Barranquilla (/ˌbærəŋˈkiː(j)ə/; Latin American Spanish: [baraŋˈkiʝa] ^ⓘ) is the capital district of the Atlántico department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean coast region; as of 2018, it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Colombia's fourth-most populous city after Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali.

Barranquilla lies strategically next to the delta of the Magdalena River, 7.5 km (4.7 mi) (originally 25 km (16 mi) before rapid urban growth) from its mouth at the Caribbean Sea, serving as a port for river and maritime transportation within Colombia. It is also the main economic center of the Atlántico department in Colombia. The city is the core of the Barranquilla metropolitan area, with a population of over 2 million, which also includes the municipalities of Soledad, Galapa, Malambo, and Puerto Colombia.

Barranquilla was legally established as a town on April 7, 1813, although it dates from at least 1629. It grew into an important port, serving as a haven for immigrants from Europe, especially during and immediately following World War I and World War II, when waves of additional immigrants from the Middle East and Asia arrived. Barranquilla became Colombia's main port, and with its level of industrialization and modernity, it earned the nickname "Colombia's Golden Gate" (Spanish: La Puerta de Oro de Colombia). In the 1940s, Barranquilla was the second-largest city in Colombia and one of the most modern cities in the Caribbean and in South America; later local administrations, due to widespread corruption in their ranks, brought about a decline in the standard of living. As government investment increased in other Colombian cities, Barranquilla's national position was eclipsed.

Barranquilla has hosted the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games. The city is home to one of the most important folk and cultural festivals of Colombia, the Carnival of Barranquilla, which was declared a National Cultural Heritage by the Congress of Colombia in 2001 and recognized by UNESCO in 2003.

Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport, built in Barranquilla in 1919, was the first airport in South America. The city is served by domestic and international flights and was Avianca's first hub.

Barranquilla's name refers to the canyons that existed in the area adjacent to the Magdalena, where the city arose. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the name "barranca" was common in coastal communities (Barrancabermeja, Barranca Nueva, Barranca Vieja, etc.). This name was probably derived from an alteration of Aragon. During Spanish colonization, the area was known as Camacho or Kamash Indian Site, and San Nicolás de la Barranquilla (patron saint of San Nicolás de Tolentino) began to develop the area with the estates of Barrancas de Camacho, Barrancas de San Nicolás, Barranquilla de Camacho, and Barranquilla de San Nicolás, from which the city name is derived.

In 1921, President Marco Fidel Suárez called the city the Puerta de Oro de la República (Golden Gate of the Republic) in recognition of its economic importance as a port since the late 19th century. In 1946, opening the 5th Central American and Caribbean Games, President Mariano Ospina Pérez reaffirmed the nickname of the city as the "Golden Gate".

Barranquilla is also known as La Arenosa (meaning The Sandy), so named by the president of New Granada, Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, during his stay in Barranquilla in 1849. Curramba, la Bella was also used to refer to Barranquilla by journalist Juan Eugenio Cañavera in Bogotá in the mid-twentieth century. The "la Bella" part was assigned by fellow journalist Roger Araújo as a counterweight to the word Curramba, which is seen as derogatory, derived from adjective "currambero". Others refer to the expression "curramba" which reads the apocope of the city "Barranq" backwards as "q-rran-ba", then given the regulations of Castilian Spanish, they changed the "n" to "m" to precede the "b", finally giving rise to "curramba".. The thinker Agustín Nieto Caballero called Barranquilla "Ciudad de los Brazos Abiertos" ("City of the Open Arms") and Enrique Ancízar, president of the Colombian Society of Agriculture, called it "Faro de América" ("Beacon/Lighthouse of America.").