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| Capital | Bogotá |
| Government | Republic; executive branch dominates government |
| Currency | Colombian peso (COP) |
| Area | 1,138,910 km2 |
| Population | 45,393,050 (March 2010 est.) |
| Language | Spanish (official), indigenous languages in tribal regions |
| Religion | Roman Catholic 90% |
| Calling Code | +57 |
| Internet TLD | .co |
| Time Zone | UTC -5 |
Colombia is the only country in South America with coastlines on both the North Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Lying to the south of Panama, Colombia controls the land access between Central and South America. With Panama to the north, Colombia is surrounded by Venezuela to the east, Brazil to the southeast, and Ecuador and Peru to the south west. The country was named in honor of Christopher Columbus, following the Italian version of his name (Cristoforo Colombo). Although Columbus never actually set foot on the current Colombian territory, in his fourth voyage he visited Panama, which was part of Colombia until 1903.