Welcome to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, lying in a valley on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active volcano in the Andes. At 2,850 metres, it is one of the two highest national capitals in the world. The Spanish conquest of 1534 is usually cited as its founding, which makes Quito the oldest capital in South America, though people lived here thousands of years earlier, and it was once the capital of the northern region of the Inca Empire. In 1978, Quito and Kraków became the first World Cultural Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO. Quito is also the capital closest to the Equator. Let us explore its churches, hills and volcanoes.
Basílica del Voto Nacional
Photo: Samuelistok · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsLook up at the towers of the Basilica of the National Vow, in the historic centre of Quito, reaching up to 83 metres. It was conceived in 1883 by Father Julio Matovelle as a lasting reminder of Ecuador's consecration to the Sacred Heart. Building it took the help of the whole country: believers donated stones in exchange for having their names engraved on them, and in 1895 the state even introduced a tax on salt to keep construction going.
Church of La Compañía
Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsStep inside La Compañía, the Jesuit church in Quito's historic centre, and prepare to be dazzled. Its interior ornamentation is completely covered with sheets of gold, and its façade is carved entirely from volcanic stone. People have called it the Temple of Solomon of South America, and a travelling Jesuit named it the Golden Ember. Pope John Paul the Second celebrated mass here in 1985, and Pope Francis came to pray in 2015.
Ciudad Mitad del Mundo
Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsAbout 26 kilometres north of central Quito lies the Middle of the World City. Its centrepiece is the 30-metre Monument to the Equator, the line from which Ecuador takes its name. The monument, built between 1979 and 1982 of iron and concrete faced with andesite stone, honours the 18th-century French geodesic mission. In 1736, its scientists carried out experiments here to test whether the Earth is flattened at the poles. The grounds also hold an ethnographic museum about the indigenous peoples of Ecuador.
Panecillo
Photo: Cayambe · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsRising between southern and central Quito is El Panecillo, a 200-metre-high hill of volcanic origin, whose name means little bread roll. Its original name was Yavirac, and a Jesuit historian wrote that a temple to the sun once stood on top. Crowning the hill today is the Virgin of El Panecillo, assembled from seven thousand pieces of aluminium and inaugurated in 1975. She stands on a globe, stepping on a snake, in classic madonna style.
Cotopaxi
Photo: Gerard Prins · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsAbout 50 kilometres south of Quito rises Cotopaxi, an active stratovolcano in the Andes and the second highest summit in Ecuador, at 5,897 metres. It is among the highest active volcanoes in the world. Cotopaxi is known to have erupted 87 times, and its eruptions have sent mudflows down its slopes, carving numerous valleys around the mountain.
Galápagos Islands
Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsFar out in the Pacific, around the Equator and about 900 kilometres west of the South American mainland, lie the volcanic Galápagos Islands, a province of Ecuador. They are famous for their many endemic species, studied by Charles Darwin in the 1830s, which inspired his theory of evolution by natural selection. The islands were discovered by accident in 1535 by Bishop Tomás de Berlanga. Later, pirates used them as a base to raid Spanish shipping. Today all the islands are protected as part of a national park and marine reserve.
Lomakuume
