Quitsa-To (Mitad del Mundo)

   Visiting the tourist area of Mitad del Mundo on my first day of visiting Ecuador, I explored the museum associated with the site, reading about the French geological expedition of the 1890s to identify an actual position of the equator.
   A complex expedition, they had difficult in agreement of their reseach findings, an series of triangulations based on the mountain peaks of the central Andes valley. They had chosen Ecuador, specifically Quito, as a logical site of exploration since it is the only area in the world which is mountainous at the equator. The mountain peaks provide a reliable source of fixed points for triangulation.
   Eventually in honor of this work and as a tourist attraction, the city of Mitad del Mundo developed. The central monument stands on the measured line of the equator and tourists gather, as we did, to stand on this line, traversing both northern and southern hemispheres at the same time. Unfortunately, by modern assessment with global positioning devises (GPSs), they were 240 meters to the north!!

   Cristobal Cobo, an independent researcher, was aware of this when he explored and began to study another site nearby, a site believed to be representative of Incan structures: Catequilla. As a result of his work, he started a scientific research project to study this and other Ecuadorian sites.

   Catequilla and Rumicucho are two of many similar structures in many areas of Ecuador, most of the sites having been built over by either Incan or Spanish invaders.
   What Cris realized was that these structures were not Incan --- they consisted of stone work held together by mortar. The Incas never used mortar in the design of their buildings, prefering to shape the rocks and stones to fit together.
   Further study indicated that they predated the Incas. More important is that a stone wall on Catequilla is situated at exactly the line of the equator (within experimental error of the GPS), that the stone wall also indicated the line of the solar ecliptic (231/2°) and that many other archeological sites of the pre-Incan people located by following the sun's movements relative to Catequilla. To accomplish this, these pre-Incan people must have been incredibly sophisticated (or coincidence?) in their knowledge of astonomy and geography.

(stone wall at Catequilla site, aligned with equator and axis of earth)

   This is in contrast with what Cris, as a native Ecuadorian, finds to be the cultural identity of the Ecuadorian people, a conquered people, conquered by the Incan in 1520 and by the Spanish in 1538.
   Cris's stance is that Catequilla needs to be studied in detail and may represent a cultural renaissance for his country, one badly needed. He is actively pursuing the possibility of good archeological research (the major limitation being funding) in the hope that the Quitsa-To project will become auto-sustainable.

   The danger!! In addition to its archeological significance, the area is also the major source of sand and gravel for the extensive oil exploration currently occurring in Ecuador. Up to 5000 truckloads of gravel are taken from the area daily, partly from strip-mining gradually eroding Catequilla itself.
   A contrast of cultures and a contrast of needs!!