Bogotá

**Bogota** is the capital (city) of Colombia. As of 2009, more than 7 million people live in Bogota, which makes it the largest city in Colombia. It is about  above sea level, on a plateau. This makes it the third highest capital in the world. With many universities and libraries, Bogotá has become known as "The Athens of South America".The weather is usually nice during the day and cool at night. It has a series of bike paths (trails that are made for bikes) that wind through the city. It has many recreational and amusement parks open to the public. The current mayor is Carlos Fernando Galán.

## History

Originally, Native Americans called Muisca lived in the area. Then, in 1538, Gonzalo Jimenes de Quezada, a Spanish conqueror, founded Bogota. Bogota became a center of trade, art, and education. Some of the oldest universities in the Americas are in Bogota.  After Independence from Spain, Bogota became the capital of Gran Colombia in 1819.

Bogota has had extremely awful moments. In 1948, a presidential candidate, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, was murdered while doing a speech in front of hundreds of persons. This tragic moment brought with it terrible consequences: one of the most remembered one is the "Bogotazo". The "Bogotazo" started as a political party war, the blue party, self named the "conservatives", began to hunt and kill every single member of the red party, the "liberals".  The remaining blue party members decided to create the "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia" (FARC); however, this group was ironically created to protect the oppressed people from their oppressors. Nowadays, this group is known as terrorists and murderers;nevertheless, Colombia's capital city, Bogota, has not being attacked in the last few years.

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Bogotá
- **settlement type**: Capital districts and territories, Capital District
- **motto**: Bogotá, 2600 metros más cerca de las estrellas
**Bogotá, 2600 meters closer to the stars**
- **image caption**: Downtown Bogota
- **image flag**: Flag of Bogotá.svg
- **image seal**: Bogota (escudo).svg
- **pushpin map**: Colombia
- **map caption**: Colombia
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision type1**: Departments of Colombia, Department
- **subdivision name**: Colombia
- **subdivision name1**: Distrito Capital
- **leader title**: Mayor
- **leader name**: Claudia López
- **established title**: Foundation
- **established date**: 6 August 1538 (traditional)
- **founder**: Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
- **area total km2**: 1587
- **area rank**: List of Colombian Departments by area, 32nd
- **area urban km2**: 307.36
- **population total**: 7,674,366
- **population as of**: 2013
- **population rank**: List of Colombian Departments by population, 1st
- **population metro**: 10,763,453
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population demonym**: _Bogotano(a)_
- **utc offset**: -5
- **elevation m**: 2625
- **postal code type**: Postal code
- **postal code**: 110010000
- **area code**: +57 1
- **blank name**: **Human Development Index, HDI** (2011)
- **blank info**: 0.904  <span style="color:#090">very high
- **blank name sec1**: License plate
- **blank info sec1**: BOG
- **website**: [http://www.bogota.gov.co/ City Official Site]
[http://english.bogotaturismo.gov.co/ Bogotá Tourism]