San Sebastián de Mariquita 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 ...

in the Tolima department 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 ...

, about northwest of

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 ...

. This town and municipality contains several important Spanish settlements that were located here due to its vicinity to the Magdalena River. Today, Mariquita is frequented by tourists from the capital visiting attractions like the Medina Waterfalls (''Cataratas de Medina'') and the

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...

(''Casa de la Moneda''). 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 ...

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 ...

died there and is buried in the

Primatial Cathedral of Bogotá The Metropolitan and Primate Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Saint Peter of Bogotá or better known as the Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Bogotá and Primate of Colombia, officially ''Sacred Holy Temple Metropolitan Cathe ...

. Today it is home to large hotels and haciendas, among them Villa de los Caballeros. The population of the municipality was 32,642 as of the 2005 census.http://www.dane.gov.co/files/censo2005/regiones/tolima/mariquita.pdf

Notable people

* Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, drug lord * Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, drug lord

References

Municipalities of Tolima Department {{Tolima-geo-stub