The most visited tourist attraction in the world in Ecuador, in the parish of San Antonio de Pichincha, is located the Middle of the World City just 14 kilometers from the city of Quito. The Middle of the World today is a very significant tourist attraction for the city, it is also the opportunity to take pictures in both hemispheres at the same time, level an egg on a nail without the need to hold it, you can also weigh a kilo less in difference to other places.
Inside the emblematic Equatorial monument, you can appreciate several themes, starting with a timeline, which highlights the main events since the arrival of the French geodesic mission formed by an adequate staff of academics
The Middle of the World City has 19 tourist attractions in its interior (planetarium, museums, squares, ancestral dwellings, among others). In fact, in the Middle of the World is the first planetarium with virtual reality in the country. In addition, in the Middle of the World City is the Guayasamín pavilion, where you can enjoy an interesting exhibition of works by the famous Ecuadorian painter and sculptor, Oswaldo Guayasamín. Be sure to explore the diversity of tourist attractions that the city has to offer.
At the beginning of your tour of the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo the tourist will be able to visualize in a real and palpable way, the ancestral dwellings that are characterized by objects used by our ancestors, which were part of the life, customs and traditions of the indigenous communities.
The Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, site that houses the famous Equatorial Monument, is an icon of the city of Quito and the country, hence the tourists come to this destination to obtain information about the phenomena that occur in the equatorial zone (Coriolis effect, stop an egg on a nail, among others). The physical experiments that you will be able to see in the Middle of the World will leave you amazed. In the Middle of the World the latitude is 0° 0′ 0”, that is to say, there are few places where you will find a particularity like this.
An interesting fact is the equatorial monument that has a height of 30 meters, built with iron and cement, covered with polished andesite stone and cut to mark the point where it was believed that the line of Ecuador crossed the country.
On the equatorial line, there is the grandiose quadrangular pyramid of the Equinoctial Monument placed with its four monoliths in 1979, the central monolith is crowned by a metallic sphere that represents the earth.
The globe is surrounded by a silver ribbon representing the Equator and is oriented according to the true position of the earth showing the geographic orientation of the four cardinal points.
It is called Equatorial Monument because of its pyramidal-quadrangular shape with its four monoliths in the corners and because it is located on the Equatorial Line of latitude zero degrees zero minutes and zero seconds.
You can also enter the museums that exist inside the monument is the Anthropological and Ethnographic Museum of Ecuador, where you can learn more about the history and ethnic groups of the four regions of the Andean country (the Amazon, the Sierra, the Coast and the Galapagos Islands). In addition, you can see documents, maps and records of the French Geodesic Mission.
Near the Mitad del Mundo monument is the Inti ñan Solar Museum, built in 1989 to rescue the culture of the Lulumbamba Indians. The Intiñan or Camino del Sol site museum, associated with the International Council of Museums, summarizes the indigenous cosmovision and their customs. It is open every day. The site museum is located 200 meters from the Monument to the Middle of the World. After crossing a small chaquiñán, and crossing a bridge, you can discover, in 2 500 meters of land, the way of life and customs of the communities that occupied the surroundings as well as those who still live in various parts of the country. The Equinoctial Line passes through here with great accuracy and is one of the points in Pichincha of the so-called Camino del Sol.
There are four pavilions, Guayasamín Foundation Pavilion, France Pavilion, Chiquitus Pavilion, Ecuador Pavilion of the Middle City of the World was created as a space dedicated to exhibit all artistic expressions. In this place the artist will be able to show his talent and works to both national and foreign tourists creating unique experiences during their visit.
In this sense, currently you can appreciate the photographic exhibition of the most inhospitable places of nature, with the most impressive and paradisiacal scenarios from the vision of Patricio Tisalema who was born in Ambato, is currently an international guide of “High Mountain” and has more than 17 years of mountaineering activity, experience that allowed him to be one of the few mountaineers of the continent that climbed alone and without oxygen to Mount Everest, in addition, he has climbed Cotopaxi more than 350 times and 60 times to Chimborazo. With his project “The 7 Summits” he climbed the highest mountains of each continent: Kosciuzco, Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, McKinley, Elbrus, Everest and Mount Vinson.
During all these years he has traveled the world climbing mountains and compiling an extensive photographic work. Much of this material is exhibited in the pavilion Ecuador, among his works are the 7 summits: Aconcagua (America), Mc Kinley (Denail) (Alaska/Arctic), Vinson (Antarctica), Elbrus (Europe), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Kosciuzco (Australia), Everest (Asia). In addition, you can appreciate the mind-blowing landscapes, such as:
The majestic Chimborazo, which is 6,384 kilometers away from the center of the earth, two kilometers more than Everest in Nepal which is 6,382 kilometers, data that was confirmed by the III Geodesic Mission.
The imposing Cotopaxi, has an almost perfect snowy cone and is located at 5897 meters altitude, it is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world due to the frequency of its eruptions, its eruptive style, its glacier cover and for the amount of populations potentially exposed to its threats.
The Chiquitus pavilion, a space for fun and learning for the little ones. This space is divided into 3 areas: Painting, Science and Music.
The Painting Area is a playful space that supports artistic and cultural manifestations through painting, focusing on solstices, equinoxes, inti, groups, indigenous people, allowing them to enhance their creativity along with learning.