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Funza

Municipality and town in Cundinamarca, Colombia

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
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Source updated April 16, 2026
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Funza (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈfunsa]) is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Western Savanna Province, of the department of Cundinamarca. Funza is situated on the Bogotá savanna, the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense with the urban centre at an altitude of 2,548 metres (8,360 ft). In Funza the La Florida wetland, part of the wetlands of Bogotá, a remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Humboldt, still exists. The town is part of the Metropolitan Area of Bogotá and borders Madrid and Tenjo in the north, Mosquera in the south, Madrid in the west and Cota and the locality Engativá of the capital Bogotá in the east. The eastern boundary is formed by the Bogotá River. Funza is the site of the former main settlement Bacatá of the Muisca Confederation. Modern Funza was founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada during the Spanish conquest of the Muisca on April 20, 1537.

01Etymology

The name Funza comes from Chibcha and means "Powerful lord".

02History

In the times before the Spanish conquest, Funza was an important village in the Muisca Confederation. This loose confederation of rulers of the Muisca had a southern ruler, the zipa based in Bacatá, the present-day municipality of Funza.

Modern Funza was founded by conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada en route in his search for El Dorado on April 20, 1537.

On January 21, 1972, a Líneas Aéreas La Urraca flight crashed in Funza after an explosion on board.

03Economy

The economy of Funza is based on agricultural and industrial activities. Main agricultural products are potatoes and maize. Other industries involve plastics and metalcraft production.

Watch videos about FunzaExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Funza”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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Related topics

Spanish conquest of the Muisca

The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

Muisca

The Muisca are an Indigenous community predating Columbus and colonial communities of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense before the Spanish colonization of the Americas, whose visibility from public eye lasted up to the beginning of the 19th century and Colombian independence. Though widely believed among academics to have been decimated in culture, language, and tradition, many Indigenous peoples in Colombia have maintained traditions privately through complex social and urban networks.

Wetlands of Bogotá

Wetlands of Bogotá, Colombia, are important areas of the capital city, and their preservation has become increasingly important for the area north of the Andes. As a reserve for fauna and flora, the wetlands are vital for the preservation and reproduction of a wide variety of mammals, reptiles, and birds.