Person

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada

c. 1509–1579 · 16th century

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada was a Spanish lawyer and conquistador who in 1536 led an expedition from Santa Marta up the Magdalena River into the highlands of the Muisca. He defeated the zipa of Bacatá and the zaque of Hunza, plundered the Sun Temple at Sogamoso in Iraca, and in 1538 founded Santafé de Bogotá as capital of the New Kingdom of Granada. He later led a fruitless search for El Dorado.

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
Image: Ricardo Gómez Campuzano · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 5 state histories

Muisca ConfederationZacazgo of HunzaIracaZipazgo of BacatáNew Kingdom of Granada

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gonzalo-jimenez-de-quesada
MLA
“Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gonzalo-jimenez-de-quesada. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gonzalo-jimenez-de-quesada.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gonzalo-jimenez-de-quesada (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻