North East Andes, Wonderful Colonial Towns”
This region, without a doubt, has the most historical legacy in the country. Human settlements began more than 15.000 years ago in this region which cradled one of the principal civilizations in the north region of South America. Today this region is being recognized as the fourth most important indigenous civilization after the Mesoamerican cultures and the Central Andes culture.
The Muiscas civilization occupied a territory equal to the size of Switzerland and established more than 60 cities and towns, of which all of them were concurred by the Spaniards during the Spanish conquest. You can still see some remains of those ancient cultures today. The majority number of those ancient towns and cities, including Bogota, the capital of Colombia, became the centers of commerce during the periods of conquest, colonization, and later the foundation of the republic of Colombia. In this regard colonial towns such as the village of Villa de Leyva and the town of Barichara, have been preserved and still showcase their political and economic importance from centuries ago. In Bio-geographical term there are tremendous differences between the plateau that spreads in to Boyacá and Cundinamarca departments (with peaks of almost 4.000 MASL), and the dominant ecosystem called “paramo”, where the main source of water supply for the population comes from the dry area of the Chicamocha canyon (the second largest in the world) and the Cocuy National Park where the visitors can see the glacier and more than 300 lakes. This region is one of the most visited regions in the country.