Moniquirá is a town and

municipality 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 ...

Boyacá Department Boyacá () is one of the thirty-two departments of Colombia, and the remnant of Boyacá State, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia". Boyacá is centrally located within Colombia, almost entirely within the moun ...

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 ...

, part of the subregion of the

Ricaurte Province The Ricaurte Province is a province of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. The province, named after independence hero Antonio Ricaurte, is formed by 13 municipalities. Municipalities * Arcabuco * Chitaraque * Gachantivá * Moniquirá * Ráq ...

. It is known for its "bocadillos" and "panelitas de leche" (both little sweet cakes). Moniquirá borders

San José de Pare San José de Pare is a town and municipality in the Ricaurte Province, part of the department of Boyacá, Colombia. The urban centre of San José de Pare is situated at an elevation of in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, and the elevati ...

in the north,

Togüí Togüí () is a town and municipality in Boyacá Department, Colombia, part of the subregion of the Ricaurte Province. The municipality is located in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes at an altitude of . It borders the municipalities of S ...

and

Arcabuco Arcabuco is a town and municipality in the Ricaurte Province, part of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. Arcabuco is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense with the urban centre at an altitude of . The municipality borders Moniquirá and Gá ...

in the east,

Gachantivá Gachantivá is a town and municipality in the Ricaurte Province, part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. Gachantivá is located at altitudes ranging from to on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and borders Villa de Leyva in the south, Santa So ...

and Santa Sofia in the south and in the west with the department of

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

.Official website Moniquirá
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Etymology

In the

Chibcha language Chibcha, Mosca, Muisca, Muysca (*/ˈmɨska/), or Muysca de Bogotá, was a language spoken by the Muisca people of the Muisca Confederation, one of the many Indigenous peoples in Colombia, indigenous List of pre-Columbian cultures, cultures of ...

of the Muisca, Moniquirá means "place of bath".Etymology Moniquirá
- Excelsio.net

History

Before the arrival of the Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

es, Moniquirá was who were ruled by the ''

cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...

'' of

Susa Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...

, part of the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', '' iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. The ...

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 ...

passed through Ubaza, part of Moniquirá on March 16th, 1537.

Economy

Main economical activity of Moniquirá is

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 ...

;

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

, sugar cane and

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 ...

. The bocadillos industry provides employment for over 800 people.

Gallery

File:Alcaldía de Moniquirá.jpg, Council house File:Moniquirá Coliseo.JPG, Colliseum File:Hospital Moniquira.JPG, Hospital File:Parque Simon Bolivar.jpg, Park File:Parque Moniquira 3.JPG, Park File:Parque Moniquira 2.JPG, Park

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moniquira Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1825 Muisca Confederation Muysccubun