MITAD DEL MUNDO

The 'Mitad del Mundo' (Spanish for ''Middle of the World'') is a tract of land owned by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, Ecuador. It is located in the San Antonio parish of the canton of Quito, 20 km north of the center of Quito.
The grounds contain the Museo Etnográfico Mitad del Mundo, a museum about the indigenous ethnography of Ecuador. The 30-meter-tall monument, built between 1979 and 1982, was constructed to mark the point where the equator was thought to pass through the country at the time. In fact, a line down the center of the east-facing staircase, and across the plaza, was meant to mark the equator, and countless tourists over the years have had their pictures taken stradling this line. However, the entire structure is about 240 meters south of the true equator, which was not precisely located until recently, with the advent of GPS technology.
The pyramidal monument, with each side facing a cardinal direction, is topped by a 4.5 meter diameter, 5-ton globe. Inside the monument is a small museum that displays elements of indigenous Ecuadorian culture, such as clothing, descriptions of the various ethnic groups, and examples of their activities.
A small town surrounding the monument at the Museo Etnográfico functions as the tourist center, replicating a colonial Spanish town and called "Ciudad Mitad del Mundo" (Middle of the World City).

Contents

Finding the Equator

External links

Finding the Equator

The area in the north of the province has been the object of a number of studies attempting to determine the exact location of the equator, with the first result being obtained in the early 1700s by Charles Marie de La Condamine. At the end of the 18th century, General Charles Perrier, from the French Academy of Sciences, was sent to lead a mission to verify that result. Later, in 1936, with the support of the French American Committee, Ecuadorean geographer Dr. Luis Tufiño built a 10 meter monument in San Antonio de Pichincha.
In 1979, the monument was moved 7 km to the west, to the town of Calacalí. Today, a new and much larger monument, Museo Etnográfico Mitad del Mundo, constructed between 1979 and 1982, stands in San Antonio de Pichincha. Made of iron and concrete and covered with cut and polished andesite stone, it is closer to the true equator than earlier attempts, but still about 240 meters south of the correct line.
Today, with the development of GPS technology, the actual location of the equator in this region has been finally determined, and the Intiñan Solar Museum was built to mark the true location of the imaginary line. Within the museum, visitors can perform various experiments possible only on the equator.

External links

★ Mitad del Mundo, official Web site owned by the prefecture of Pichincha

★ Quitsato sundial and Middle of the World line of Mitad del mundo, A large sundial located exactly on the Equator (Spanish)

★ Story of the Mitad del Mundo