Colombia sits in the north-west corner of South America, with coasts on two seas: the Caribbean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Andes split into three long mountain ranges here, and most Colombians live in their cool valleys and high plateaus. To the east lie the grassy plains of the Llanos and the Amazon rainforest, which together cover more than half the country but hold less than 6 percent of its people.
People have lived here for at least 12,000 years. Peoples such as the Muisca, famous for their gold work, and the Tairona, who built stone terraces in the mountains, were here when Spain arrived in 1499. Colombia declared independence in 1810 and won it at the Battle of Boyacá in 1819. The country took its name from Christopher Columbus.
Memories fade faster than photos. Ask these over a meal or a phone call, and write the answers down.
Colombia's story begins with Indigenous peoples such as the Muisca of the high plateau around Bogotá and the Tairona of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Spain conquered the land in the 1500s and ruled it as the New Kingdom of Granada, later a viceroyalty with its capital in Bogotá. After independence the country changed its name and shape several times, lost Panama in 1903, and in the 20th century went through long periods of political violence. A new constitution in 1991 and a peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas in 2016 opened a calmer chapter, although some armed groups remain active.
Around AD 800, the Tairona people built a town of stone terraces, paths and plazas high in the jungle of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Today it is called Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City, and it is thought to be about 650 years older than Machu Picchu.
On 29 July 1525 the Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas founded Santa Marta on a bay of the Caribbean coast. It is Colombia's oldest surviving city.
On 6 August 1538 the conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada founded Santa Fe, later Bogotá, on the high plateau of the Muisca people. It became the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada.
On 20 July 1810 a quarrel over a borrowed flower vase sparked protests in Bogotá, and local leaders removed the Spanish viceroy and formed their own government. 20 July is celebrated as Colombia's Independence Day.
On 3 November 1903 Panama, until then a part of Colombia, declared its independence with the backing of the United States, which wanted to build the Panama Canal. This gave Colombia its present borders.
In 1964 left-wing rebels formed the FARC in the countryside. For more than five decades, fighting between the state, guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers cost many lives and forced millions of people from their homes.
In July 1991 Colombia adopted a new constitution, replacing the one from 1886. It recognises the country's ethnic and cultural diversity and protects the rights of citizens, and many Colombians see it as a step forward.
On 27 June 2017 the FARC finished handing over their weapons to the United Nations and stopped being an armed group. They became a legal political party, later renamed the Commons. Most former fighters kept to the agreement, but some breakaway groups rejected it or later took up arms again.
Cook one of the recipes, print the large-print pack about Colombia, and finish with the big-screen quiz or the words crossword. Grandchildren can colour the flag.
