| Suesca | |
| Settlement Type: | Municipality and town |
| Mapsize: | 250px |
| Pushpin Map: | Colombia |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 250 |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Colombia |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: |  Colombia |
| Subdivision Type1: | Department |
| Subdivision Type2: | Province |
| Subdivision Name2: | Almeidas Province |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Orlando Quilaguy Mestizo (2016-2019) |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Date: | 14 March 1537 |
| Founder: | Diego Canesto Arenas III |
| Area Total Km2: | 177 |
| Population As Of: | 2015 |
| Population Total: | 17318 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Population Urban: | 8567 |
| Coordinates: | 5.1°N -121°W |
| Timezone: | Colombia Standard Time |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Elevation M: | 2584 |
| Website: | Official website |
Suesca is a town and municipality in the Almeidas Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia. It is located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, 59km (37miles) north of the capital Bogotá. Suesca forms the northern edge of the Bogotá savanna and is a scenic countryside town which is well known because its landscape attracts devotees of rock climbing, trekking, and rafting. It is surrounded by dairy farms and flower plantations. The municipality borders Cucunubá and Lenguazaque in the north, Sesquilé and Gachancipá in the south, Chocontá in the east and Nemocón in the west.[1]
The name Suesca is derived from the Chibcha word Suejica, Sueica[2] or Suesuca,[3] which means "Rock of the birds" or "Tail of the macaw".[1] [4]
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,[5] the village close to the sacred Lake Guatavita and containing Lake Suesca where rituals were held.[6] 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.[7] Every four days a market was held in Suesca.[8] Suesca was also an important settlement for the pottery made by the Muisca.[9]
When conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada arrived in Suesca in March 1537, he founded the modern town.[1] In Suesca he sentenced a soldier of his army to death for stealing mantles from the Muisca.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]
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.[13] Rock art has also been found in Suesca.[14] The pictographs of Suesca are among the most extensive of Cundinamarca, but at the same time the most vandalised.[15]