Bogotá City Map Poster

About Bogotá

The name "Bogotá" is derived from the Chibcha word "Muysccubun", meaning either "place of abundant fish" or, more likely, where the cloud forest ends. The word was also used by indigenous people to refer to other locations in the area: Boyacá and Soacha. In modern times, a false etymology has it that the name comes from a misspelling of , which was made famous by writer . This supposedly came about because colonial cartographers believed that Bogotá was on top of a mountain covered with clouds (in Spanish: ""boga"" means fog), and they placed an open-ended arrow next to it pointing down towards Santa Fe de Bogotá (now called Tunja).