Family walking tour in Pichincha
Pichincha, province, north-central Ecuador. It consists largely of a highland area in the Andes Mountains, which descends to a small lowland fringe to the west. The provincial capital, Quito, also the national capital, has made it a focal point of Ecuadorian history and politics.
In the early 15th century the Quitu Indians, original inhabitants of the area, were conquered by the Cara Indians. These last were soon supplanted by the Incas, who, from their Peruvian centre, swept through central Ecuador at about the same time as the landfall of Columbus. The Inca emperor Huayna Capac (died c. 1525) established Quito as an important governmental and military outpost, and his followers settled the territory now composing Pichincha province. Later the province was the site of a decisive Battle of Pichincha in the Latin American wars of independence.
