On this date in 1534, the city Quito, capital of Ecuador, was founded by two Spanish conquistadors. This makes it the oldest capital city in South America.10 things you might not know about it:
- Its official name is San Francisco de Quito.
- It was built on the site of an ancient Incan city.
- Its nickname is Florence of the Americas because of the European influences in its art and architecture. Another nickname is City of the Heavens.
- It is the closest capital city to the equator. The equator is just over 200 kilometres north of the city. At one time, people thought the equator was even nearer to Quito, 25 kilometres to the north. Louis Godin, Pierre Bouguer, and Charles Marie de La Condamine of the French Academy of Sciences determined this was where the equator was in 1736 and a monument was built there, La Mitad del Mundo, or the Middle of the Earth, proclaiming this fact. Sadly, however, they got it wrong, but that doesn't stop thousands of tourists from flocking to the monument every year.
- Because it is so close to the equator the Sun rises and sets in Quito at the same time all year. It rises between 6:00am – 6:30am and sets between 6:00pm – 6:30pm. It also means there are just two seasons there – the wet season (October to May) and the dry season (June to September).
- At 2,850 metres (9,350 ft) above sea level, it is the second highest official capital city in the world (La Paz, capital of Bolivia, is the highest at 3,640m/11,942ft).
- Along with Kraków, Poland, Quito was among the first World Cultural Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO, in 1978. According to UNESCO the historic centre of Quito is the best preserved and least altered in Latin America.
- Kraków is also one of thirteen cities that Quito is twinned with. Others include Bogota in Colombia, Buenes Aires in Argentina, Buxton in the UK, Madrid, Mexico City and Toronto.
- The city’s official bird is the black-breasted puffleg, a critically endangered type of Hummingbird. There are less than 300 of them left in the wild.
- Quito is a little too close for comfort to two active volcanoes. Cotopaxi, which last erupted in 2016, is 50 kilometres away and even closer is Pichincha, 16km away. When it erupted in 1999, it covered the city in two inches of ash.
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