Sesquilé is a town and municipality in

Almeidas Province Almeidas Province ( es, Provincia de Almeidas, ) is one of the 15 provinces in the Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. Almeidas borders to the east with the Boyacá Department to the north with the Ubaté Province, to the west with the Central Sav ...

in the department of Cundinamarca,

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 ...

. Sesquilé 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 ...

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 ...

means "hot water".Official website Sesquilé
- accessed 06-05-2016 Sesquilé is adjacent to Tominé Reservoir and nearby Lake Guatavita, the suspected site of the ''

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 ...

'' legend.

Tourism

* Laguna del cacique Guatavita, a beautiful, ecologically pristine mountaintop lake well inside paramo altitude, it is one of the places contesting being the location for the legend of ''

''. It is believed (by some) that its bottom is covered in large quantities of gold, due to the story of a ceremony performed on and in its waters. It is said that each ''

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 S ...

'', at the beginning of his reign, was covered in gold dust and ritually rafted to the middle of the lake, where he swam to bathe the heavy gold off, then made offerings of riches in gold works. Though tentative evidence exists for such ceremony, in the form of the pre-Columbian gold sculpture (1 ft x 6in x 1 ft) of the raft with a ''cacique'' and priests astride it, currently kept at the Gold Museum, Bogota, it is very likely the only evidence, so that the ceremony itself remains the stuff of legend. At least one search with

SCUBA Scuba may refer to: * Scuba diving ** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving * Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook * Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...

gear has been attempted, with unsuccessful results due to the murkiness, great depth and dangerously low temperature of the water. Swimming in the lake is not advisable, for ecological as well as the obvious medical reasons. Hiking trails are available and camping is possible (open fires are forbidden), but it is best to check with the local police to make sure it is safe at the time (due to the ever-present guerrilla situation in the country) and so that the authorities are advised as to where hikers are going in case they have trouble returning, for whatever reason. * Arts and crafts: woolen clothing * Caminos Reales: ancient trails of the Muiscas, now rehabilitated for hiking * Cañón de Las Águilas (river gorge) * Capilla de Los Dolores: beautiful chapel of colonial architecture which has been well preserved and keeps its original masonry and ornamentation intact * Cerro de Covadonga (mountain) * Cerro de Las Tres Viejas (mountain): the three summits where known by the pre-Columbian natives as Chía, Vitaca and Quemuenchatocha, it is one of the places in the region most imbued in history and legend * Cerro Pan de Azúcar (mountain) * Club Náutico La Marina de Guatavita (nautical club at Tominé Lake) * Tominé Dam & Lake, it stocks around 600 million cubic meters of water for consumption mainly in Bogotá. The lake is apt for windsurfing and sailing.

Trivia

* Under construction in Sesquilé is a factory of

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Feb ...

, projected to be finished in 2017 2014
Ardila le apuesta de nuevo a la cerveza
- Semana - accessed 28-04-2016

Gallery

References

External links

*
Cundinamarca department official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sesquile Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department Populated places established in 1600 1600 establishments in the Spanish Empire Muisca Confederation Muysccubun