Page 35 - ecuador2011

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DID YOU KNOW?
• The famous Panama Hat actually originally comes fromEcuador. No one is sure of exactly how the
hat got this name but it is likely that it has something to do with the decision to carve out the Panama
Canal in order to reduce traveling time for ships sailing between theAtlantic and Indian oceans. The
hat would have been an accessible commodity in the region and since it was likely to have first been
introduced to Europeans in large quantities in Panama, it can be surmised that visiting builders and
surveyors gave the hat the name of a ‘Panama Hat’.
• The biodiversity of Ecuador is one of its greatest riches. Ecuador ranks fifth in the world for the
number of species it hosts. In Ecuador one can find more than 1.445 species of birds (compared to
only 600 in the whole of the United States).
• Chimborazo Volcano, at 6310 metres, forms the highest point in Ecuador. Whilst the summit of
Mount Everest is the highest point on the Earth above sea level, the summit of Chimborazo is the
farthest place on the surface of the Earth from its exact center, a distance of 3,968 miles (6,384.4
kilometers).
• The Galapagos Islands make up the first National Park of Ecuador, being one of the natural won-
ders of the world and the most important natural monument of Ecuador.
• For a country that is relatively small, Ecuador has many UNESCO World Heritage sites. Quito's
Centro Histórico, or Old Town, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1978, making it the
first city declared a World Heritage site.
• The rose is the national flower of Ecuador. Ecuadorian roses are known for their large blooms,
which occur in about 60 varieties in various colors and shades of red, pink, yellow, purple and
lavender.
• Ecuador has a strip of 323,600 square kilometers of territory in Antarctica (in the South Pole).
Means a larger territory that have the Ecuador now in the Americas (256.370 square kilometers)