Mitad del Mundo

Ciudad Mitad del Mundo
Southeastern view of the ethnographic museum's building
Type	Museum park and monument
Location	San Antonio parish, Quito, Ecuador
Coordinates	0°00′07″S 78°27′21″W / 0.00194°S 78.45583°W / -0.00194; -78.45583
Operated by	Prefecture of Pichincha
Status	Open all year

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

Older monument to the equator in Calacalí (2008)

The Mitad del Mundo (Spanish: 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 passes through the country in the geodetic datum in use in Ecuador at that time. 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. In the modern datum of the World Geodetic System (WGS84), which is used in GPS systems and computer mapping products like Google Earth, the equator is placed about 240 meters north of the marked line. This discrepancy is partially due to increased accuracy but primarily due to a different choice of mapping datum. Similarly, the line marking the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in England is roughly 100 meters from the exact zero of longitude as indicated by GPS receivers.

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, a 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). In this small town tourists can purchase many hand crafts that are made in Ecuador and enjoy local food at one of the many cafe´s

Finding the Equator

The area in the north of the province has been the object of a number of studies attempting to measure meridian arc in order to determine the exact figure of the Earth, with the first result being obtained in 1743 by Geodesic Mission of the French Academy of Sciences, led by Louis Godin, Pierre Bouguer and Charles Marie de La Condamine. From 1899-1906, General Georges Perrier, also with the backing of 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 to commemorate the first Geodesic Mission.

In 1979, the monument was moved 7 km to the 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. It is made of iron and concrete and covered with cut and polished andesite stone.

The exact specification of the equator is, in fact, somewhat variable and dependent on the chosen mathematical datum.^[1][2] A local private attraction, known as the Intiñan Solar Museum, claims to be built to mark the true location of the equator. The museum is an amusement for credulous tourists comparable to various "Mystery Spots" around the world. Tour guides and visitors perform demonstrations ostensibly possible only on the equator such as water flowing both counter-clockwise and clockwise down a drain, and balancing eggs on end. The truth, to which some tour guides will admit, is that latitude has no measurable influence on these tricks; they are not related to the proximity of the equator.^[3][4]

External links

• Mitad del Mundo, official website owned by the prefecture of Pichincha
• Quitsato sundial and middle of the world line of Mitad del Mundo, a large sundial located exactly on the equator
• Story of the Mitad del Mundo
• Article about Mitad del Mundo and nearby museum

Coordinates: 0°00′08″S 78°27′21″W / 0.00222°S 78.45583°W / -0.00222; -78.45583

References

1. ^ The Three Equators - Real and Unreal, "[1]"
2. ^ My Attempt to Find the Ecuadorian Equator, "[2]"
3. ^ Penn State University, "Bad Coriolis"
4. ^ Bad Astronomy, "Stand an egg on end"