Pasca is a town and municipality in the Cundinamarca department of

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 ...

located in the

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 ...

. It belongs to the

Sumapaz Province Sumapaz Province is one of the 15 provinces in the Cundinamarca Department Department of Cundinamarca (, ) is one of the departments of Colombia. Its area covers (not including the Capital District) and it has a population of 2,919,060 a ...

. 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. (Do not confuse with The Altiplano or the Altiplano Nariñense, both fur ...

at a distance of from the capital

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

. It borders

Fusagasugá Fusagasugá (; ) or Fusa is a city 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 Sibaté () is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Soacha Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. Sibaté is located on the Bogotá savanna with the urban centre at an altitude of and a distance of from the capital Bogotá. It f ...

and

Soacha Soacha is an autonomous municipality of the department of Cundinamarca in Colombia, and part of the Metropolitan Area of Bogotá. It has an important industrial zone and is home to mostly working-class families. Soacha borders Bojacá and Mosq ...

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 ...

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/ * �mʷɨska, or Muysca de Bogotá is a language spoken by the Muisca people, one of the many indigenous cultures of the Americas. The Muisca inhabit the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of what today is th ...

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, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

was inhabited by 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 ...

, organized in their

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 ...

. The southern Muisca territories were ruled from Muyquytá, the current capital. On April 6, 1536

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (; 1509 – 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory n ...

and his brother started the strenuous march into the inner highlands of Colombia. With 209 men he arrived on March 12, 1537, in

Guachetá Guachetá is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Ubaté Province of the Departments of Colombia, department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca. Guachetá is located at from the capital Bogotá. It borders the Boyacá Department, Boya ...

. From there he led his army to conquer the villages of the Muisca on the

Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a savanna#Savanna ecoregions, 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 si ...

. 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 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 and

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 ...

, predominantly papa criolla, other

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es,

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' ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), 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 onion which was classifie ...

s, bunching onions,

tree tomato The tamarillo (''Solanum betaceum'') is a tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Solanaceae (the nightshade family). It bears the tamarillo, an egg-shaped edible fruit. It is also known as the ''tree tomato'', ''tomate de árbol'', ''toma ...

es,

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae mostly grown as a leaf vegetable. The leaves are most often used raw in Green salad, green salads, although lettuce is also seen in other kinds of food, such as sandwiche ...

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,

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

blackberries BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

coriander Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual plant, annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the ...

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. ...

Archeology

The famous

Muisca raft The Muisca raft (''Balsa Muisca'' in Spanish language, Spanish), sometimes referred to as the Golden Raft of El Dorado, is a pre-Columbian Votive offering, votive piece created by the Muisca people, Muisca, an Andean people of Colombia in the Cor ...

, representing the ritual of ''

El Dorado El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...

'', 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

. The town contains an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

and a natural history museum.

Famous pasqueños

* Colombian poet and politician

Adolfo León Gómez Adolfo León Gómez (19 September 1857 – 9 June 1927) was a Colombian poet, jurist and politician born in Pasca, Cundinamarca, Republic of New Granada The Republic of New Granada was a Centralism, centralist unitary republic consisting ...

was born in Pasca and his grandmother, poet

Josefa Acevedo de Gomez Josefa may refer to: * 649 Josefa, a minor planet * Josefa (given name), a unisex given name See also * Josepha * José José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is prono ...

, lived and wrote her work here * Native Zoratama lived in Pasca Ivan Ramiro Sosa cyclist winner of multiple races.

Climate

Gallery

References

External links

*
Photos of pre-Columbian art found in Pasca
{{Municipalities cundinamarca department Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department Tourist attractions in Cundinamarca Department