Supatá is a municipality and town of

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 ...

in the

Gualivá Province Gualivá Province ( es, Provincia de Gualivá) is one of the 15 provinces in the Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. Gualivá borders the Lower Magdalena Province to the west, to the north the Rionegro Province, to the east and southeast the Weste ...

, part of the

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of Cundinamarca. Supatá is located north of the Colombian capital

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 ...

. Supatá borders the municipalities

Pacho Pacho is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. Pacho is part of the Rionegro Province and the urban centre is situated at a distance of from the capital Bogotá at an altitude of , while the altitude ranges from ...

, Vergara,

Subachoque Subachoque is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Western Savanna Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The municipality is situated on the Bogotá savanna with the urban centre at an altitude of at a distance of from the cap ...

, La Vega and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

.Official website Supatá
- accessed 06-05-2016

History and geography

Before the arrival of the

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 ...

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 in the central highlands of Colombia, the area around Supatá was inhabited by the

Panche people The Panche or Tolima is an indigenous group of people in what is now Colombia. Their language is unclassified – and possibly unclassifiable – but may have been Cariban. They inhabited the southwestern parts of the department of Cundinamarca a ...

. In

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 ...

''Supatá'' means "low and fertile land".Etymology Supatá
- accessed 29-04-2016 The village is located on the northwestern edge of 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 ...

at a relatively low elevation of above sea level, while other areas within the municipality are much higher, up to a maximum elevation of . On the ''El Tablazo'' mountain, at an elevation of within the boundaries of Supatá, there's a cave named ''Cueva Chía'' ("Chía Cave"). Chía was the Moon goddess of 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 ...

who frequently invaded the territories of the Panche. It is said the people hid the treasures of Chía in this cave.

Economical activities

The main economical activity of Supatá 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 ...

, particularly

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 Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

s and

yuca ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

Gallery

File:Antigua fuente de agua en Supatá.jpg, Ancient fountain in Supatá
possibly indigenous File:Laguna Hispania.jpg, Hispania Lake in Supatá

Named after Supatá

* Supatá golden frog, a species of poisonous frog, found in the vicinity of Supatá has been named after the village

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Supata Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department Populated places established in 1882 1882 establishments in Colombia Muysccubun