Spanish-French Geodesic Mission Monument - Manta, Ecuador
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denben
S 00° 56.465 W 080° 43.656
17M E 530307 N 9895981
The Spanish-French Geodesic Mission Monument is located on a traffic island in front of the Tuna Fountain on the seafront Avenida Malecón in Manta, Ecuador.
Waymark Code: WM11P4W
Location: Ecuador
Date Posted: 11/24/2019
Views: 5
The stone monument is decorated with ceramic shields and surmounted by a earth globe showing the line of the equator and the inscriptions "LATITUD = 0 °" and "Manta".
The inscription on the monument reads (In Spanish):
" EL 10 DE MARZO DE 1736 DESEMBARCAN EN MANTA LA MISION GEODESICA FRANCESCA Y LOS GUARDIA MARINAS ESPANOLES PARA DETERMINAR LA FORMA DE LA TIERRA CON LA COLABORACION DEL ILUSTRE GEOGRAFO RIOBAMBENO, DON PEDRO VICENTE MALDONADO SIGLO XVIII
EL HONORABLE MUNICIPIO DE MANTA ANO 2004."
Google translation:
"ON MARCH 10, 1736, THE FRENCH GEODESIC MISSION AND THE SPANISH MARINE GUARD ARRIVED AT MANTA TO DETERMINE THE FORM OF THE EARTH WITH THE COLLABORATION OF THE ILLUSTRE RIOBAMBEN GEOGRAPHER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, DON PEDRO VICENTE MALDONADO.
THE HONORABLE MUNICIPALITY OF MANTA YEAR 2004."
From Wikipedia: "The French Geodesic Mission (also called the Geodesic Mission to Peru, Geodesic Mission to the Equator and the Spanish-French Geodesic Mission) was an 18th-century expedition to what is now Ecuador carried out for the purpose of measuring the roundness of the Earth and measuring the length of a degree of latitude at the Equator. The mission was one of the first geodesic (or geodetic) missions carried out under modern scientific principles, and the first major international scientific expedition." (
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