28 April 2018 | Author/Destination: South America / Südamerika | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 9 minutesMunicipal Palace in the Plaza Grande © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-4.0
Quito, formally
San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city of
Ecuador, and at an elevation of 2,850 metres (9,350 ft) above sea level, it is the
second-highest official capital city in the world, after
La Paz, and the one which is closest to the
equator. It is located in the
Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of
Pichincha, an active
stratovolcano in the
Andes mountains. With a population of 2,671,191 according to the last census (2014), Quito is the second most populous city in Ecuador, after
Guayaquil. It is also the capital of the
Pichincha province and the seat of the
Metropolitan District of Quito. The canton recorded a population of 2,239,191 residents in the 2010 national census. In 2008, the city was designated as the headquarters of the
Union of South American Nations.
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