Chicaquicha

Chicaquicha was a Muisca settlement near the salt deposits of Zipaquirá on the northern Bogotá highland. Salt extracted from the hills was an important resource for Muisca exchange, and communities lived above the later colonial town. In 1600 the official Luis Enríquez ordered people from Zipaquirá and neighbouring settlements to gather at a new site below the old village. The order laid out a church, square and streets and assigned space to the Indigenous chief and the communities brought together there. Colonial officials sought to make administration and religious instruction easier by concentrating settlements, while the salt deposits continued to be worked. Zipaquirá grew around this new centre, preserving a connection to the much older salt-producing country of the Muisca.