[9] The volcano was considered sacred to numerous cultures of the indigenous peoples who lived in this region for thousands of years before encounter with Spanish and other Europeans.

[10] On 17 June 1742, during the same mission, La Condamine and Bouguer made an ascent of Guagua Pichincha and looked down into the crater of the volcano, which had last erupted in 1660.

[11] In the summer season of 1802, Alexander von Humboldt climbed and measured the altitude of this mountain and several other volcanoes in the region.

[12] Humboldt's writings inspired artist Frederic Edwin Church to visit and paint Pichincha and other Andean peaks.

[13] On May 24, 1822, General Sucre's southern campaign in the Spanish–American War of independence came to a climax when his forces defeated the Spanish colonial army on the southeast slopes of this volcano.