Bogotá

Bogotá (in full, Santa Fé de Bogotá), capital city of Colombia, coextensive with Bogotá Special District just north of the equator. It is located at an altitude of about 2,640 m (8,660 ft) on a plateau in the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes Mountains. The climate is temperate, with an average annual temperature of 14.4° C (58° F).

Bogotá is Colombia's largest city and one of South America's fastest-growing metropolitan areas. Major suburbs include Bosa, Engativá, Fontibón, Suba, Usaquén, and Usmé. Industries include printing and publishing, motor-vehicle assembly, food processing, and the manufacture of textiles, metals, machinery, and electrical equipment. The Pan-American Highway is the main land route linking the city with other major centres. The international Eldorado Airport is nearby.

Bogotá is sometimes called the Athens of South America. The National University of Colombia (1867) and many other universities located here make Bogotá the country's chief educational centre. Points of interest in the city include the famous Gold Museum, housing the largest collection of pre-Columbian gold artefacts; the National Museum; San Francisco Church (1567); and a National cathedral, built on the site of an early Native-American temple that incorporates parts of Bogotá's first church (1565). On a nearby mountain is the shrine of Monserrate, famous for its view over the city.

Despite its relatively isolated location Bogotá has been a centre of culture and politics since the early 16th century. After conquering the local Chibcha peoples, whose advanced civilization at Bacatá was the most powerful of the indigenous nations of the region, Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada founded what he called Santa Fé de Bacatá in 1538. The word Bacatá eventually became Bogotá. By the end of the century, Bogotá was a thriving city and the centre of Spanish colonization. The new city became the vice-regal capital of New Granada in 1717. It was captured by Simón Bolívar in 1819 and was from 1821 to 1830 the capital of the independent nation of Great Colombia (including modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela). In 1830 it became the capital of New Granada (later renamed Colombia) when Great Colombia was dissolved. The city expanded rapidly after 1940 as large numbers of rural Colombians migrated here in search of greater economic opportunities. Population 6,778,691 (2005).