Muisca Confederation
Municipality Department bold is capital Ruler ( s ) bold is seat Altitude urban centre ( m ) Surface area ( km ) Remarks
Bacatá Cundinamarca zipa 2640 1587 Muisca mummy found Important market town Petrographs found
Bojacá Cundinamarca zipa 2598 109 Lake Herrera Petrographs found
Cajicá Cundinamarca zipa 2558 50.4
La Calera Cundinamarca zipa 2718 317 Petrographs found
Cáqueza Cundinamarca zipa 1746 38
Chía Cundinamarca zipa 2564 80 Moon Temple Herrera site Petrographs found
Choachí Cundinamarca zipa 1923 223 Choachí Stone found
Chocontá Cundinamarca zipa 2655 301.1 Important market town Battle of Chocontá ( ~1490 ) Fortification between zipa & zaque
Cogua Cundinamarca zipa 2600 113 Muisca ceramics production Petrographs found
Cota Cundinamarca zipa 2566 55 Petrographs found Still Muisca people living
Cucunubá Cundinamarca zipa 2590 112 Petrographs found
Facatativá Cundinamarca zipa 2586 158 Piedras del Tunjo
Funza Cundinamarca zipa 2548 70 Important market town
Gachancipá Cundinamarca zipa 2568 44 Muisca mummy found Muisca ceramics production
Guasca Cundinamarca zipa 2710 346 Siecha Lakes Muisca ceramics production Petrographs found
Madrid Cundinamarca zipa 2554 120.5 Lake Herrera Petrographs found
Mosquera Cundinamarca zipa 2516 107 Lake Herrera Petrographs found
Nemocón Cundinamarca zipa 2585 98.1 Muisca salt mines Preceramic site Checua Petrographs found
Pacho Cundinamarca zipa 2136 403.3 Important market town
Pasca Cundinamarca zipa 2180 246.24 Battle of Pasca ( ~1470 ) Muisca raft found
Territorial organization -- Bacatá
The zipa ruled over the Bogotá savanna Capital – Bacatá Area – 5,430 square kilometres ( 2,100 sq mi ) Average elevation – 2,470 metres ( 8,100 ft ) Last rulers – zipas Tisquesusa , Sagipa Date of conquest – 20 April 1537 ( Funza ) – Jiménez & Pérez de Quesada First city – 6 August 1538 ( Bogotá ) – Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (zaques, zipas, iraca and tundama) in the central Andean highlands of present-day 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 with a total surface area of approximately . According to some Muisca scholars the Muisca Confederation was one of the best-organized confederations of tribes on the South American continent. Modern anthropologists, such as Jorge Gamboa Mendoza, attribute the present-day knowledge about the confederation and its organization more to a reflection by Spanish chroniclers who predominantly wrote about it a century or more after the Muisca were conquered and proposed the idea of a loose collection of different people with slightly different languages and backgrounds.