Pasca is a town and municipality in the Cundinamarca department of Colombia located in the

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 ...

. It belongs to the

Sumapaz Province Sumapaz Province is one of the 15 provinces in the Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. External links Sumapaz Province in Cundinamarca Provinces of Cundinamarca Department Province A province is almost always an administrative division ...

. Pasca is situated on the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alt ...

at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. It borders

Fusagasugá Fusagasugá (; ) or Fusa is a town and municipality in the department of Cundinamarca, in central Colombia. It is located in the warm valley between the rivers Cuja and Panches, a central region of the Andes Mountains in South America. The mun ...

, Sibaté and

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

in the north, Bogotá D.C. in the north and east,

Arbeláez Arbeláez () is a town and municipality in the Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. It borders Fusagasugá, Pasca and other municipalities of the Sumapaz Province. Arbeláez is recognized as a quiet and friendly city of Colombia. It is known for i ...

in the south and Fusagasugá in the west. Is the entrance to the Páramo del Sumapaz, the biggest ecosystem in its genre in the world. The urban center is located at an altitude of and the altitude ranges from to .Official website Pasca

Etymology

Pasca 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 cultures of the Americas. The Muisca inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyace ...

means "father's enclosure", according to Acosta Ortegón. (1999
Notas sobre toponimia en algunas coplas colombianas
Thesaurus. Tomo LIV, Núm. 3. page 1122.

History

Pasca in the time before the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...

was inhabited by the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

, organized in their Muisca Confederation. The southern Muisca territories were ruled from Muyquytá, the current capital. On April 6, 1536 conquistadors Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and his brother started the strenuous march into the inner highlands of Colombia. With 209 men he arrived on March 12, 1537, in Guachetá. From there he led his army to conquer the villages of the Muisca on 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 Ran ...

. One of his captains, Juan de Céspedes, reached Pasca in July 1537, founding modern Pasca on July 15. It was the last village of the Muisca to be conquered before heading south into the domain of the Sutagao.

Economy

Main economical activities in Pasca are

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

farming 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 t ...

, predominantly papa criolla, other

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, peas,

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onio ...

s, bunching onions, tree tomatoes, beans, carrots, cabbage,

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es, corn,

blackberries The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family (biology), family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus' ...

, coriander and the Colombian fruits gulupa and

curuba Banana passionfruit (''Passiflora'' supersect. ''Tacsonia''), also known as taxo and curuba, is a group of around 64 ''Passiflora'' species found in South America. Most species in this section are found in high elevation cloud forest habitats. Flo ...

Archeology

The famous

Muisca raft The Muisca raft (''Balsa Muisca'' in Spanish), sometimes referred to as the Golden Raft of El Dorado, is a pre-Columbian votive piece created by the Muisca, an indigenous people of Colombia in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The pi ...

, representing the ritual of '' El Dorado'', was found in Pasca in 1969.Explanation of the metallurgy of the Muisca raft by Eduardo Londoño
- Museo del Oro The raft is now part of the Gold Museum collection in Bogotá. The town contains an archaeological

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

and a natural history museum.

Famous pasqueños

* Colombian poet and politician Adolfo León Gómez was born in Pasca and his grandmother, poet Josefa Acevedo de Gomez, lived and wrote her work here * Native

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 ...

lived in Pasca Ivan Ramiro Sosa cyclist winner of multiple races.

Gallery

References

External links

*
Photos of pre-Columbian art found in Pasca
{{Municipalities cundinamarca department Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department Tourist attractions in Cundinamarca Department 1537 establishments in the Spanish Empire Populated places established in 1537 1537 disestablishments in the Muisca Confederation