A large lake with a large volcanic island inside
Lake Nicaragua,
also known by the indigenous names Cocibolca or Ukurikitucara, has an área of
8,264 km2, which makes it the largest in Central America.
In this large
lake there are two main island groups, the volcanic island of Ometepe and the
Solentiname archipelago.
The island of
Ometepe (of the Nahuatl Ometepetl = two mountains) has a strange and magical
geographical configuration. It is the largest volcanic island in the world that
is located inside a lake. The two summits that dominate the insular landscape
are the Concepción and Maderas volcanoes with respective altitudes of 1,610 and
1,234 meters. The Concepción volcano whose indigenous name was
Choncoteciguatepe (the Chorotegas called Mestliltepe), has had recent activity,
with lava spills that in 1953 forced the evacuation of the island. The Madera
volcano has not been active for several centuries and its crater is occupied by
a lagoon.
The surface of
Ometepe is 276 km2 and has a population of 35,000 people. The main urban
center, with about 3,000 inhabitants, is Astagalpa or Altagracia in the
northeastern end of the island. In the grounds of the main church of the town a
park was created with the archaeological sculptures that were found in several
points of the territory. They are anthropomorphic figures with animal heads,
which seem to represent totems, similar to those that are exhibited in the Gregorio
Aguilar de Juigalpa museum in the nearby Sierra de Amerrique.
It is considered
that the sculptures are related to the Matagalpa culture that prospered in
pre-Hispanic times on the lake margins.
Currently the
Matagalpas are a deeply diminished ethnic group, linked to the Lencas and Mayas
of Guatemala, Yucatan and Honduras and to the Guatusos that live near the
Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica.
One of the local
nations, recently recognized as belonging to this ethnic trunk, are the
Amerindians, former inhabitants of the Sierra de Amerrique, also called
Cordillera Chontaleña
According to
theories that have recently been publicized, the name "Amerrique"
would have given rise to the name of the American continent.
The origin of
the name "America"
The Sierra de
Amerrique, the ancestral territory of a group of Matagalpas known as the
Americos, is known for its gold deposits located in the old mines of La
Libertad and Santo Domingo, still in operation.
The repetition
of the name "amerrique" by the first European crews at the end of the
XV century and the beginning of the XVI century, referring to a region rich in
this metal, was spread in the port populations of Europe, spreading throughout
the continent. The idea that the word America derived from the Florentine
cartographer Américo Vespucio was generated from certain publications known in
later times.
This hypothesis
was developed "in extenso" in two books that we published some time
ago: "Amerrique, Los Huérfanos del Paraíso" and "La Mentira del
Milenio" (Ed. Piriguazú, D.Antón, 1997 y 2000).
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