Suesca
The name Suesca is derived from the Chibcha word "Suejica", "Sueica" or "Suesuca", which means "Rock of the birds" or "Tail of the macaw". Suesca was inhabited early in the history of inhabitation of the Altiplano and the rock shelters formed the site for semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers of the Herrera and preceramic periods. Before the Spanish conquest, Suesca was part of the Muisca Confederation. The "cacique" of Guatavita ruled over Suesca, the village close to the sacred Lake Guatavita and containing Lake Suesca where rituals were held. Suesca formed an important centre on the trade road to Boyacá, ruled by the "hoa" of Hunza. The merchants took coal and salt on their way to the north. Every four days a market was held in Suesca. Suesca was also an important settlement for the pottery made by the Muisca. When conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada arrived in Suesca in March 1537, he founded the modern town. In Suesca he sentenced a soldier of his army to death for stealing mantles from the Muisca. After submitting the "hoa" of Hunza, Eucaneme, the Muisca ruler was taken prisoner to Suesca in an attempt to get him to reveal the location of his treasures. When the "psihipqua" of Muyquytá, Bogotá, heard about the Spanish presence in Suesca, he sent a spy to the town to gain information about their strength. The Muisca, unfamiliar with horses and horseback riders, thought that the horse and the rider were one. When a horse died in Suesca, they found out this was not the case. In 1602, in a cave in Suesca, 150 Muisca mummies were discovered. The mummies were organised in a circle around the mummy of the "cacique" of the town. Rock art has also been found in Suesca. The pictographs of Suesca are among the most extensive of Cundinamarca, but at the same time the most vandalised.
History
It is located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, north of the capital Bogotá.