Bacatá is the name given to the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation on the Bogotá savanna. It mostly refers to an area, rather than an individual village, although the name is also found in texts referring to the modern settlement of Funza, in the centre of the savanna. Bacatá was the main seat of the zipa, the ruler of the Bogotá savanna and adjacent areas. The name of the Colombian capital, Bogotá, is derived from Bacatá, but founded as Santafe de Bogotá in the western foothills of the Eastern Hills in a different location than the original settlement Bacatá, west of the Bogotá River, eventually named after Bacatá as well.
When the first humans arrived in the area of Bacatá, the retreating lake shores were populated by the extinct New World gomphothere Cuvieronius
The almost circular Lake Guatavita was one of the most sacred sites of the Muisca. In this lake, the initiation ritual of the new zipa was held
Muisca fishermen in Funza (Bacatá)
Muyquytá was conquered by the troops of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada in April 1537
The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers in the central Andean highlands of what is today Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. The area, presently called Altiplano Cundiboyacense, comprised the current departments of Boyacá, Cundinamarca and minor parts of Santander.
Landscape of Chipazaque
The Muisca were bordered to the west by the Emerald People
The Sun Temple was the seat of the iraca
The area around Tundama was filled with small lakes of which some bloody evidences remain