La Mesa, Colombia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| La Mesa | |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Country | Colombia |
| Departments of Colombia | Cundinamarca |
| Elevation | 1,198 m (3,930 ft) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - Total | 19,000 |
| Time zone | COT (UTC-5) |
La Mesa is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. In this city (62 km far from Bogotá) live approx. 19000 inhabitants.
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[edit] Geography
Its name (The Table in Spanish) comes from its geographical position, located on the top of a Plateau with a slightly form of a table of 4 km² (2.5 Sq Mi) in the middle of the Cordillera Oriental (Colombia) mountains, one of the three forks in which the Andes is divided in Colombia.
[edit] History
Before the spanish came to the Americas, the Panches Indians lived here, they were warriors of notably strong physical race.
This town is known because the Botanical Expedition on the New Kingdom of Granada was started there in 1783 by the biologist José Celestino Mutis, an expedition within which studies of fauna and flora were performed. It was also an important trade center during the 19th and part of the 20th century.
In its origins, La Mesa was located in another place near by, with the name of Guayabal. But because of lack of water and too much mud and from order of Pedro Messia de la Zerda, Manuel Guirior and Manuel Antonio Flórez, Spanish Viceroys, it was moved in 1777 from the place it was, which had 98 houses and that nowadays is know by the name of Dos Caminos (Two Roads in Spanish), to the place where today is located the Main Plaza (Downtown), next to the Carbonera river, today an underground river.
The population of La Mesa was part of the Independence from Spain movement. From there started the first military campaign of July 20 of 1810 independence revolution. Actually, 50 men and later 300 more, went to Bogotá on the next day of the declaration of independence to be on the disposition of the Supreme Board of the independence. Also, La Mesa became a training center for army soldiers who fought in the independence cause. From there many heroes were trained, who later were killed defending their ideals by the Spanish troops, some of them in the middle of the Main Plaza.
In four times, the liberator Simón Bolivar passed by, in the years of 1821, 1826, 1828 and 1830; also Antonio Nariño in September of 1813 commanding the Cundinamarca army of the south campaign of the Independence cause.
[edit] Weather
It's position over the East Mountain Range produces an unusual meteorological phenomenon which consists in intense haze.
This haze is the product of the low and heavy cloud movements, that in the Magdalena Valley, are looking to get the cool places of Bogotá, when the hot air make them go up.
In clear days is possible to see the snowed Nevado del Tolima and Ruiz volcanoes, and the Santa Isabel snow hills, located to the west and the Magdalena River to the other side over the Central Mountain Range.
It has an average temperature of 24 °C around the year.
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