Chivor

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 and Chivor is located at 215 km from the department capital Tunja. Economic activity includes emerald mining.

Borders
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.

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

History
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.

Modern Chivor was not founded until December 16, 1930, by Florencio Novoa.

Economy
Main economical activities of Chivor are agriculture (maize, yuca, bananas, sugarcane, beans, chayote, coffee and fruits such as papayas, blackberries and the typical Colombian fruits lulo and tree tomatoes) and especially the emerald mining. In 2014 emeralds worth 30 million US dollars were extracted in Boyacá. The rich deposits have led to numerous conflicts in the region, including in Chivor.

The Gran Esmeralda de Moctezuma ("Great Emerald of Moctezuma") is a mineral of 21 cm high, 17 cm long and 16 cm thick and has been found in Chivor. Currently the emerald is in Vienna, Austria. Other grand emeralds from Chivor are Patricia weighing 632 carats (126.4 g), and La Magnífica of 1225 carats (245 g).

The Embalse la Esmeralda ("Emerald reservoir") producing hydroelectric energy is governed from Chivor, Macanal and Almeida.

Climate
Chivor has a subtropical highland climate (Cfb) with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round.