Cayambe is an agricultural service

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

(population 44,559 at the last census on October 1, 2022) in highland

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. It lies at the foot of the Cayambe

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

. While the city is mainly peopled by

mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

s, the surrounding rural population is primarily composed of

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

who are mainly involved in

subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occu ...

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a h ...

and procurement of

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

. It is the third-largest city in Pichincha Province.

History

Cayambe's indigenous people of today are descendants of the pre-

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

Kayambi people. The Kayambi were resistant to Inca expansion and were only definitively conquered by

Huayna Capac Huayna Capac (; Cuzco Quechua: ''Wayna Qhapaq'' ) (before 14931527) was the third Sapa Inca of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire. He was the son of and successor to Túpac Inca Yupanqui,Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro; 2015, originally published in Sp ...

(the eleventh

Sapa Inca The Sapa Inca (from ; ) was the monarch of the Inca Empire (''Tawantinsuyu'' "the region of the four rovinces), as well as ruler of the earlier Kingdom of Cusco and the later Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba, Peru, Vilcabamba. While the origins ...

of the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

) after a bloody 20-year war. At that time, the Kayambi people adopted the

Kichwa language Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ('' Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers. Classification Kichwa belongs to the Nor ...

, a dialect of the Quechua family of languages. Not long afterwards, in the 16th century, the first

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

es'' arrived in the region. Kichwa survives in some of the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

today, while in others it has given way to

Government

The town of Cayambe is the seat of the canton of Cayambe.

Industry

The area hosts numerous

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

s, whose products are destined for the overseas

cut flower Cut flowers are flowers and flower buds (often with some stem and leaf) that have been cut from the plant bearing it. It is removed from the plant for decorative use. Cut greens are leaves with or without stems added to the cut flowers for con ...

market. Among the local food products, better known are

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

and ''biscochos de Cayambe'' (a crumbly

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

Points of interest near Cayambe

# A globe monument, known as "La Bola de Guachalá" (''The Ball''), located on the

Pan-American Highway The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 30,000 kilometers (about 19,000 miles) from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the northernmost part of North America to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. I ...

in the village of Buena Esperanza. # The Quitsato Sundial, located in the village of Buena Esperanza, is among the most accurate places in the world created to determine

equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

position. # Hacienda Guachalá, located in the village of Buena Esperanza, is the oldest

hacienda A ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or '' finca''), similar to a Roman '' latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards ...

in Ecuador. # Castillo de Guachalá, an eclectic-style castle located in the village of Cuniburo. # the waterfalls of Cariacu. # the virgin forests of Paquiestancia. # the archeological museum near Puntazil.

Gallery

File:TRUE EQUATORIAL MONUMENT ON THE PAN AMERICAN HIGHWAY; CAYAMBE, ECUADOR.jpg, The ball on the Pan-American Highway. File:Ecuador-Cayambe-Quitsato Sundial.jpg, Quitsato Sundial, located on the

Equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

in Cayambe, Ecuador. File:Ecuador-Cayambe-Balcon 2.jpg, Balcon 2 Hemisferios, located on the

in Cayambe, Ecuador. File:CAYAMBE, ECUADOR.jpg, Two Otavalo girls in Cayambe.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090226040737/http://www.municipiocayambe.gov.ec/ {{Authority control Populated places in Pichincha Province