Chivor

Chivor
Town and municipality
Chivor is world-famous for its emeralds
Flag
Location of the town and municipality of Chivor in Boyacá Department
Chivor Location in Colombia
Coordinates: 4°53′N 73°22′W / 4.883°N 73.367°W / 4.883; -73.367Coordinates: 4°53′N 73°22′W / 4.883°N 73.367°W / 4.883; -73.367
Country	Colombia
Department	Boyacá
Province	Eastern Boyacá Province
Founded	16 December 1930
Founded by	Florencio Novoa
Government
• Type	Municipality
• Mayor	Carlos Hernando Perilla Aldana (2016-2019)
Area
• Town and municipality	108.36 km2 (41.84 sq mi)
• Urban	9.9 km2 (3.8 sq mi)
Elevation	1,800 m (5,900 ft)
Population (2015)
• Town and municipality	1,795
• Density	17/km2 (43/sq mi)
• Urban	486
Website	Official website

Chivor is a town and municipality in the Eastern Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. The mean temperature of the village in the Tenza Valley is 18 °C (64 °F) and Chivor is located at 215 kilometres (134 mi) from the department capital Tunja. Chivor is world-famous for its emeralds.

Bordered to the north with the municipality of Macanal; to the south with Ubalá, Cundinamarca, on the east with the municipality of Santa María, and the west by the municipality of Almeida.

Chivor comes from Chibcha and means "Our farmfields - our mother" or "Green and rich land". The latter refers to the rich emerald deposits.

Chivor was inhabited by the Muisca in the times before the Spanish conquest. The Muisca were organized in their loose Muisca Confederation with northern ruler the zaque of Hunza and the southern zipa in Bacatá. Already in those times the rich emerald deposits were known and mined by the Muisca. The emeralds functioned as offer pieces in the Muisca religion, as decoration and as money.

The emerald deposits of Chivor were discovered by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada in 1537 but the mines were abandoned until 1886.