90 minutes from Bogotá, 10,000 years of history

The Parque Arqueológico de Facatativá (or, El Parque Arqueológico Piedras de Tunjo) lies a mere 50km northwest of Bogotá but remains an overlooked archeological gem.

The area contains rock paintings – some of which date back at least 10,000 years. Most feature geometric designs and animal figures, which are common elements in much Indigenous art throughout Colombia.

Rock art, Facatativá (Delaney Turner)

Rock art, Facatativá (Delaney Turner)

In perhaps an act of post-independence hubris, one rock also face bears the painted portraits of past presidents including Francisco de Paula de Santander.

More recent rock art (Delaney Turner)

Historically this area had been home to successive waves of Indigenous peoples, most notably and most recently the Muisca. More recently, it had been owned by a wealthy family dating back to colonial times. The area was declared an archeological park – the country’s first – in 1946.

With numerous large caves and excellent visibility over the surrounding area, Facatativá served as a refuge for the Muisca people during the Spanish conquest. Dominated by enormous limestone rocks jutting out of the hills and ground, the site’s geography conveys solidity and solemnity.

Its history, however, speaks of tragedy. Some evidence points to it being the place where soldiers of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada – the founder of colonial Bogotá – killed the ruling zipa (chief) Tisquesusa in April of 1537.¹

As with many cultural and historical sites in Colombia, the park has suffered badly from decades of official neglect and public indifference. Many rocks faces are either covered with graffiti, damaged from bonfires, or both.

Nevertheless, it has seen the makings of a turnaround – there is abundant evidence of a cleanup effort, paintings are now protected by sturdy fences, and researchers from the national university’s archeology department have transformed the area into an open-air research site. With continued care, Facatativá could move up the list of things to see in Bogotá once you’ve mounted Monserrate and seen the pigeons in Plaza Bolívar.

¹ From our friends at Wikipedia: At the time of the conquest, the area had a large population, although the precise number of inhabitants is not known. Estimates vary from half a million to up to three million inhabitants. In modern times, the population of the Muisca has drastically decreased, although there are Muisca descendants in the municipalities and districts of Chía, Tenjo, Suba, Engativá, Tocancipá, Guanchipá, and Ubaté. A 2005 census by the Ministry of Interior Affairs provided a total of 14,051 Muisca people in Colombia. The Muisca culture lives on in everyday Colombian Spanish through the names “Bacatá,” (the original name of Bogotá), “Cundinamarca,” and “Chía,” as well as in words such as “uchuva” and “curuba.”