Boyacá is known as "The Land of Freedom" because this region was the scene of a series of battles which led to Colombia's independence from Spain. The first one took place on 25 July 1819 in the Pantano de Vargas and the final and decisive battle known as the Battle of Boyacá was fought on 7 August 1819 at Puente de Boyacá.
The first European to discover the area was the Spaniard Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada who conquered the northern Muisca living in the area led by last zaqueAquiminzaque and distributed the land in encomiendas and forced the indigenous people to work for him.
In 1539, Gonzalo Suárez Rendón, a Spanish conquistador, founded the city of Tunja and other sites where the indigenous people previously had their villages. Tunja became one of the main political and economic centers for the Spanish during the Viceroyalty of New Granada.
After the creation of the Granadine Confederation by 1858 the territory of now Boyaca became the Sovereign State of Boyacá. It was later rearranged in territory and administration and renamed as "Department of Boyaca" after a series of civil wars like the Colombian Civil War (1860-1862) and the Thousand Days War that struggled over a centralist or federalist system and political instability that changed to many constitutions (such as the Constitution of 1886), Boyaca finally acquired its current definition as territory.
The department of Boyacá covers a small portion of the Middle Magdalena valley of the Magdalena River to the west, the Cordillera Oriental mountain range with altitudes of 5,380 m above sea level (Sierra Nevada del Cocuy with 25 snow peaks), flat highland plateaux, and another small portion of territory by the eastern Llanos plains. Among its most prominent geographical features are the Range of the Zorro, Serrania de las Quinchas and the Andean plateaus of Rusia, Guantivá, Pisba, Chontales and Rechiniga.
The Altiplano Cundiboyacense, shared with the department of Cundinamarca, is densely populated with numerous valleys. The southern part is the Bogotá savanna. Boyacá is subdivided into 123 municipalities.
Many rivers originate in Boyacá, the most important are the Chicamocha River and Arauca River and tributaries to other important rivers such as the Magdalena and Meta.
Boyacá also has numerous lakes which include Lake Tota, Lake Sochagota and Lake Fúquene, shared with the department of Cundinamarca, the artificial Chivor Reservoir and others.
El Cocuy and Pisba National Parks are located in the northeast of Boyacá. Pisba National Park is shared with the department of Arauca. The flora and fauna sanctuary of Lake Iguaque is situated in the centre of the department. The most beautiful páramo in the world, Ocetá Páramo, is in northeast Boyacá.
Climate
The central area of the highlands has two rainy seasons; the first between April and June, and a second between October and November with an average of 1,000 millimetres (39in) of rainfall per year. The rest of the year is considered to be the dry seasons with intermittent rainfall.
There are 13 provinces and two special districts in the Boyacá Department, listed below with their 123 municipalities. The department also has 123 corregimientos, 185 police inspectorates and numerous towns and small villages spread throughout the territory.
Municipalities are also grouped into 45 notary circuits with 53 notaries public. One circuit main registry based in the capital of the department; Tunja and 13 other minor registries spread across the territory.
"Reloj de Población". DANE. Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísitica. Archived from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Boyacá_department, and is written by contributors.
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