Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and has the ninth-largest population in the country, with 681,130 people. Bucaramanga has over 160 parks scattered throughout the city and has been given the nickname "La Ciudad de Los Parques" ("The City of Parks") and "La Ciudad Bonita de Colombia" ("Colombia's Beautiful City"). Bucaramanga has grown rapidly since the 1960s, mostly into neighbouring locations within the metropolitan area. Floridablanca, Girón and Piedecuesta are inextricably linked geographically and commercially with Bucaramanga, and now all form together the Bucaramanga Metropolitan Area with 1,141,671 inhabitants. The city is the base of the Colombian Petroleum Institute (ICP), the research branch of the state oil company Ecopetrol. History Girón was the first and most significant town founded by Spanish colonialists in the region, and Bucaramanga (founded on 22 December 1622) did not overtake Girón in population or economic significance until the early 19th century. The city attracted a core of German merchants and adventurers in the 1860s and 1870s (the most famous of whom was Geo von Lengerke) and tensions between the newcomers and local merchants flared in 1879, when the event named "La Culebra Pico de Oro" ("The Gold Beak Snake") occurred. With the political reorganization of 1886, Bucaramanga replaced Socorro as the departmental capital. The region (although not the city itself) was devastated by the civil war of 1899–1902—commonly known as the Thousand Days War—causing Bucaramanga to grow only modestly in the first half of the 20th century. Climate Bucaramanga is located on a plateau in the Cordillera Oriental of the Colombian Andes, and many residents occupy unstable lands descending steeply from the meseta. Westbound of it, the Rio de Oro Canyon is located at an altitude of above sea level. Eastbound, the Andean Range rises up in high peaks, reaching almost AMSL in the place locally known as "Paramo de Berlin". The city is located at . The official metropolitan area includes the municipalities of: Girón, Piedecuesta and Floridablanca, but Lebrija is home to Bucaramanga's airport and is commonly considered part of greater Bucaramanga. Despite recent urbanization, all four neighboring municipalities contain extensive rural areas. Under the Köppen climate classification, Bucaramanga features a tropical monsoon climate, though a noticeably cool version of the climate. The city is slightly too dry for a tropical