Quito, Ecuador

Quito – Capital City of Ecuador

Quito officially San Francisco de Quito is the capital city of Ecuador. It is situated at an elevation of about 2,850 metres above sea level and is said to be the highest official capital city in the world. It is placed in the Guayllabamba river basin towards the eastern slopes of Pichincha which is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains.

According to the last census – 2014, it had a population of around 2,671,191 and is said to be the second most populous city in Ecuador after Guayaquil. Besides this it is also the capital of the Pichincha province as well as the seat of the Metropolitan District of Quito. The city had been designated as the headquarters of the Union of South American Nation in 2008.

The historic centre of Quito is one of the largest, unchanged and best reserved historic centres in the Americas, Together with Krakow, Quito is said to be the first World Cultural Heritage Sites listed by UNESCO in 1978. The central square of Quito is situated around 25 kilometres south of the equator and the city tends to extend within a kilometre of zero latitude.

Quito Founded on the Ruins of Inca City

Museum as well as monument marking the common location of the equator is locally known as la mitad del mundo – the middle of the world, to avoid confusion as the word Ecuador is equator in Spanish. Quito was founded in the 16th century on the ruins of Inca city. The monasteries of San Francisco and Santo Domingo together with the Church and Jesuit College of La Compania with their rich interiors are examples of the Baroque school of Quito that is a blend of Spanish, Italian, Flemish, Moorish as well as indigenous art.

Quito tends to provide unusual surprises and being the capital city is located closed to the sun. The Quito area seems to be the only place in the world where one can put one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere simultaneously. One can feel the pure energy of the centre of the world while walking the Equatorial Line, which is an imaginary line drawn in the 18th century by the Geodesic French Mission.

Quito Centre Biggest/Best Conserved In Latin America

The precise point where the equator tends to pass through Ecuador was later discovered to be about 240 metres north of the line at Mitad del Mundo though that should not discourage anyone from visiting this complex which is some 14 miles north of Quito, towards San Antonia de Pichincha.

The Centro Historico combines the daily life of traders, public servants and religious people with visitors from all over. The Quito centre is said to be the biggest as well as the best conserved in Latin America. The most recognized sites are Palacio Carondelet, La Compania de Jesus, a Baroque-style church, La Plaza Grande, the religious complex of San Francisco together with La Ronda which is a street having diverse workshops and traditional trade.

Quito itself is an amazing destination though due to its strategic location and well developed tourist infrastructure, it is also the departure point of the main tourist destinations of Ecuador and one can leave from here to the Pacific Coast with fishing towns, beaches and great gastronomy, to Los Andes with the path of volcanoes, to the Amazonia with it strange vegetation together with ancestral towns.