Historically it is said that in 1529 the chief Cumbe founded a town with the name "Pavas" located at the foot of the Cumbal volcano, between the Blanco river and the Riochiquito gorge.

The territory of the municipality is mountainous, included within the areas of the Altiplano of Túquerres and Ipiales and the Nudo de los Pastos, standing out among its orographic accidents the Cumbal and Chiles volcanoes, with heights reaching 4,760 metres or 15,620 feet and the headwaters of the Buenavista, Colorado, Swallows, Hondon, Negro, Oreja, Panecillo, Picacho and Portachuelo Rivers.

The regions’s soils are generated by alluvia from the waters of the Blanco, Carchi, Chiquito, Imbina, Marino, Mayasquer, Nuevo Mundo, Salado and San Juan rivers.3 Cumbal has a comfortable subtropical highland climate (Köppen Cfb) with moderate rainfall year round.

"Cumba" is the Quichua word that means loophole, that is, it swallows light or a small opening on the roof of the peasant houses mainly intended to dislodge the smoke from the interior.

According to UHLE, Max in his study on the Carchi and Imbabura civilizations, National Typographical Workshops Quito, 1933 in relation to Cumbal says: The first town was located under the quarry in several Resguardos that now belong to the Cuaical Section.