Ciudad Mitad del Mundo

La Mitad del Mundo (Spanish: The Middle of the World ) is an Equatorial Monument in San Antonio de Pichincha in the Ecuadorian province of Pichincha.

The monument is located about 23 kilometers north of the capital, Quito, marks the place where Charles Marie de La Condamine with a French expedition in 1736 determined the exact position of the equator as the first Europeans.

Center of the monument is a large ball ( 4.5 m diameter ) on a monolith to running a metal ring. This is to symbolize the earth and the equator. The building can be climbed and is about 30 meters high. The sides of the monolith show in the four cardinal directions. In East and West direction from the building runs a red line that runs through the entire system, and lie exactly on the equator is ( it does not do ).

The monolith is the center of a park, which is modeled on a typical colonial village and Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (Spanish: Middle of the World City ) is called. In the buildings of the village houses exhibitions, a planetarium, restaurants and tourist shops where you can also purchase equator certificates.

Formation

Ecuador is the only region in the world where the equator on firm, natural landmarks runs: the peaks of the Andes. His remaining course goes over water and through ever-changing areas of rainforest. However, fixed points are necessary in order to observe the orbits of the heavenly bodies. The territory of the present-day Ecuador, therefore, is the only place where an accurate positioning of the Equator was previously possible. The 30 meter high monument and the grouped around it houses the excursion area were built between 1979 and 1982.

Modern insights

In times of GPS has been found that the true equator is about 240m north of the monument. All visitors who daily legs stand up via the red line at the monument to stand on both halves of the earth, therefore, are 240 meters too far south and are available with a full body in the southern hemisphere.

Purely by chance, however, discovered a paraglider pilot in Mitad del Mundo near the on the mountain Catequilla the remains of a building from the Pre-Inca, which actually marks the equator and has already built over 1000 years ago. The Quitsato project has set itself the goal to explore this discovery and presents its results in a pavilion Mitad del Mundo in the Ciudad ago. Quisato sees the facility on the Catequilla the center of several distributed structures in the vicinity, reflect the various characteristics of the sun and Earth's orbit.