Barranquilla in the context of "Santa Marta"

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Peru and Ecuador to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The Capital District of Bogotá is also the country's largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub. Other major urban areas include Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Villavicencio and Bucaramanga. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 sq mi) and has a population of around 52 million. Its rich cultural heritage—including language, religion, cuisine, and art—reflects its history as a colony, fusing cultural elements brought by immigration from Europe and the Middle East, with those brought by the African diaspora, as well as with those of the various Indigenous civilizations that predate colonization. Spanish is the official language, although Creole, English and 64 other languages are recognized regionally.

Colombia has been home to many indigenous peoples and cultures since at least 12,000 BCE. The Spanish first landed in La Guajira in 1499, and by the mid-16th century, they had colonized much of present-day Colombia, and established the New Kingdom of Granada, with Santa Fe de Bogotá as its capital. Independence from the Spanish Empire is considered to have been declared in 1810, with what is now Colombia emerging as the United Provinces of New Granada. After a brief Spanish reconquest, Colombian independence was secured and the period of Gran Colombia began in 1819. The new polity experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858) and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before becoming a centralised republic—the current Republic of Colombia—in 1886. With the backing of the United States and France, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, resulting in Colombia's present borders. Beginning in the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict and political violence, both of which escalated in the 1990s. Since 2005, there has been significant improvement in security, stability, and rule of law, as well as unprecedented economic growth and development. Colombia is recognized for its healthcare system, being the best healthcare in Latin America according to the World Health Organization and 22nd in the world. Its diversified economy is the third-largest in South America, with macroeconomic stability and favorable long-term growth prospects.

Cartagena (/ˌkɑːrtəˈhɛnə/ KAR-tə-HEN-ə), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (Spanish: [kaɾtaˈxena ðe ˈindjas] ), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, along the Caribbean Sea. Cartagena's past role as a link in the route to the West Indies provides it with important historical value for world exploration and preservation of heritage from the great commercial maritime routes. As a former Spanish colony, it was a key port for the export of Bolivian silver to Spain and for the import of enslaved Africans under the asiento system. It was defensible against pirate attacks in the Caribbean. The city's strategic location between the Magdalena and Sinú rivers also gave it easy access to the interior of New Granada and made it a main port for trade between Spain and its overseas empire, establishing its importance by the early 1540s.

Modern Cartagena is the capital of the Bolívar Department, and had a population of 876,885 according to the 2018 census, making it the second-largest city in the Caribbean region, after Barranquilla, and the fifth-largest city in Colombia. The metropolitan area of Cartagena is the sixth-largest urban area in the country, after metropolitan area of Bucaramanga. Economic activities include the maritime and petrochemical industries, as well as tourism.

Immigration to Colombia during the early 19th and late 20th Century, is what makes it one of the most diverse countries in the world, above other countries in the Latin region. Colombia inherited from the Spanish Empire harsh rules against immigration, first in the Viceroyalty of New Granada and later in the Colombian Republic. The Constituent Assembly of Colombia and the subsequent reforms to the national constitution were much more open to the immigrants and the economic aperture. However citizenship through naturalization of foreigners, with the exception of those children of Colombians born abroad, is still difficult to acquire because 'Jus soli' law is not allowed by the government, and only 'Jus sanguinis' law is accepted. Immigration in Colombia is managed by the "Migración Colombia" agency.

Colombia is experiencing large waves of immigration from other Latin American countries, Europe, East Asia, and North America over the past five years. due to improvements in quality of life, security, and economic opportunities.

A Hebrew school is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on Jewish history, learning the Hebrew language, and finally learning one's Torah portion in preparation for the coming-of-age ceremony in Judaism. Classes are usually taught in dedicated rooms at a synagogue under the instruction of a Hebrew teacher (who may or may not be fluent in Hebrew), often receiving support from a hazzan for learning the ancient chanting of a student's Torah portion and from a rabbi during the ceremony, owing to the fact that a Torah scroll is typically very challenging for a student to read because it lacks Hebrew vowel markings while also having very condensed text with minimal line spacing.

Hebrew schooling can be either an educational regimen separate from secular education, in a similar fashion to Sunday school among Christians; education focusing on topics of Jewish history and learning the Hebrew language; or a primary-, secondary-, or college-level educational institution in which some or all of the classes are taught in Hebrew. The first usage is more common in the United States, while the second is used elsewhere bar Israel—for example, in reference to the Colegio Hebreo Unión in Barranquilla, Colombia, or the Associated Hebrew Schools in Toronto, Canada.

Caribbean South America is a subregion of South America that borders the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the Caribbean region of Colombia and the Venezuelan Caribbean.

Significant cities and metropolitan areas with populations over 250,000 on South America's Caribbean coast include, from west to east: Cartagena (914,552), Barranquilla (2,370,753 metropolitan area), Santa Marta (499,192 district), Maracaibo (5,278,448 metropolitan area), Caracas (8,956,813 metropolitan area), Barcelona (815,141), Puerto La Cruz (454,312), and Cumaná (405,626).

This article lists cities and towns in Colombia by population, according to the 2005 census. A city is displayed in bold if it is a capital city of a department.

Atlántico (Spanish pronunciation: [aðˈlantiko], English: Atlantic) is a department of Colombia, located in northern Colombia with the Caribbean Sea to its north, the Bolívar Department to its west and south separated by the Canal del Dique, and the Magdalena Department to its east separated by the Magdalena River. Despite being the third smallest in the country, the department is among the most densely populated, with a population of 2,535,517.

The department's capital and most-populous city is Barranquilla with a population of 1,327,209. Soledad and Malambo are also significant population centers within Atlántico, constituting integral parts of the Barranquilla metropolitan area.