Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Hunzahúa Well

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Location
  
Tunja, Boyacá

Type
  
Mythological site

Satellite of
  
Tunja

Altitude
  
2,715 m (8,907 ft)

Abandoned
  
Spanish conquest

Hunzahúa Well

Region
  
Altiplano Cundiboyacense,  Colombia

Part of
  
Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia Muisca sites

Address
  
Av. Central del norte, UPTC, 15002,, Tunja, Colombia

Hours
  
Open today · Open 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hours

Similar
  
Cojines del Zaque, Casa del Fundador Gonzalo, La Pila del Mono, Sun Temple, Moon Temple

The Hunzahúa Well (Spanish: Pozo de Hunzahúa) is an archeological site of the Muisca located in the city of Tunja, Boyacá, which in the time of the Muisca Confederation was called Hunza. The well is named after the first zaque of Hunza; Hunzahúa. The Well was called Pozo de Donato for a while, after 17th century Jerónimo Donato de Rojas. The well is located on the terrain of the Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia in Tunja. Scholar Javier Ocampo López has written about the Well and its mythology. Knowledge about the well has been provided by scholar Pedro Simón.

Contents

Background

During the time before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, the central highlands of the Colombian Andes (Altiplano Cundiboyacense) were populated by the Muisca. This advanced civilization had its own religion and rituals, centered around the most important deities Sué and Chía. The northern territories were ruled by the iraca of Sugamuxi, the tundama of Tundama and the zaque based in Hunza.

Myth of Hunzahúa

Hunzahúa, the first zaque of Hunza, fell in love with his sister, called Noncetá. Because of the illegality of incest in the Muisca traditions, Hunzahúa fled with his sister to Chipatá where he secretly married her. After the mother of both found out about this illegal act, she threw a stick to the couple that missed them both yet spilled the chicha over the ground, forming the Hunzahúa Well.

Hunzahúa and his wife and sister fled to Susa and there Noncetá gave birth to a child who promptly turned into a rock. The rock was left in a cave nearby. Upon this, the illegal couple continued further south into the terrains of the zipa until the Tequendama Falls where they, tired and desillusioned, after hiding in the woods, turned into two stones.

Treasure of Quemuenchatocha

Decades after the mythological acts of Hunzahúa, his later successor as zaque of Hunza, Quemuenchatocha hid his treasures (mainly gold and emeralds) in the Well upon the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores. Donato de Rojas ordered his men to try to recuperate the treasures of Quemuenchatocha, but without luck.

Afterwards, more myths about the well surfaced; it would be bottomless or connected via a tunnel with the cathedral of Tunja.

References

Hunzahúa Well Wikipedia