ABSTRACT
Medellin is a city of two million inhabitants and centre of a metropolitan district comprising nine other municipalities and a total population of just over three million. Located in the central cordillera of the Andes some 440 km by mountainous road from the capital Bogota, it is the centre of the Antioquia department. Colombia's exuberant tropical geography made communications difficult and fostered the development of relatively independent regional economies and strong local cultural identities. Antioquia, with Medellin at its centre, has long boasted a sense of national leadership to rival that of Bogota, based on religious discipline, early industrialization, an enterprising spirit and ethic of hard work and hard play. At an altitude of 1500 m, it is known as the city of eternal spring.
