Covarachía is a town and municipality in the

Northern Boyacá Province The Northern Boyacá Province is a Provinces of Colombia, province of the Colombian Departments of Colombia, Department of Boyacá Department, Boyacá. The province is formed by 9 Municipalities of Colombia, municipalities. Municipalities Boavit ...

, part of the

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

n Department of Boyacá. The urban centre is located at from the department capital

Tunja Tunja () is a municipality and city on the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, in the region known as the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, 130 km northeast of Bogotá. In 2018 the municipality had a population of 172,548. It is the capital of B ...

at an altitude of in the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team that currently competes in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. History Inaugural playing squad (1992) Honours *Premiers (2): 2002, 2013 *Runners-up (6): 199 ...

of the Colombian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. The municipality borders

San José de Miranda San José de Miranda is a town and municipality in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular ...

and Capitanejo (both Santander) in the north,

Tipacoque Tipacoque is a municipality and town in Boyacá Department, Colombia, located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, part of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. Tipacoque is situated on the western flank of the Chicamocha river canyon. It is par ...

in the south, Capitanejo in the east and in the west the municipalities

Onzaga Onzaga () is a town and municipality in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia. Onzaga borders in the north San Joaquín, in the east and south the municipalities Soatá, Covarachía, Tipacoque and Tutazá of the department of Boyac ...

and

San Joaquín San Joaquín (Spanish for Saint Joachim) is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. It is part of Greater Santiago. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, San ...

(Santander).Official website Covarachía
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Etymology

The name Covarachía is a combination of

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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and

Chibcha The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia, Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonizati ...

; "cave of the Moon", with ''Chía'' referring to the Moon goddess Chía.Etymology Covarachía
- Excelsio.net

History

Covarachía was inhabited by indigenous people during the

Herrera Period The Herrera Period is a phase in the history of Colombia. It is part of the Andean preceramic and ceramic, time equivalent of the North American pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Formative stage, formative and classic stages and age dated by var ...

, and later, in the northeasternmost part of the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', ''iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andes, Andean highlands of what is today Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Spanis ...

, ruled by a ''

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

''. Covarachía is bordered by the

Chicamocha River Chicamocha River is a river of Boyacá and Santander in central-eastern Colombia. It is part of the Magdalena river system that flows into the Caribbean Sea. The Chicamocha River rises in the municipality of Tuta in the Department of Boyacá ...

and the territories to the east of the town were inhabited by the

Lache people The Lache were an indigenous, wikt:agrarian, agrarian people in the highlands of what is now central Colombia's northern Boyacá Department, Boyacá and Santander Department, Santander departments, primarily in Gutiérrez Province and García Rov ...

. The

Muisca The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Muisca spe ...

were the people who lived 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. (Do not confuse with The Altiplano or the Altiplano Nariñense, both fur ...

before the

Spanish conquest of the Muisca The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca people, Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andes, Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. They were organised in a loose M ...

in the 1530s. Modern Covarachía, called Ricaurte between 1858 and 1869, was founded on February 10, 1823, by Juan Zámano and Felipe Pérez.

Economy

Main economical activities of Covarachía are

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

farming. Important agricultural products are

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

fique Fique is a natural fibre that grows in the leaves of plants in the genus '' Furcraea''. Common names include fique, cabuya, pita, penca, penco, maguey, cabui, chuchao and coquiza. History The Indigenous peoples of the Americas extracted and use ...

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

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, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although a perennia ...

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

es and

melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. It can also specifically refer to ''Cucumis melo'', commonly known as the "true melon" or simply "melon". The term "melon" can apply to both the p ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Covarachia Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1823