The Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World City) is a tract of land owned by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, Ecuador.

The monument was built to commemorate the first Geodesic Mission of the French Academy of Sciences, led by Louis Godin, Pierre Bouguer and Charles Marie de La Condamine, who, in the year 1736, conducted experiments to test the flattening at the poles of the characteristic shape of the Earth, by comparing the distance between a degree meridian in the equatorial zone to another level measured in Sweden.

While such studies would later determine the exact measure and shape of the world, astronomers involved missed the possibility of encountering the remnants of highly sophisticated geographical achievements made on “Equatorial” territory for hundreds of years before their arrival.

Throughout the time the astronomers attempted to measure the length of a degree of latitude on that part of the planet, a group of different sorts of ruins (built by the Quitu-Cara culture) were found nearby the territory where they thought the Equatorial line passed through.

Years after that, it was brought to light that the "Geodesic Mission" had been wrong about the exact coordinates where the line passed through—the measurements had indeed proved the world was oblate and not elongated (egg-shaped) at the poles, but their studies to define the placement of the equator were incorrect by 240 metres (790 ft).

Inside the monument is a small museum that displays a variety of indigenous items pertaining to Ecuadorian culture: clothing, descriptions of the various ethnic groups, and examples of their activities.

[10] Tour guides and visitors demonstrate tricks which are supposedly possible only on the Equator, such as water flowing both counter-clockwise or clockwise down a drain due to the Coriolis effect.