The New International Encyclopædia/Santa Marta

SANTA MARTA, mär′tȧ. The capital of the Department of Magdalena, Colombia, on the Caribbean coast, 45 miles east of the mouth of the Magdalena River (Map: Colombia, C 1). It has a cathedral, and is a port much frequented by vessels plying among the Antilles. Population, about 6000. Santa Marta was founded in 1525. It was long an important centre of exploration and conquest and was repeatedly sacked and several times entirely destroyed by pirates and Indians. Near the town is the hacienda where Simon Bolivar died in 1830.