Viracachá is a town and municipality in the

Márquez Province The Márquez Province is a province of Boyacá Department, Colombia. The province is formed by 10 municipalities. Municipalities Boyacá • Ciénaga • Jenesano • Nuevo Colón • Ramiriquí • Rondón • Tibaná • Turmequé • Ú ...

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 ...

, part of the

n department of Boyacá. Viracachá 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 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 ...

and the small urban center at above sea level. Other parts of Viracachá reach . The municipality borders

Siachoque Siachoque is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. Siachoque is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at a distance of from the department capital Tunja. It borders Toca in the ...

, Rondón and

Soracá Soracá is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the Central Boyacá Province. Soracá borders the municipalities of Chivatá in the north, Siachoque, Viracacha and Ramiriquí in the east, B ...

in the north and east, in the south

Ciénega A ciénega (also spelled ciénaga) is a wetland system unique to the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. Ciénagas are alkaline, freshwater, spongy, wet meadows with shallow-gradient, permanently saturated soils in otherwise arid landscapes ...

and Ciénega, Soracá and

Ramiriquí Ramiriquí is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the Márquez Province. Ramiriquí borders the department capital Tunja in the north, in the south Chinavita and Zetaquirá, in the east Rond� ...

in the west.Official website Viracachá
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Etymology

About the name Viracachá exist different interpretations. One interpretation says the name is derived from

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

and means "air of the lake". Another attributes it to

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 ...

meaning "lord of the enclosure of the wind".Etymology Viracachcá
- Excelsio.net

History

In the centuries 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 ...

Viracachá 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 loose

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 ...

. Due to its proximity to the northern capital

Hunza Hunza may refer to: * Hunza, Iran * Hunza Valley, an area in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan ** Hunza (princely state), a former principality ** Hunza District, a recently established district ** Hunza River, a waterway ** Hunza Peak, a mo ...

, Viracachá was ruled by the ''

zaque When the Spanish arrived in the central Colombian highlands, the region was organized into the Muisca Confederation, which had two rulers; the ''Zipa'' was the ruler of the southern part and based in Muyquytá. The ''Zaque'' was the ruler of the ...

''. Modern Viracachá was founded by Dominican missionaries on February 15, 1556.

Economy

Viracachá is a rural village where most of the people work in the tertiary sector of services. Also

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 chicken farming is executed. The town does not have a bank.

References

{{Coord, 5, 26, N, 73, 18, W, display=title, region:CO_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1556 1556 establishments in the Spanish Empire Populated places of the Muisca Confederation