Sogamoso

Sogamoso (soɣaˈmoso) is a city in the department of Boyacá of Colombia. It is the capital of the Sugamuxi Province, named after the original Sugamuxi. Sogamoso is nicknamed "City of the Sun", based on the original Muisca tradition of pilgrimage and adoring their Sun god Sué at the Sun Temple. The city is located at an altitude of on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. Sogamoso is named after Sugamuxi or Suamox, the original name in Chibcha for the city and Sugamuxi, the last iraca of the sacred City of the Sun. Suamuxi means "Dwelling of the Sun". Knowledge about Sugamuxi has been provided by Pedro Simón and the German countess Gertrud von Podewils Dürniz, in her work Chigys Mie. Sogamoso limits with the following municipalities: north: Nobsa and Tópaga east: Tópaga, Monguí and Aquitania – 3030 m south: Aquitania, Cuítiva and Iza west: Tibasosa, Firavitoba Sogamoso has a temperate climate with an average temperature of 20 °C. Before the Spanish conquest, Suamox, as it was called, was ruled by the iraca of which the last ruler was called Sugamuxi. The city was a place of pilgrimage and the iraca was both priest and ruler housed in the Sun Temple, a richly ornamented temple honouring Sué, the Sun god in the Muisca religion. Spanish conquest of the Muisca Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada was the conquistador of the Muisca Confederation, arriving in Suamox territories (Iraca Valley) in September 1537. Soldiers of De Quesada -according to Spanish chroniclers accidentally- set the Sun Temple on fire. Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita narrates about the march of De Quesada to Suamox, the looting of the city and the fire of the temple of the Sun. Soon after the conquest, the missionaries began the construction of a chapel that would open the way to the first Catholic church of the time, located on the central square. Natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt who visited the New Kingdom of Granada at the beginning of the 19th century, wrote about Sogamoso in his chronicles.