The formation is being thrust on top of younger strata by the reverse Bogotá Fault as a result of the ongoing Andean orogeny.

Historically, Guadalupe Hill was an important sacred site for the indigenous Muisca, who inhabited the Bogotá savanna and surrounding regions before the Spanish conquest.

During the colonial period, Guadalupe Hill contained a cross and the hermitage that was destroyed by various earthquakes in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

[7] Guadalupe Hill in the times before the Spanish conquest was one of the sacred hilltops in the religion of the Muisca, the indigenous inhabitants of the Bogotá savanna.

Guadalupe Hill in pre-Columbian times was called in their language Muysccubun quijicha guexica, "grandfather's foot".

During the early colonial period, the Spanish constructed a cross on Guadalupe Hill as a symbol to protect the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada.

This led to deforestation and erosion in the Eastern Hills and when Alexander von Humboldt visited Santa Fe de Bogotá in 1806, he noted "that there was not a single tree left until the open area of Choachí".

The hill can be accessed via a walking trail, used by pilgrims since colonial times, or by the road to Choachí via the Avenida Circunvalar.