La Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world), located 22km north of Quito at 2483m, is a large monument built in 1979 on the equator. This is the place where Charles-Marie de la Condamine made the measurements in 1736 showing this was indeed the equatorial line. His expedition’s measurements gave rise to the metric system and proved that the world is not perfectly round, but that it bulges at the equator. Leading up to the monument are busts of la Condamine’s expedition members.