Bogota Things To Do – Complete Guide

Bogota things To Do - activities, hotels, golf courses & car rental

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Bogota is the capital of Colombia. The number of inhabitants is between eight and nine million; according to a 2005 census, 7,363,782 people lived there that year.

Geography
The city occupies 1,776 km² in a high plateau[3] surrounded by mountains at an altitude of 2600 m, the Sabana de Bogota, in the eastern mountain ranges of the Andes. The city forms the Capital District and therefore falls outside the departments of Colombia. However, Bogota is the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, which surrounds it almost completely. Although Bogota is almost on the equator, the average daytime temperature is only 18 degrees due to its high location (9 degrees at night).

History
Santa Fe de Bogota was founded in 1538 by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Sebastián de Belalcázar and Nikolaus Federmann. The city's name comes from Bacatá, a residence of the Muisca Indians. Actually, Bogota was founded twice; the first foundation took place when Quesada had twelve farms in Santafé consecrated with a Holy Mass on August 6, 1538 and then symbolically pulled grass from the ground and challenged anyone who would oppose the foundation. In fact, he then called the place Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza. The second and official foundation took place on April 27, 1539 when Quesada, together with Sebastián de Belalcázar and Nikolaus Federmann, fulfilled the conditions of the Spanish Crown by installing a mayor and council, determining the street plan and building lots, and demarcating the Plaza Mayor. Then the place was named Santafé de Bogotá. At the place where Bogota was founded in 1538, the Catedral Primada now stands on the Plaza de Bolivar.

Bogota became the capital of the Spanish colony of New Granada in 1717 and it remained the capital of the country even after independence from Spain. Due to its location far from the sea, it was not immediately obvious that this city would become the capital of Colombia. However, the plateau was home to the indigenous Muisca, an agricultural community, and they proved an abundant source of labor for the colonizer. This economic advantage made the city the capital of the country. As mentioned, the city is not only the capital of Colombia, but also of the department of Cundinamarca, although it is not formally part of it. However, Cundinamarca is the only department whose capital is fixed in the national constitution. This means that moving the capital requires a constitutional amendment, not a simple decision by the provincial Assembly.