Mitad del Mundo

The Mitad del Mundo monument marks the equator as measured by the French geodesic mission of the 1730s, whose work here gave Ecuador its name: a thirty-metre stone tower topped with a globe, with a line painted across the plaza that visitors straddle for the photograph, one foot in each hemisphere. GPS later showed the true equator runs about two hundred and forty metres north, which the site acknowledges with good grace, and the Intinan museum on the adjusted line offers its own experiments of variable scientific honesty. The complex around the tower holds an ethnographic museum inside the monument, a model colonial town, planetarium and restaurants, and the Pululahua crater is a short drive further.

What you actually see

• The thirty-metre equator tower - the globe-topped monument on the painted line.
• A hemisphere-straddling photograph - the ritual of the plaza.
• The true line nearby - GPS moved the equator two hundred metres north.
• The ethnographic museum inside - Ecuador's peoples up the tower.

When to go

Year round; Quito's equatorial climate keeps it even. Half a day. Weekends bring Quito families and music events. The light is strongest at midday, when shadows disappear on the line.

Honest expectations

The monument is not on the true equator, and the Intinan museum's demonstrations, water draining and egg balancing, are showmanship rather than physics. Ticketing is layered and adds up. It is unashamedly touristy.

Nearby

Pululahua crater is a short drive; Quito lies south.