page_title: Tourism in Ecuador
section_title: City Middle of the World
hierarchical_section_title: Tourism in Ecuador / Tourist attractions / Culture and history / City Middle of the World
caption_attribution_description: Español: Monumento a la Mitad del Mundo (vista desde el Este)
context_page_description: Ecuador is a country with vast natural and cultural wealth. The diversity of its four regions has resulted in hundreds of thousands of species of flora and fauna. It has about 1640 species of birds. The species of butterflies line the 4,500, the 345 reptiles, 358 amphibians and 258 mammals, among others. Ecuador is considered one of the 17 countries where the greatest biodiversity of the planet is concentrated. Most of its flora and fauna live in 26 areas protected by the State. It also offers historical attractions such as Quito, food and a variety of cultures and traditions.
  Ecuador is crossed from north to south by a volcanic section of Andes 70 volcanos, being the higher the Chimborazo, with 6310 m West of the Andes is the Gulf of Guayaquil and a wooded plain; at east, the Amazon. It is the country with the highest concentration of rivers per square kilometer in the world. In the Ecuadorian territory, which includes the Galápagos Islands 1000 km west of the coast, lies the densest biodiversity in the planet.
context_section_description: The Ciudad Mitad del Mundo is a land owned by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, Ecuador. It is located in the parish of San Antonio of Quito Metropolitan District, north of downtown Quito.
  In the field it built the headquarters of Union of South American Nations which is also the Ethnographic Museum Mitad del Mundo, a museum about the ethnography indigenous from Ecuador. Between 1979 and 1982 was built a monument of 30 meters high to mark the spot where it was believed that the equator facing the country at the time. In fact, a list was drawn from the center of the staircase leading to the east, across the square to mark the Ecuador.
  But really the whole structure is 240 m south of the real equator, which was not located until recently, by the occurrence of GPS technology.
  The pyramidal monument, with each side facing a cardinal direction, is topped by a globe of 4.5 m in diameter and 5 tons. Inside the monument there is a small museum that displays elements of indigenous culture of Ecuador, such as clothing, descriptions of the various ethnic groups, and samples of their activities. Mitad del Mundo has other attractions as a Planetarium, and in the Central Plaza are held several musical and cultural performances. A small town around the monument around the Ethnographic Museum acts as a tourist center, offering a replica of a Spanish colonial city called "Ciudad Mitad del Mundo".
caption: Monument to the Middle of the World
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