Found­ed in 1540 on the banks of the Riv­er Mag­dale­na, Mom­pox played a key role in the Span­ish col­o­niza­tion of north­ern South Amer­i­ca. From the 16th to the 19th cen­tu­ry the city devel­oped par­al­lel to the riv­er, with the main street act­ing as a dyke. The his­toric cen­tre has pre­served the har­mo­ny and uni­ty of the urban land­scape. Most of the build­ings are still used for their orig­i­nal pur­pos­es, pro­vid­ing an excep­tion­al pic­ture of what a Span­ish colo­nial city was like.