By contrast, Colombia's Muiscas—based in the present departments of Cundinamarca and Boyaca in the Cordillera Oriental—live in dwellings scattered through the countryside, and their temples and palaces are of perishable materials, but Muiscas, of whom there are perhaps six hundred thousand, are far more numerous than the Taironas and cover a wider territory, extending from the area of present-day Bogota northeastward to Tunja and beyond.

As in the case of the Taironas, Muisca local chiefdoms have consolidated into two separate confederations.

The Muisca territory also includes Laguna de Guatavita, site of the fabled ceremony of El Dorado, the gold-dusted dignitary who plunges into the crater lake along with a rain of golden offerings.

More than any other native people, the Muiscas have served as a model for later ideas of Colombia's pre-Columbian civilization.