Mitad del Mundo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Southeastern view of the ethnographic museum's building

Ciudad Mitad del Mundo as seen from the west from the 30-meter-high terrace of the museum

The Mitad del Mundo (Spanish for Middle of the World) is a tract of land owned by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, Ecuador. It is located in the San Antonio parish of the canton of Quito, north of the center of Quito.

The grounds contain the Museo Etnográfico Mitad del Mundo, a museum about the indigenous ethnography of Ecuador. The 30-meter-tall monument, built between 1979 and 1982, was constructed to mark the point where the equator was thought to pass through the country at the time. In fact, a line down the center of the east-facing staircase, and across the plaza, was meant to mark the equator, and countless tourists over the years have had their pictures taken straddling this line. Also, residents said that among other things, placing one foot in the northern hemisphere and the other foot in the southern hemisphere makes you stand right in the equator and weigh less at the equator. However, the entire structure is about 240 meters south of the true equator, which was not precisely located until recently, with the advent of GPS technology.

The pyramidal monument, with each side facing a cardinal direction, is topped by a 4.5 meter diameter, 5-ton globe. Inside the monument is a small museum that displays elements of indigenous Ecuadorian culture, such as clothing, descriptions of the various ethnic groups, and examples of their activities. Mitad del Mundo contains other attractions such as a Planetarium, an amazing miniature model of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and restaurants. On weekends, Mitad del Mundo's Central Plaza is host to varied musical and cultural presentations for tourists.

A small town surrounding the monument at the Museo Etnográfico functions as the tourist center, replicating a colonial Spanish town and called "Ciudad Mitad del Mundo" (Middle of the World City).

[edit] Finding the Equator

The area in the north of the province has been the object of a number of studies attempting to determine the exact location of the equator, with the first result being obtained in the early 1700s by Charles Marie de La Condamine. At the end of the 18th century, General Charles Perrier, from the French Academy of Sciences, was sent to lead a mission to verify that result. Later, in 1936, with the support of the French American Committee, Ecuadorean geographer Dr. Luis Tufiño built a 10-meter monument in San Antonio de Pichincha.

In 1979, the monument was moved 7 km to the west, to the town of Calacalí. Today, a new and much larger monument, Museo Etnográfico Mitad del Mundo, constructed between 1979 and 1982, stands in San Antonio de Pichincha. Made of iron and concrete and covered with cut and polished andesite stone, it is closer to the true equator than earlier attempts, but still about 240 meters south of the correct line.

Today, with the development of GPS technology, the actual location of the equator in this region has been finally determined, and the Intiñan Solar Museum was built to mark the true location of the imaginary line. Within the museum, visitors can perform various experiments that are ostensibly possible only on the equator. However, most of these experiments are fakes. For instances, Solar Museum guides demonstrate water flowing both counter-clockwise and clockwise down a drain, and balance eggs on end, claiming that this can only be done at the equator. However, that is not the case.^[1]^[2]

Various sources claim that the Intiñan Solar Museum is not actually on the Equator. The Catequilla, an ancient archaeological site, is believed to be on the equator itself - more information from the Quitsato Project www.quitsato.org.