Quitsato Sundial

The Quitsato Sundial sits about seven kilometres south of Cayambe on the highway and marks the exact equatorial line with a giant circular platform 54 metres across. At its centre stands a ten-metre-high cylinder — the gnomon — placed precisely at 0°00'00" latitude, verified by GPS and GNSS equipment to within a millimetre. The monument was built in 2006 and opened in 2007, designed by local researcher Cristóbal Cobo.

The site includes the Solar Museum, which opened in 2022 and explains how pre-Columbian cultures used the equator as an astronomical reference point. Exhibits show how the Kayambi people — after whom Cayambe is named — oriented their temples and agricultural terraces to solar cycles. Admission is around US$5 for adults. Stand at the marked spot on the equinoxes and your shadow vanishes entirely at solar noon.

things to do sight
A story
The Quitsato sundial is placed on the exact equatorial line to millimetre precision using GPS measurements — which means the gnomon casts no shadow at noon on the equinoxes. It is the only major equatorial monument in the world guaranteed to be exactly at 0°00'00" latitude, something the more famous Mitad del Mundo monument outside Quito cannot claim.