Tunja (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtuŋxa]) is a municipality and city on the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, in the region known as the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, 130 km northeast of Bogotá.

The Spanish city was founded by captain Gonzalo Suárez Rendón on August 6, 1539, exactly one year after the capital Santafé de Bogotá.

Tunja is a tourist destination, especially for religious colonial architecture, with the Casa Fundador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón recognized as the oldest remnant.

[2] In addition to its religious and historical sites it is host to several internationally known festivals and is a jumping-off point for regional tourist destinations such as Villa de Leyva, Paipa, and Sierra Nevada del Cocuy.

It is a stop on the Pan American Highway which connects Tunja to Bogotá and Santa Marta and eventually to the northern and southernmost parts of South America.

As a result, the city features a subtropical highland climate (Köppen Cfb) with little variation in temperature throughout the year but a distinct dry season from December to February.

During the 1st millennium AD, the territory was inhabited by the Muisca, who spoke Chibcha and emigrated from Central America through Panama to the Andean Region.

According to those myths, it was the brutal cacique and prophet Goranchacha who moved the capital for the northern Muisca from Ramiriquí to Tunja, then called Hunza.

An era when frequent battles among cacicazgos took place, peace was proposed for the region and an agreement was made among caciques to choose a supreme chief to rule them all.

Hunzahúa took the title of hoa ("great lord", the same meaning as psihipqua who ruled from Muyquytá), and reign over the lands from the Chicamocha to Fusagasugá and from the Llanos de San Juan to Panche and Muzo frontiers, including Vélez territory.

This helped to unify the Muisca, especially with respect to their language and religion, until zipa Saguamanchica broke this unity due to differences with the cacique of Guatavita.

He forbade under strict penalties to show the conquistadors the path to his headquarters and when he knew they were reaching him, he sent them gifts and peacemakers, hoping to stop them while he was hiding his treasures.

[10] The Spanish Invasion of the territory begins when Jimenez de Quesada captures Quemuenchatocha who is succeeded in life by the young Aquiminzaque.

A rumour came to Perez de Quesada that the occasion would be used as an insurrection, for which he apprehended Aquiminzaque and all the caciques, among them the ones from Toca, Motavita, Samacá, Turmequé and Sutamarchán, and condemn them to death.

Only until 1616 two parishes are built to receive mestizos and Indians during colonial period: Santa Barbara, at southwest and Las Nieves, at north.

[14] Tunja has the lowest homicide rate in Colombia and is below average in Latin America according to the report from the International Centre of the Prevention of Crime for 2010.