996, p.12 This Pleistocene sequence is followed by poorly consolidated to unconsolidated sediments of lacustrine origin, Pleistocene–Holocene in age, mixed with the erosional products of the Eastern and

Suba Hills Suba may refer to: Groups of people *Suba people (Kenya), a people of Kenya **Suba language *Suba people (Tanzania), a people of Tanzania *Subha (writers), alternatively spelt Suba, Indian writer duo Individual people *Suba (musician), Serbian-B ...

and Sumapaz mountains that form the alluvium.Guerrero Uscátegui, 1992, p.7

Soils

The characterisation of soils is mainly related to the inclination of the terrain. The ''Asociación Monserrate'' type soil occurs in areas with inclinations between 30 and 75%. The dark well-draining soils originate from the Plaeners Formation of the Guadalupe Group with influence of volcanic ashes, are thinner than and very acidic with a pH of 4.4.Pérez Preciado, 2000, p.13 The ''Asociación Cabrera-Cruz Verde'' type soils exist at moderate inclinations between 12 and 50%, are derived from argillaceous rocks with volcanic ash influence, have a fast drainage and a pH between 4.5 and 5.0.Pérez Preciado, 2000, p.14 The ''Complejos Coluviales'' are present in the undulated areas with inclinations below 12%, susceptible to erosion, and are apt for intensive agriculture.

Faults

The main fault in the Eastern Hills is the longitudinal eastward dipping

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

called the Bogotá Fault,

striking Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

north-northwest to south-southeast, parallel to the longitudinal axis of the Eastern Hills. It forms the tectonic limit with the Bogotá savanna and acts as a barrier for

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...

s.Velandia & De Bermoudes, 2002, p.42 The compressional tectonics thrusted the Cretaceous units of Guadalupe and Chipaque on top of the younger Guaduas, Cacho and Bogotá Formations. The transversal faults oriented northeast–southwest to the Bogotá Fault are from north to south the Usaquén, Río Juan Amarillo, San Cristóbal and Soacha Faults.Velandia & De Bermoudes, 2002, p.43 The compressional La Cajita Fault is parallel to the main strike of the Bogotá Fault and the Eastern Hills and outcrops in the Sumapaz Mountains to the south.Olaya et al., 2010

Tectonic evolution

The tectonic evolution of the area of the present-day Eastern Hills started with a marine

back-arc basin A back-arc basin is a type of geologic basin, found at some convergent plate boundaries. Presently all back-arc basins are submarine features associated with island arcs and subduction zones, with many found in the western Pacific Ocean. Most of ...

in the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

.Dengo & Covey, 1993, p.1318 The

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

stages

Berriasian In the geological timescale, the Berriasian is an age/stage of the Early/Lower Cretaceous. It is the oldest subdivision in the entire Cretaceous. It has been taken to span the time between 145.0 ± 4.0 Ma and 139.8 ± 3.0 Ma (million years ago) ...

and

Valanginian In the geologic timescale, the Valanginian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Cretaceous. It spans between 139.8 ± 3.0 Ma and 132.9 ± 2.0 Ma (million years ago). The Valanginian Stage succeeds the Berriasian Stage of the Lower Cretaceou ...

were dominated by the presence of a marine incursion from the proto-Caribbean into the continent of South America, in those times still attached to Africa and Antarctica. The central region of current Colombia, the later Eastern Cordillera, was characterised by the deposition of calcareous shales with

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing Turbidites were ...

deposits from the Cáqueza area. During the Late

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

to Early

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0.9 M ...

, a marine shale-dominated sedimentation existed with more carbonate-rich deposits to the north, represented by the

mosasaur Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Greek ' meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on th ...

fossil-bearing

Paja Formation Paja may refer to: * Paja, Iran, a village in Sari County * Paja (given name), a Serbian masculine name * Paja (surname) * Paja Formation, geologic formation in Colombia * Paja Brava :''Paja Brava is also used in Spanish speaking countries to ...

in Boyacá. The

stage of the Cretaceous era experienced a worldwide

anoxic event Oceanic anoxic events or anoxic events ( anoxia conditions) describe periods wherein large expanses of Earth's oceans were depleted of dissolved oxygen (O2), creating toxic, euxinic (anoxic and sulfidic) waters. Although anoxic events have not ...

that produced highly organic shales in the area, today represented by the

. The Upper Cretaceous sequence, illustrated in the stratigraphy by the

, was deposited in a marine environment with alternating sandstones and shales.Villamil, 2012, p.164 The Late Cretaceous to Paleocene was characterised by a

foreland basin A foreland basin is a structural basin that develops adjacent and parallel to a mountain belt. Foreland basins form because the immense mass created by crustal thickening associated with the evolution of a mountain belt causes the lithospher ...

setting; the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Central Ranges Central Ranges (code CER) is an Australian bioregion, with an area of 101,640.44 square kilometres (39,244 sq mi) spreading across two states and one territory: South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.Late Paleocene The Thanetian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS Geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age or uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Paleocene epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Serie ...

marked a time where continued uplift of the two westernmost ranges were exhumed and provided sediments for the narrow basin in the area of the Eastern Hills. The

Bogotá Formation The Bogotá Formation ( es, Formación Bogotá, E1-2b, Tpb, Pgb) is a geological formation of the Eastern Hills and Bogotá savanna on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The predominantly shale and siltstone form ...

reflects a shallow marine environment with occasional turbiditic flows.Caballero et al., 2013, p.16 The Early Eocene is characterised by ongoing uplift to the west of the Bogotá area and emergence of the Upper Magdalena Valley.Caballero et al., 2013, p.17 During the Late Eocene, the Eastern Hills were exhumed for the first time, providing minor sediment sources for the Bogotá savanna.Caballero et al., 2013, p.18 During the

Early Oligocene The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two ages or the lower of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded by the Priabonian Stage (part of the Eocene) and is followed by the Chatti ...

, the region of the Eastern Hills and the Bogotá savanna was exhumed, while sedimentation in the Llanos Orientales continued, depositing the Carbonera Formation in a lacustrine-marine setting.Caballero et al., 2013, p.19 By the Late Oligocene, the

were in a continental environment and deposition shifted towards the Llanos.Caballero et al., 2013, p.20 The northern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense experienced exhumation around 26 Ma, while the southern part was exhumed approximately 21 million years ago.Parra et al., 2008, p.17 In Early to Middle

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

times, the Eastern and Western Cordilleras enclosed a fluvial depositional environment in the Magdalena Basin.Caballero et al., 2013, p.21 During this epoch in the tectonic history, maximum foreland sedimentation to the east (Medina area) was reached,De la Parra et al., 2015, p.1464 and a rich fossil fauna was present to the southeast of the Eastern Hills area, in the present-day

Tatacoa Desert The Tatacoa Desert is the second largest arid zone in Colombia after the Guajira Peninsula. It occupies more than 330 square kilometers. This region is located north of Huila Department, 38 km from the city of Neiva in Colombia and from Nata ...

of Huila. The Konservat-Lagerstätte of the

Honda Group is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

La Venta La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in nearby Villahermosa, ...

is one of the most important Neogene paleontological sites of South America, especially in the diversity of mammals found. The fossil community from La Venta, Colombia, demonstrates a degree of phylogenetic richness (i.e., number of taxa) comparable with modern communities.Wheeler, 2010, p.132 The Late Miocene marked the formation of the continuous chain of the Eastern Andes, leading to erosion of earlier deposited sediments.Caballero et al., 2013, p.22 Based on

zircon Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of the r ...

and

apatite Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, with high concentrations of OH−, F− and Cl− ions, respectively, in the crystal. The formula of the admixture of the three most common e ...

fission track Ion tracks are damage-trails created by swift heavy ions penetrating through solids, which may be sufficiently-contiguous for chemical etching in a variety of crystalline, glassy, and/or polymeric solids. They are associated with cylindrical da ...

data, the uplift between the Early Miocene to

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Andean orogeny The Andean orogeny ( es, Orogenia andina) is an ongoing process of orogeny that began in the Early Jurassic and is responsible for the rise of the Andes mountains. The orogeny is driven by a reactivation of a long-lived subduction system along ...

.Mora et al., 2015, p.1589 The Neogene experienced periods of volcanic activity. While the northern areas of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense were affected by the near-surface volcanism of

Paipa Paipa is a town and municipality in the Tundama Province, a part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. Paipa borders Duitama, Firavitoba, Tibasosa, Sotaquirá and Tuta.Iza, both in Boyacá, the volcanic area closer to the Eastern Hills was located around present-day

Guatavita Guatavita is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Guavio Province of the department of Cundinamarca. Guatavita is located 75 km northeast of the capital Bogotá. It borders Sesquilé and Machetá in the north, Gachetá and Junín in t ...

. The volcanism here has been analysed to have been post-Andean uplift.Galvis Vergara et al., 2006, p.502 The Plio–Pleistocene period was marked by the presence of a fluvio-lacustrine depositional environment (

Lake Humboldt Lake Humboldt or Humboldt Lake is an endorheic basin lake in northern Churchill County and southern Pershing County in the state of Nevada in the United States. The lake has the name of Alexander von Humboldt, a German natural scientist. The la ...

) on the Bogotá savanna, sourced by rivers running off the Eastern Hills. The sedimentological record revealed various stages of infill, where the smaller-scale setting was determined by the paleo-water level and climate conditions. During the coldest periods, Lake Humboldt was surrounded by

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

ecosystems, with plant growth around the lake reducing lake shore erosion.Torres et al., 2005, p.142 The Latest Pleistocene was characterised by a period of cooling with a minor glacier present in the highest part of the central Eastern Hills.

Moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

s in this area have been dated to 18,000 until 15,500 years BP, in the late

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...

.Rutter et al., 2012, p.32

Seismic activity

In the Eastern Hills, a number of historical earthquakes in the seismically active country of Colombia have caused damage. Movement along the Servitá Fault in the eastern flank of the Eastern Ranges, has had the most effect on the surface stability of Bogotá and its hills.Chicangana et al., 2014, p.78 The Bogotá Fault has not shown activity and is listed as uncertain.Montoya & Reyes, 2005, p.79 The 1967 Neiva earthquake that occurred on February 9 damaged historical buildings in the foothills of the Eastern Hills. This had happened before with the 1785 Viceroyalty of New Granada earthquake (M_S 6.5–7.0; destroying various buildings in Bogotá, as well as the Hermitage on

), the 1827 Bogotá earthquake (M_S 7.7) and the 1917 Sumapaz earthquake (M_S 7.3).Chicangana et al., 2014, p.84 The 1966 El Calvario earthquake caused damage in Usme. An earthquake with the epicentre also in

El Calvario El Calvario is a town and municipality in the Meta Department, Colombia. It was the epicenter of the 2008 Colombia earthquake. Climate El Calvario has a borderline subtropical highland climate (Köppen ''Cfb'')/tropical rainforest climate A tr ...

Meta Meta (from the Greek μετά, '' meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond") is a prefix meaning "more comprehensive" or "transcending". In modern nomenclature, ''meta''- can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or ende ...

, in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

caused minor damage in the historic centre of Bogotá.A 15 ascienden los muertos que dejó temblor del sábado en el centro del país
– El Tiempo

Climate

The climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: Cfb) of the Eastern Hills is controlled by the

Intertropical Convergence Zone The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous windless weather, is the area where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the thermal e ...

with winds prevailing from the

Amazon Region The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

in the east.Martínez Hernández, 2006, p.35 The climate varies slightly from north to south. The northern parts are characterized by a bimodal precipitation pattern; higher rainfall occurs in the months April–May and November–December, and the northern part of the Eastern Hills is the zone with relatively the most stable temperatures. The southern, topographically higher portion has a monomodal precipitation pattern. Average temperatures depend on the elevation; the zones at have an average annual temperature of and yearly rainfall of , while the lower altitudes at have temperatures averaging . La Calera at has a total annual precipitation of .Climate-data.org – La Calera
/ref> The region of the Páramo del Verjón in the eastern part has temperatures between and an annual precipitation of .Martínez Hernández, 2006, p.37 The relative humidity is with 78% almost constant across the year, although July is the most humid month with 87%, and January and February register a value of 73%. The total evaporation per year in the upper course of the

is , while the peaks at have an annual evaporation of . Prevalent wind direction is from the southeast, with strongest winds registered in July at and the lowest values noted in November at .Martínez Hernández, 2006, p.38 The hours of sunshine vary from 85.9 hours in April to 130.2 hours in December.

Hydrology

The hydrology of the Eastern Hills is part of the Bogotá River Basin. The main river to the east of the Eastern Hills is the

. Various rivers and creeks flowing into the Bogotá savanna are sourced from the Eastern Hills. The most important rivers from south to north are:Isaza Londoño et al., 1999, p.28Isaza Londoño et al., 1999, p.29Cerros, s.a., p.27

Flora and fauna

The Eastern Hills contain several biomes that differ mainly by elevation. The highest elevated areas are characterised by a

ecosystem; from north to south Páramo El Verjón (''Parque Ecológico Matarredonda''),

Páramo de Cruz Verde Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

and Páramo de Chipaque.Ramírez Rodríguez et al., 2012, p.56Páramos.org, s.a., p.96 Parque Entrenubes ("Park between the clouds") is just east of the Eastern Hills and is the northernmost part of the

.Suna Hisca, s.a., p.335

Flora

A study of the vegetation cover has revealed the presence of 29 types of vegetation covering 63% of the total area. The remaining 37% is used by urban settlement, agricultural lands and quarries. In the Eastern Hills a total of 443 species of flora have been identified. Of the

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They al ...

s, 156 species in 111 genera and 64 families have been noted.

Fauna

Before the human settlement of the

, many species of fauna populated the forested remains of the flat lands bordering the Eastern Hills.Pérez Preciado, 2000, p.24 In the Eastern Hills two species of butterflies have been identified, the

Julia butterfly ''Dryas iulia'' (often incorrectly spelled ''julia''),Lamas, G. (editor) (2004). Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Checklist: Part 4A. Hesperioidea – Papilionoidea. commonly called the Julia butterfly, Julia heliconian, the flame, or flambeau ...

and the common green-eyed white.Cerros, s.a., p.25

Birds

Colombia has the most recorded bird species (1912 as of 2014) in the world.1912 bird species in Colombia available online
– ProAves.org The country accounts for approximately 20% of all the world's discovered species and 60% of those registered in South America.Peraza, 2011, p.57 The

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

of bird species in the Eastern Hills is higher than in the parks of urban Bogotá and the dense forests and larger space between the urban zones offer superb habitat for 30 families, 92 genera and 119 species. A 2011 study provided data on 67 species in an area of .Peraza, 2011, p.58 The observation stations were between in elevation.Peraza, 2011, p.59

Mammals

Mammals of 14 families, 17 genera and 18 species have been identified in the Eastern Hills. The

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

served as the staple of the pre-Columbian hunter-gatherers' diet and later as the primary meat of the

Muisca cuisine Muisca cuisine describes the food and preparation the Muisca elaborated. The Muisca were an advanced civilization inhabiting the central highlands of the Colombian Andes (Altiplano Cundiboyacense) before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca in the ...

. Until the first half of the twentieth century, such larger species as the

puma Puma or PUMA may refer to: Animals * ''Puma'' (genus), a genus in the family Felidae ** Puma (species) or cougar, a large cat Businesses and organisations * Puma (brand), a multinational shoe and sportswear company * Puma Energy, a mid- and d ...

, spectacled bear and white-tailed deer populated the Eastern Hills, but these have been hunted to extinction locally.Biodiversidad y conservación – Cerros al oriente de Bogotá
/ref> In March 2017, a spectacled bear, approximately 11 years old, was killed by unknown people near Chingaza National Park, just east of the Eastern Hills.Indignación: Cruel muerte de un oso de anteojos cerca a Chingaza
-

El Espectador ''El Espectador'' (meaning "The Spectator") is a newspaper with national circulation within Colombia, founded by Fidel Cano Gutiérrez on 22 March 1887 in Medellín and published since 1915 in Bogotá. It changed from a daily to a weekly editio ...

Reptiles and amphibians

Reptiles of four families, five genera and five species have been identified in the Eastern Hills.Fauna of the Eastern Hills
/ref> Of these species, only the lizards ''Anadia bogotensis'' and ''Proctoporus striatus'' have been found on the Guadalupe Hill.Suna Hisca, s.a., p.339 The striped lightbulb lizard is also present on the terrain of the Universidad de los Andes.Mendoza R. & Rodríguez Barbosa, 2014, p.12 Amphibians of four families, six genera and nine species have been identified in the Eastern Hills.

Fish

Three species of fish have been identified in the waters of the Eastern Hills. Of ''Trichomycterus venulosus'' only two specimens have been found, and it is thought the species is extinct in the rivers of the Eastern Hills, which may have to do with the introduction of trout.

History

The human history of the Eastern Hills goes back to the latest Pleistocene, when the first humans settled in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. During the first millennia of the Holocene, the inhabitants of the area survived as

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

s living in caves and rock shelters. Food was gathered from the surrounding areas, including the Eastern Hills. A sedentary lifestyle was getting more common in this

archaic stage Several chronologies in the archaeology of the Americas include an Archaic Period or Archaic stage etc. It is often sub-divided, for example into "Early", "Middle" and "Late", or alternatively "Lower" and "Upper", stages. The dates, and the char ...

and

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 ...

on the fertile lands of the Bogotá savanna took off around 5000 years BP.

Ceramics 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, porcelain ...

was introduced to the people of the area around the same time, in their

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

knowledge spread by

Bochica Bochica (also alluded to as Nemquetaha, Nemqueteba and Sadigua) is a figure in the religion of the Muisca, who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense during the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the central Andean highlands of present-day Co ...

.Ocampo López, 2013, p.37 Archaeological excavations on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense have revealed the oldest dated solar site of the Americas, called by the Spanish ''

El Infiernito ''El Infiernito'' (Spanish for "The Little Hell"), is a pre-Columbian archaeoastronomical site located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the outskirts of Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia. It is composed of several earthworks surrounding a s ...

'' (The Little Hell), but known as the Muisca solar observatory of the Leyva Valley. The location in a valley between the surrounding mountains evidenced a concept of

archaeoastronomical Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cult ...

knowledge of the people of the region; at the summer solstice of June 21 seen from the Muisca solar observatory, the Sun rises exactly from

Lake Iguaque Lake Iguaque is a lake located in the Boyacá Department of Colombia. The lake and the surrounding area was declared a Flora and Fauna Sanctuary in 1977. Geography and climate Lake Iguaque is located northeast of Villa de Leyva and is part of th ...

, where in the

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

of the pre-Hispanic inhabitants the mother and Earth goddess

Bachué The goddess Bachué (in Chibcha language: "the one with the naked breast"), is a mother goddess that according to the Muisca religion is the mother of humanity. She emerged of the waters in the Iguaque Lake with a baby in her arms, who grew to ...

was born.''El Infiernito''
– Pueblos Originarios A similar site in the

Muisca astronomy This article describes the astronomy of the Muisca. The Muisca, one of the four advanced civilisations in the Americas before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, had a thorough understanding of astronomy, as evidenced by their architecture and cale ...

is Bolívar Square, in the heart of the Colombian capital. At this site, the Spanish

conquistadors 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 ...

built the precursor church to the Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de la Inmaculada Concepción. This cathedral was constructed by the early Colombian government in the early 19th century. From the northeastern end of the square, at the winter solstice of December, the Sun rises exactly above

( Muysccubun: '; "grandfather's foot") of the Eastern Hills, while at the summer solstice of June

appears from

(Muysccubun: '; "grandmother's foot").Bonilla Romero, 2011 At the

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...

es of September and March, the Sun rises exactly in the valley between the two summits.Bonilla Romero et al., 2017, p.153 Evidence for use of the Eastern Hills by the

has been found during the 20th and 21st centuries. While the Muisca inhabited mostly the valleys and plains, most notably the Bogotá savanna, they constructed temples and other sacred buildings in the surrounding hills.Isaza Londõno et al., 1999, p.35 The present-day municipalities

and

at the eastern slopes of the Eastern Hills were inhabited by the Muisca. In Choachí, during the first half of the twentieth century an artefact was found, called the Choachí Stone, which is interpreted as a possible relict of the complex

lunisolar A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Ea ...

Muisca calendar The Muisca calendar was a lunisolar calendar used by the Muisca. The calendar was composed of a complex combination of months and three types of years were used; rural years (according to Pedro Simón, Chibcha: ''chocan''), holy years (Duquesne, Sp ...

, although other interpretations suggest it was a mold for the elaboration of ''

tunjo A ''tunjo'' (from Muysccubun: ''chunso'') is a small anthropomorh or zoomorph figure elaborated by the Muisca as part of their art. ''Tunjos'' were made of gold or ''tumbaga''; a gold-silver-copper alloy. The Muisca used their ''tunjos'' ...

s''. The first Europeans who saw and visited the Eastern Hills were the troops led by conquistador

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (;1496 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory named ...

who entered the Bogotá savanna in March 1537 during what for the Spanish proved to be the deadliest of their conquests of advanced pre-Columbian civilisations. More than 80 percent of his soldiers did not survive the journey from

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta ("Touristic, Cultural and Historic District of Santa Marta"), is a city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena ...

at the Caribbean coast. At the foot of the Eastern Hills, in the present-day

La Candelaria La Candelaria is the 17th locality of Bogotá, Colombia. A historic neighborhood in the city's downtown, it is the equivalent to the ''Old City'' in other cities. The architecture of the old houses, churches and buildings has Spanish Colonial styl ...

, he founded the city of Bogotá on August 6, 1538. Seven months later, Jiménez de Quesada left for Spain with conquistadors

Nikolaus Federmann Nikolaus Federmann ( es, link=no, Nicolás Féderman, ) (c. 1505, Ulm – February 1542, Valladolid) was a German adventurer and conquistador in what is modern-day Venezuela and Colombia. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedi ...

and

Sebastián de Belalcázar Sebastián de Belalcázar (; 1479/1480 – 1551) was a Spanish conquistador. De Belalcázar, also written as de Benalcázar, is known as the founder of important early colonial cities in the northwestern part of South America; Quito in 1534 and Ca ...

who had reached the new capital of the

New Kingdom of Granada The New Kingdom of Granada ( es, Nuevo Reino de Granada), or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santa ...

in early 1539. Federmann had crossed the Eastern Ranges from the Llanos Orientales to enter the Bogotá savanna across the

, to the southwest of the Eastern Hills.Friede, 1960, pp.69–78

Prehistory

The prehistorical period was characterised by the existence of a large

glacial lake on the Bogotá savanna;

, also called Lake Bogotá. This lake with an approximate surface area of covered the flatlands of the savanna to the northwest of the Eastern Hills. Surrounding the lake,

Pleistocene megafauna Pleistocene megafauna is the set of large animals that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene epoch. Pleistocene megafauna became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event resulting in substantial changes to ecosystems globally. The role of hu ...

as ''

Cuvieronius ''Cuvieronius'' is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere, named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. Alive, specimens typically stood about tall at the shoulder, weighed about and would have superficially resembled a modern elephant ...

'' (Tibitó and

Mosquera Mosquera is a Spanish surname (first name) originally from Galicia (Spain). The family crest states (Spanish) Gallego. It derives from the mansion of the family's founder, Ramiro de Mosquera. In the fifth century, it was already linked to ''Moscos ...

),Prado et al., 2003, p.353 ''

Haplomastodon ''Notiomastodon'' is an extinct proboscidean genus of gomphotheres (a distant relative to modern elephants) endemic to South America from the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene. ''Notiomastodon'' specimens reached a size similar to that ...

'', ''

Equus amerhippus ''Amerhippus'' is an extinct South America, South American horse of uncertain taxonomic identity. It is sometimes classified as a subgenus of the genus ''Equus (genus), Equus'', containing several extinct species of horses that lived in South Ame ...

'', ''

Glyptodont Glyptodonts are an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armoured armadillos. They arose in South America around 48 million years ago and spread to southern North America after the continents became connected several million years ago. The best-kn ...

s'' and

giant sloth Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Carib ...

s, foraged. The lake contained an island, represented today by the

, an elongated elevated area parallel to the Eastern Hills. Glaciers in the cold Late Pleistocene, known as the

, existed until around 10,000 years BP in the southwestern parts, close to the Sumapaz Páramo.Pérez Preciado, 2000, p.7 During this last cold phase of the Pleistocene, the Bogotá savanna became populated by the first humans, as evidenced by findings in

El Abra El Abra is the name given to an extensive archeological site, located in the valley of the same name. El Abra is situated in the east of the municipality Zipaquirá extending to the westernmost part of Tocancipá in the department of Cundinamarc ...

(12,500 BP),

Tibitó Tibitó is the second-oldest dated archaeological site on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia.Tequendama Tequendama is a preceramic and ceramic archaeological site located southeast of Soacha, Cundinamarca, Colombia, a couple of kilometers east of Tequendama Falls. It consists of multiple evidences of late Pleistocene to middle Holocene populati ...

(11,000 BP).Nivel Paleoindio. Abrigos rocosos del Tequendama
/ref>Botiva Contreras et al., 1989 These hunter-gatherers lived in rock shelters, collected food, and hunted animals mainly comprising

little red brocket The little red brocket or swamp brocket (''Mazama rufina''), also known as the Ecuador red brocket, is a small, little-studied deer native to the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru, where found in forest and páramo at altitudes betwee ...

and

guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus ''Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ani ...

s.Correal Urrego, 1990, p.79 White-tailed deer was the largest species—males: , females: —hunted by the people, not only for the meat, but also to use the skins and bones.Martínez Polanco, 2011, p.105 The hunter-gatherers of these early lithic ''Abriense'' and ''Tequendamiense'' cultures used edge-trimmed flakes to process the skins and meat.Dillehay, 1999, p.210

Preceramic

Flickr - law keven - Tales of the Riverbank

During the first millennia of the

, the inhabitants of the Andean plateaus and valleys gradually moved away from the rock shelters, settling in the open area. They constructed primitive living spaces of bones and skins, placed in a circle. Evidence for these rudimentary houses has been found at sites such as

Aguazuque Aguazuque is a pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the western part of the municipality Soacha, close to the municipalities Mosquera and San Antonio del Tequendama in Cundinamarca, Colombia. It exists of evidences of human settlement of ...

(

Soacha , image_map = Colombia - Cundinamarca - Soacha.svg , map_caption = Location of Soacha in Cundinamarca , pushpin_map = Colombia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_nam ...

) and

Checua Checua is a preceramic open area archaeological site in Nemocón, Cundinamarca, Colombia. The site is located north of the town centre.Gómez Mejía, 2012, p.146 At Checua, thousands of stone and bone tools, stone flakes and human remains have ...

(

Nemocón Nemocón is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Central Savanna Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. Nemocón, famous for its salt mine, was an important village in the Muisca Confederation, the country in the central Colomb ...

), respectively in the southern and northern part of the Bogotá savanna.Correal Urrego, 1990, pp.237–244Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.64 Some rock shelters continued to be inhabited; at Tequendama and Nemocón archaeological investigations have uncovered the continued presence of humans during the preceramic stage. Early burial sites have been uncovered in all of the sites.Rivera Pérez, 2013, p.74

Herrera Period

The name Herrera Period has been given to the stage following the preceramic, when

became widespread and the use of

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, porcelain ...

common. Certain centres for the elaboration of pottery were present on the Altiplano;

Zipaquirá Zipaquirá () is a municipality and city of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. Its neighboring municipalities are Cogua and Nemocón to the north; Tocancipá to the east; Tabio, Cajicá and Sopó to the south; and Subachoque and Pacho ...

, Mosquera,

Ráquira Ráquira, is a municipality and town in Boyacá Department, Colombia, part of the subregion of the Ricaurte Province. Ráquira is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and the urban center at an altitude of . It borders Tinjacá and Sutamarc ...

and, possibly, productions by individual families and settlements.De Paepe & Cardale de Schrimpff, 1990, p.106 Various regional classifications, up to starting at 1500 BCE, for the Herrera Period exist across the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, with a commonly accepted definition lasting from 800 BCE to 800 AD.Chronology of pre-Columbian periods: Herrera and Muisca
/ref> Archaeological evidence dated to the Herrera Period of sites surrounding the Eastern Hills has been found in

Sopó Sopó is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. The town is located 39 km north of the Colombian capital Bogotá. History The area of Sopó was inhabited first by indigenous groups during the Herrera Period ...

,Herrera Period evidence in Sopó
/ref> Chía, and

.Herrera Period evidence in Usme
– El Tiempo

Muisca Confederation

Chia rising over the Eastern Hills, Bogotá

The name Muisca Confederation has been given to the various small settlements, loosely organised in '' cacicazgos'' on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and surrounding valleys, such as the

Tenza Valley The Tenza Valley (Spanish: ''Valle de Tenza'') is an intermontane valley in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The valley stretches over the southeastern part of the department of Boyacá and the northeastern part of Cundinamarca. It is ...

. The character of this "confederation" was different from the

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

and

Aztec Empire The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance ( nci, Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, Help:IPA/Nahuatl, �jéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥ was an alliance of three Nahua peoples, Nahua altepetl, city-states: , , and . These three city-states ruled ...

s as a central authority was not present.Gamboa Mendoza, 2016 The ''caciques'' were religious leaders who guarded the valleys of the Altiplano, caring for the

subsistence economy A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than to the market. Henceforth, "subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself at a minimum level. Often, the subsistence econo ...

of the people. The ''caciques'' did not control the production directly, although surpluses were distributed among them.Kruschek, 2003, p.12 Trading was performed using

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 quantitie ...

, giving the Muisca the name "The Salt People".Daza, 2013, p.22 The extraction of the high quality salt was the task of the Muisca women.Groot de Mahecha, 2014, p.14 Other objects used for trade were small cotton cloths and larger mantles, and ceramics.Francis, 1993, p.44 The eastern trade was dominated by the markets in Teusacá,

Chocontá Chocontá is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Almeidas Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. It is located on the Pan-American Highway. In 1938 Chocontá had a population of 2,041. Etymology In the Chibcha language of the ...

and

Suesca Suesca is a town and municipality in the Almeidas Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia. It is located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, north of the capital Bogotá. Suesca forms the northern edge of the Bogotá savanna and i ...

.Francis, 1993, p.39 The

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

of the people consisted mostly of

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 ...

, tubers and

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; products of their rich

, with protein sources

and the widely domesticated

.García, 2012, p.122 The area of the Eastern Hills was the boundary between the ''

zgo'' of

, the ''cacicazgo'' of

, and the ''cacicazgo'' of Ebaqué, with the ''cacique'' based in a settlement in the present-day limits of Ubaque, named after this ''cacique''.Herrera Ángel, 2006, p.126Isaza Londoño et al., 1999, p.33 The settlements bordering the western part of the Eastern Hills of Bacatá—not the name of a city, yet meaning "outside the farmfields" in the version of

Chibcha 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 ...

spoken by the Muisca, Muysccubun—were formed by from north to south

Teusaquillo Teusaquillo is the 13th locality of Bogotá, capital of Colombia. It is located in the geographic center of the city, to the northwest of downtown Bogotá. This district is inhabited by middle and upper class residents. It is an urbanized locality ...

, and

. Those names are kept as the present-day localities of Bogotá.Etymology localities of Bogotá
/ref>Etymology Usaquén
/ref>Etymology Usme
– El Tiempo The eastern and northeastern slopes of the Eastern Hills were populated in small settlements of Teusacá, Suaque,

and

Guasca Guasca is a Colombian town and municipality in the Guavio Province, part of the Cundinamarca Department located approximately 55 km from Bogotá passing through the town of La Calera, Cundinamarca or 65 km passing through Sopó. Guasca ...

, as evidenced by numerous archaeological finds. The forests of the Eastern Hills were considered sacred terrain in the Muisca religion, and temples were constructed to honour the main deities of the people; Chía (the Moon) and her husband

, the Sun. The Muisca did not cut the trees of the divine forests, yet buried their deceased relatives there.''Epítome'', p.94 They also used the many creeks in the hills to traverse the mountains to reach their sacred lakes in pilgrimages, most notably those of

and Siecha.Isaza Londoño et al., 1999, p.37

Spanish conquest (1537–1539)

The first Europeans who saw the Bogotá savanna and the Eastern Hills were the soldiers of

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 ...

who participated in the quest for ''

El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

''. The period of conquest commenced when they reached the flatlands of the Bogotá savanna from the north. Although around 800 soldiers started the expedition, only 120 reached the inner Andes. They spent the

Holy Week Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...

of 1537 in Chía, that was founded by the Granadian leader on March 24 after passing through

Cajicá Cajicá is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca, north of the capital Bogotá. It is located in the Central Savanna Province, being the third most populous municipality in the province after Zipaquirá and Chía ...

one day earlier.Conquista rápida y saqueo cuantioso de Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
/ref>History Cajicá
/ref> From here, setting up camp on the Suba Hills on April 5, the conquistadors continued southwestward towards Bacatá or Muequetá, located in modern

, the main settlement of the ''

Tisquesusa Tisquesusa, also spelled Thisquesuza, Thysquesuca or Thisquesusha (referred to in the earliest sources as Bogotá, the Elder) (died Facatativá, 1537) was the fourth and last independent ruler ('' psihipqua'') of Muyquytá, main settlement of th ...

.Bogotá: de paso por la capital
–

Banco de la República The Bank of the Republic ( es, Banco de la República) is the central bank of Colombia. It was initially established under the regeneration era in 1880. Its main modern functions, under the new Colombian constitution were detailed by Congress a ...

The leader of the southern Muisca was defeated quickly and the Spanish set up their main camp in

Bosa Bosa is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano (until May 2005 it was in the province of Nuoro), part of the Sardinia region of Italy. Bosa is situated about two-thirds of the way up the west coast of Sardinia, on a small hill, abou ...

. Conquistador Pedro Fernández de Valenzuela was sent towards the site of

, where the ''zipa'' had a ''bohío'' (house). From Bosa, various expeditions on the Altiplano were organised during 1537 and early 1538. On August 6 of that year, the city of Santafé de Bogotá was officially founded as the capital of the

Colonial period (1539–1810)

Vista panorámica de la ciudad de Santafé de Bogotá (detalle)1772

1810 Bogota map by Vicente Talledo y Rivera

After the foundation of Santa Fe de Bogotá, the principal colonial settlement was concentrated in the present-day centre of the city with minor expansion on both sides of the San Francisco River. The growth of the city in the first centuries was hindered by the presence of the many wetlands and rivers on the Bogotá savanna. One of the motives to establish the capital on the savanna was to take advantage of the favourably cool climate and fertility of the soil to grow the introduced

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...

crop

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 ...

.Camargo Ponce de León, s.a., p.3 The political organisation of the territories in what is known today as Colombia established

encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...

s in which the indigenous people had to pay tributes to the encomenderos.Camargo Ponce de León, s.a., p.4 The Muisca were forced out of the most fertile grounds to live in less favourable areas, yet were obliged to work the good farmlands for the Spanish colonisers.Camargo Ponce de León, s.a., p.5 The city of Santa Fe de Bogotá grew in the 18th and early 19th century, which increased the demand for wood for construction and as firewood. The main area of exploitation was the Eastern Hills, and when

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...

visited the area in the early 19th century, he noted "that there was not a single tree left until the open area of Choachí".Camargo Ponce de León, s.a., p.6

Republican period (1810–1930)

The beginning of the Republican period of the Eastern Hills was marked by the independence of the Spanish Crown and the declaration of Santa Fe as capital of

Gran Colombia Gran Colombia (, "Great Colombia"), or Greater Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: ''República de Colombia''), was a state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 18 ...

. During this time, the higher classes of society left the colonial centre of the city and moved to higher elevations. The buildings constructed were dispersed, in contrast to the dense architecture of the colonial period.

Hacienda An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), ...

s were constructed in Usaquén, where hunting the white-tailed deer, then still abundant in the Eastern Hills, was common.Historia de Usaquén
/ref> As of the second half of the 19th century, a process of reforesting the Eastern Hills with imported species as

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the ...

and

acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

s was started. The city itself saw the development of

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

s and the introduction of the

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

Modern period

Beam from the sky above Bogota - panoramio

The Eastern Hills were almost completely deforested in the 1930s and 1940s.Camargo Ponce de León, s.a., p.7 In those years, the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...

Enrique Olaya Herrera Enrique Alfredo Olaya Herrera (12 November 1880 – 18 February 1937) was a Colombian journalist and politician. He served as President of Colombia from 7 August 1930 until 7 August 1934 representing the Colombian Liberal Party. Early years ...

marked a new era, during which Bogotá expanded with settlement farther away from the centre of the city, and the lower classes inhabited the slopes of the Eastern Hills and the southern part of the Bogotá savanna. The electrification and the use of gas and cocinol (a type of gasoline used domestically) halted the process of deforestation and marked the spontaneous regrowth of vegetation in the Eastern Hills. The tumultuous end of the 1940s (''

Bogotazo El Bogotazo (from "Bogotá" and the ''-azo'' suffix of violent augmentation) refers to the massive riots that followed the assassination in Bogotá, Colombia of Liberal leader and presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 19 ...

'') resulted in a more outspread settlement towards the north of Bogotá, away from the central areas of the city. This created a class difference with the richer households in the north and poverty in the south, a division that exists until today.Camargo Ponce de León, s.a., p.8 An important architect for the expansion and development of Bogotá in the 1930s and 1940s was Austrian Karl Brunner von Lehenstein.La gran herencia
–

Semana ''Semana'' (Spanish: ''Week'') is a weekly magazine in Colombia. History ''Semana'' was founded in 1946 by Alberto Lleras Camargo (who would become president of Colombia in 1958) and that folded in 1961. It was relaunched by journalist Felipe L ...

The sixties and seventies of the twentieth century were marked by urban development of the international business centre of Bogotá. During these decades the

Torres Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Torres may refer to: People *Torres (surname), a Spanish and Portuguese surname *Torres (musician), singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott ** ''Torres'' (album), 2013 self-titled album by Torres Places Americas *Torres, Colorado, an unincorporated co ...

, Torres de Fenicia, Torres Blancas, Torres del Parque and the

Torre Colpatria The Torre Colpatria ( en, Colpatria Tower) is a 50-story skyscraper in the downtown area of Bogotá, Colombia. It is the fourth tallest building in the country. Constructed from 1973 to 1978 and opened in 1979, it has a total height of , becom ...

, at that moment the highest building in Colombia, were constructed in the foothills of the ''Cerros Orientales''.Rincón Avellaneda, 2006, p.129 The end of the 1970s and early 1980s were characterised by an influx of migrants from other parts of Colombia, mainly people from Boyacá, Cundinamarca,

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 ...

and Tolima, many of whom settled in

Suba Suba may refer to: Groups of people *Suba people (Kenya), a people of Kenya **Suba language *Suba people (Tanzania), a people of Tanzania * Subha (writers), alternatively spelt Suba, Indian writer duo Individual people *Suba (musician), Serbian- ...

. In 1986, eighteen illicit residential neighbourhoods were created in the hills of Usaquén. The tallest building of Colombia and second-tallest of South America,

BD Bacatá BD Bacatá (abbreviation for ''Bogotá Downtown Bacatá'') is an architectural complex currently under construction in Bogotá, Colombia, featuring the tallest building in the country, surpassing the Torre Colpatria, and the sixth tallest in S ...

, named after the capital area of the southern Muisca;

, has been scheduled to be completed in 2017.BD Bacatá
/ref>

Environmental issues

Most of the Eastern Hills are a natural reserve, established in 1976.Audiencia CAR, 2006, p.4 The designation of an environmental code was proposed by Julio Carrizosa Umaña, who worked for the Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi.La historia de Carrizosa, un 'custodio' de los cerros orientales
– El Tiempo Several studies have been done and proposals written to improve the environmental management of the Eastern Hills. A study, published in 2008, attempts to manage the area of ''quebrada Manzanares'' where loss of flora and fauna is one of the problems.García Rueda et al., 2008, p.9 An investigation in 2009 showed that 90,000 people are living in the Eastern Hills. The

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

Ulex europaeus ''Ulex europaeus'', the gorse, common gorse, furze or whin, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to the British Isles and Western Europe. Description Growing to tall, it is an evergreen shrub. The young stems are g ...

'' (common gorse), an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

that has been introduced in Colombia, highly affects the original ecology of the Eastern Hills. The species has been used to fight erosion since the 1950s,Aguilar Garavito, 2010, p.13 but is prone to forest fires, with which it spreads its seeds.Aguilar Garavito, 2010, p.12

Mining

Mining is a common activity in the Eastern Hills. Although most of the area is a dedicated natural reserve, in 2009 sixty-two quarries existed within the reserve of the Eastern Hills.Gómez Lee, 2009, p.226 The total surface of mining activities in 2006 was , less than 1 percent of the total area of the Eastern Hills.Audiencia CAR, 2006, p.45 Extensive mining areas are in La Calera and Usme. The Soratama quarry, named after the indigenous Muisca woman

Zoratama Zoratama, also spelled as Soratama, was a Muisca woman and the lover of Spanish conquistador Lázaro Fonte. Her story reminds of the North American indigenous Pocahontas who married John Rolfe after saving the life of John Smith. Together wi ...

, in the northern part of the Eastern Hills, was used for decades until it was closed in 1990. During the 2000s and in recent years, the location of the former quarry has been destined for geomorphological restoration.Canteras que desangran a los cerros orientales
- El Tiempo

Forest fires

Forest Fire - La Calera Road - Feb 2016 - Eastern Hills, Bogotá

Forest fires are a common threat to the vegetation of the Eastern Hills and the living spaces on the eastern slopes of the Colombian capital. Studies about the frequency of forest fires have revealed that most fires occur on Sundays, Mondays and Fridays. Periods of increased fire frequency are the drier months January, February, July, September and October. A series of fires in January and February 2016 consumed of the forests close to the neighbourhoods Aguas Claras and La Selva of the locality San Cristóbal.Ascienden a 18 las hectáreas consumidas por el fuego en los cerros
– El Tiempo Later in the same month, more sources of forest fires were found.Sobrevuelo confirma tres columnas de humo en los cerros
– El Tiempo During a forest fire in 2010, of wooded area was lost.Aguilar Garavito, 2010, p.14 In 2015, eighteen forest fires were noted.Incendio en cerros orientales de Bogotá está controlado en un 70%
–

To extinguish the fires, helicopters with Bambi Buckets were used.Serían cinco las hectáreas afectadas por incendio en cerros orientales de Bogotá
–

The forest fires, also occurring along the road towards La Calera, east of Chapinero, and in Usme, affected schools, universities, the National Congress, the

Museo del Oro Museo may refer to: * Museo, 2018 Mexican drama heist film *Museo (Naples Metro) Museo is a station on line 1 of the Naples Metro. It was opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. O ...

and

, who suspended their activities.Centro de Bogotá en alerta por incendio en cerros orientales
–

File:Incendio en el Cerro de Monserrate 02.JPG, Fire Monserrate
October 2015 File:Incendio en el Cerro de Monserrate 06.JPG, Monserrate
2015 File:Incendio en el Cerro de Monserrate 19.JPG, Monserrate
2015 File:Incendio en el Cerro de Monserrate 14.JPG, Monserrate
2015 File:Bogotá rastros de incendio en cerros orientales.JPG, Burned forest
October 2013

Tourism

Tur en Bogotá Caminata guiada Quebrada la Vieja 3 horas

The Eastern Hills have various tourist trails. The main trail, which ascends to the Monserrate monastery from La Candelaria, was for centuries a pilgrimage route for monks and nuns. The commonly used

Teleférico de Monserrate The Teleférico de Monserrate is a tourist cable car that connects Bogotá with the Monserrate hill. History The cable car to Monserrate was built to provide service to the increasing number of parishioners who ascended to the Basilica ...

was inaugurated in September 1955.Teleférico de Monserrate
/ref> Other walking paths are along the La Vieja, Las Delicias and Las Moyas creeks in Chapinero.Monroy & Pretelt, 2015, p.12

Panorama

References

Bibliography

General

* * * * * *

Geology

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Flora and fauna

* * * * * * * *

History

= Prehistory

= * *

= Preceramic and Herrera

= * * * * * * * *

= Muisca

= * * * * * * * * * * * *

= Spanish conquest

= * * *

Environmental issues

* * * * * * *

External links

*
Fundación Cerros de Bogotá
– official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Eastern Hills, Bogota Altiplano Cundiboyacense Geography of Bogotá Geography of Cundinamarca Department Hills of Colombia

Description

Etymology

Geography

Geology

Soils

Faults

Tectonic evolution

Seismic activity

Climate

Hydrology

Flora and fauna

Flora

Fauna

Birds

Mammals

Reptiles and amphibians

Fish

History

Prehistory

Preceramic

Herrera Period

Muisca Confederation

Spanish conquest (1537–1539)

Colonial period (1539–1810)

Republican period (1810–1930)

Modern period

Environmental issues

Mining

Forest fires

Tourism

Panorama

See also

References

Bibliography

General

Geology

Flora and fauna

History

= Prehistory

= Preceramic and Herrera

= Muisca

= Spanish conquest

Environmental issues

External links