What to See in Bogotá - Top Sights and Attractions

Science museum with a planetarium. The Maloka Museum is an interactive science museum located in Bogotá, Colombia. Visitors interact with a wide variety of exhibits that explore topics in Science and Technology.

The museum has 9 rooms, with different science and technology topics; the Telecommunications Room shows interactive games about Binary System, the Computers' language, How does the cellphone work or what's the communication process.

The next room is The City, it shows different modules where you can see 3D images of Bogotá with glasses, the development and history of the city and see a model of it where you can see all the buildings in it.

The Human is a room where visitors can explore the perfect machine, the human body.

The Universe room is one of the most popular rooms in the museum, where visitors can do experiments, such as knowing a person's weight in the planets of Solar System.

Petroleum, is other room located in the second floor, there one can see the process of exploring and exploiting that treasure, and its different kinds and characteristics.

The Water Room, show you through games the physic and chemical characteristics of that liquid; the others are the Biodiversity and Boys & Girls' room.

The museum has an Activity Zone with math games and activities too.

The museum has a dome theater where documentaries are shown.^[2]

City-center mountain with a church. Monserrate is a high mountain over 10,000 feet high that dominates the city center of Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia. It rises to 3,152 meters above the sea level, where there is a church with a shrine, devoted to El Señor Caído.

The Mountain, already considered sacred in pre-Columbian times when the area was inhabited by the indigenous Muisca, is a pilgrim destination, as well as a major tourist attraction. In addition to the church, the summit contains restaurants, cafeteria, souvenir shops and many smaller tourist facilities. Monserrate can be accessed by aerial tramway (a cable car known as the teleférico), by funicular, or by climbing, the preferred way of pilgrims. The climbing route was previously closed due to wildfires and landslides caused by a drought, but it reopened in 2017.

All downtown Bogotá, south Bogotá and some sections of the north of the city are visible facing west, making it a popular destination to watch the sunset over the city. Every year, Monserrate and its neighbour Guadalupe attract many tourists.^[6]

Skyscraper in Bogotá, Colombia. The Torre Colpatria is a 50-story skyscraper in the downtown area of Bogotá, Colombia. It is the fourth tallest building in the country. Constructed from 1973 to 1978 and opened in 1979, it has a total height of 196 metres, becoming the tallest skyscraper of Colombia and holding that title until 2016, when the south tower of the BD Bacatá was topped off. The main headquarters of the Colpatria Bank are located in the building, and also a great number of other banks and financial corporations have offices in it. The building lies at the intersection of 26th street and 7th avenue, in the heart of the city's downtown.

Since 1998 the Colpatria Tower was illuminated every night with thirty-six color changing Xenon lights. But, in 2012, the Dutch lighting company Philips replaced the old lights with a 120-meters-high LED system to improve the lighting of the building and project high-definition images. Because of that, and also because it was the tallest skyscraper in Colombia for almost 40 years, the building is a landmark in the country and dominates Bogota's skyline along with other structures such as the BD Bacatá, the World Trade Center, FONADE and Colseguros buildings.^[7]

Museum detailing the history of Colombia. The National Museum of Colombia is the National Museum of Colombia housing collections on its history, art, culture. Located in Bogotá downtown, is the biggest and oldest museum in Colombia. The National Museum of Colombia is a dependency of the Colombian Ministry of Culture.

The National Museum is the oldest in the country and one of the oldest in the continent, built in 1823. Its fortress architecture is built in stone and brick. The plant includes arches, domes and columns forming a sort of Greek cross over which 104 prison cells are distributed, with solid wall façade. It was known as the Panóptico (inspired by the Panopticon prison) and served as a prison until 1946. In 1948, the building was adapted for National Museum and restored in 1975.

The museum houses a collection of over 20,000 pieces including works of art and objects representing different national history periods. Permanent exhibitions present archeology and ethnography samples from Colombian artefacts dating 10,000 years BC, up to twentieth century indigenous and afro- Colombian art and culture. Founders and New Kingdom of Granada room houses Liberators and other Spanish iconography; the round room exhibits a series of oleos from Colombia painting history.

Paintings by masters Débora Arango, Fernando Botero, Enrique Grau, Ignacio Gomez Jaramillo, Santiago Martinez Delgado, Alejandro Obregón, Omar Rayo, Andrés de Santa María, and Guillermo Wiedemann are part of the Permanent Collection.^[8]

Official home of the Colombian President. The Palacio de Nariño or Casa de Nariño is the official home and principal workplace of the President of Colombia. It houses the main office of the executive branch and is located in the capital city of Bogotá, Colombia. It was dedicated in 1908 after being constructed on the site of the house where Antonio Nariño was born. The design was made by architects Gaston Lelarge, a French-born former pupil of Charles Garnier, and Julián Lombana.

In 1980, the structure was rededicated after the construction of additions. The building also houses works of art and furnishings from different periods of the history of art. Its garden houses the Observatorio Astronómico de Bogotá, designed by the Capuchin friar-architect Domingo de Petrés and built in 1802-03.^[10]

Museum in Bogotá. The Children's Museum of Bogotá was a privately managed museum foundation in Bogotá, Colombia's capital city, established in 1986 and aimed at teaching children about science, technology, culture and arts. The foundation operated the Children's Museum in an 8,000 m2 building in the geographical centre of Bogotá, in which over 23 different modules and hundreds of individual exhibits were housed. The museum served approximately 150,000 visitors per year — 69% of them children under 11 years of age that come to "learn by playing" in the exhibits.

In 2018, it became a park for children. Its main attractions are bouncing houses, bicycle rides, and races for kids.

In addition to guided tours, the Children's Museum conducted workshops, special vacation programs for children and highly structured events for schools.

To celebrate their 15th anniversary, the museum invited the most important young Colombian artists to each paint a mural on the museum walls. This resulted in a collection of 42 murals which have become a landmark for art students in Bogotá. Another highly important program of the Museum is the Computer Clubhouse – an international program promoted by the Intel Corporation and the Museum of Science, Boston. Computer Clubhouse teaches children of low income families computer skills for computer animation, graphic design, composing and editing, as a means to close the digital divide in the society. An introduction to robotics is also included in this program.

In the outer gardens of the museum, a real Boeing 720 aircraft (without actual function, fuel, electricity or engines) was present to teach children the basics of aeronautics. The airliner was donated by Avianca (the biggest airline in Colombia) in the mid-1980s.

The museum also featured a room with a small representation of a city's roads to teach children traffic signs and behaviour while driving or walking on the streets^[12]

Mall in Bogotá, Colombia. Gran Estación shopping mall is located in the Ciudad Salitre in Bogotá, Colombia. It opened its doors on December 1, 2006. The mall is the fourth biggest mall in Colombia and is also one of the biggest in South America.

The mall opened its doors on December 1, 2006 elaborate architecture spanning more than 160,000 square metres (1,700,000 sq ft), including delivery to the city access roads and a public square of 12 thousand square meters. It is located less than 10 minutes from Eldorado International Airport. The mall contains 374 shops, 2,079 parking spaces for cars (69 for disabled), free wi-fi, arcade, bowling, casino, theatre with eight screens movie theatre 3D & 2D. It has the first Starbucks opened inside a mall in Colombia.

The mall consists of two buildings - El Costado Esfera and El Costado Alfiles that are connected by metallic bridge.^[13]

Colonial-era Roman Catholic cathedral. The Metropolitan and Primate Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Saint Peter of Bogotá or better known as the Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Bogotá and Primate of Colombia, officially Sacred Holy Temple Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica and Primate of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and Saint Peter, is a cathedral church of Catholic worship consecrated to the Immaculate Conception and under the patronage of Saint Peter; it is a Neoclassical style building located in the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, the country's capital.

The cathedral is the seat of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bogotá and Primate of Colombia, recognized with the honorary title of Primate of Colombia by Pope Leo XIII, through the Decree of the Consistorial Congregation of November 7, 1902. It is also the seat of the Cabildo metropolitano and of the "Parish of the Cathedral Basilica Metropolitana de Bogotá Saint Peter".

The cathedral was designed by Domingo de Petrés and was built between 1807 and 1823 in the same place where three other churches were previously erected, which successively served as cathedrals for the city. Due to its historical significance, architectural and cultural value, it was declared a Monumento Nacional by decree 1,584 of August 11, 1975.^[14]

Hill in Colombia. Guadalupe Hill is a 3,360-metre high hill located in the Eastern Hills, uphill from the centre of Bogotá, Colombia. Together with its neighbouring hill Monserrate it is one of the landmarks of Bogotá. At the top of the hill a hermitage and a 15-metre high statue has been erected. The statue was elaborated by sculptor Gustavo Arcila Uribe in 1946 and is accompanied by a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Guadalupe Hill is the type locality of the Guadalupe Group, a Late Cretaceous sedimentary sequence of sandstones and shales of 750 metres (2,460 ft) thick. The formation is thrusted on top of younger strata by the reverse Bogotá Fault during the Andean orogeny. The hill is the source for the Manzanares and El Chuscal creeks that flow westwards onto the Bogotá savanna.

Historically, Guadalupe Hill was an important sacred site for the indigenous Muisca, who inhabited the Bogotá savanna and surrounding regions before the Spanish conquest. During the colonial period, Guadalupe Hill contained a cross and the hermitage that was destroyed by various earthquakes in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On Sundays, Guadalupe Hill and its chapel and statue are visited by tourists and pilgrims from Bogotá, accessing the hill either by road and public transport or via a walking trail to the hilltop.^[16]

Botanical garden in Bogotá, Colombia. The José Celestino Mutis botanical garden is Colombia's biggest botanical garden. It serves both as a recreation and research center with an emphasis on Andean and Páramo ecosystems. The garden is located in Bogotá and features plants from every Colombian altitude, climate and region. It was founded in 1955, in honor of botanist and astronomer José Celestino Mutis.

The municipally owned park is famous nationwide and is a member of the internationally known BGCI (Botanic Gardens Conservation International). The garden has an artificial waterfall and labs for studying plants and flowers. It also has public services such as a library and a tourist information desk. The garden is the only one in the nation specialized in preserving and collecting Andean species of flowers. Its 19.5 acres are full with collections of plants grouped by their original ecosystem.

Among other curiosities, the park includes a sun clock, a palmetum, an orchid collection, and a wide variety of Amazon flowers.^[17]