The westernmost capital city in South America is also the closest capital to the Equator. Can you guess which city this is about?
The westernmost capital city in South America is Quito, the capital of Ecuador. It is followed by Lima, the capital of Peru, Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and Santiago, the capital of Chile.
These cities are marked in the interactive map below, so zoom in to see details:
Quito
This capital of Ecuador (the top picture above) is with the longitude 78°30′45″W or 78.5125 W. You can compare this for example with Washington DC with its longitude of 77.01 W.
Perhaps you did not know, but this is also the closest to the Equator capital in the world, and it is the second-highest capital city in the world.
Quito is the largest city in the country and located in the close vicinity of the active volcano Pichincha. From archaeological evidence it appears that the area was inhabited between 4400 and 1600 BC.
It was conquered by Spanish in 1534 and this is usually celebrated as its official founding. This makes it also the oldest capital in South America.
Please see more in this video:
Lima
The longitude of Lima is 77° 2′ 15″ W or 77.0375 W. This is the largest city of Peru and its national capital.
The population of this city is over 10 million, and this makes it one of the largest cities in the Americas. It seems that 1/3 of population of Peru is in its capital.
The name Lima comes from natives who cold it Limaq. Note that Lima’s National University of San Marcos was founded in 1551, and this is the oldest continuously functioning university in the New World. I find this quite extraordinary.
Here is more, please have a look:
The other two westernmost cities are Bogota with the longitude of 74° 4′ 20″ W or 74.07 W, and Santiago the capital of Chile with 70° 40′ 0″ W or 70.67 W.
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