ABSTRACT
The geographic region of High Cauca lies in to the southwest of Colombia’s current territory and has, today, close to 230 thousand inhabitants. Its principal city is Popayan, founded by the Spaniard Sebastian de Belalcazar in 1537. The city was built some 1737 meters above sea level and it is located at 02◦26′39′′N and 76◦37′17′′W. Its average yearly temperature is of 19.8◦C, although there are strong fluctuations in temperature for short periods of time. Its annual precipitation regime reaches 1941 mm. The region also evidences intense seismic activity, which for centuries has been affected earthquakes of considerable magnitude; the most recent of which took place in 1983 with an intensity of 5.5 degrees on the Richter scale, causing great material damage and loss of human lives.
