The Magdalena River Valley is a valley

Valley

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

 in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 located within the Colombian Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 mountain ranges. The valley is specifically located between the Cordillera Central and Cordillera Oriental and crossed by the river of the same name, the Magdalena River

Magdalena River

The Magdalena River is the principal river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as...

.

Plants

"the first recorded European contact with the potato was in 1537 in the Magdalena valley. The Spanish invaders become familiar with the crop and it was probably about 1570 that a Spanish ship first introduced potatoes to Europe."

Geology

The Magdalena River valley was formed after a series of tectonic formed depressions that filled up with continental sediment in the Tertiary

Tertiary

The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...

 period. These sediments came from the Cordillera Central.

Fauna

The Magdalena River valley is home to a species of butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

, Magdalena valley ringlet

Magdalena valley ringlet

The Magdalena Valley ringlet, Splendeuptychia ackeryi, is a species of butterfly first classified in 2009. Its distinguishing feature is unusually hairy mouthparts, which have been compared to a moustache. The specimen was initially collected in the dry Magdalena River Valley of Colombia by Blanca...

or Splendeuptychia ackeryi, first identified in 2009.