During the first millennium, nomadic communities hunting for animals and foraging for food arrived in the rich and fertile valley of Quito. Over time, tribes settled and Quito became an important settlement and major trading centre known as 'Tianguez.' Quito evolved into a cross-roads of cultures, and the most important economic centre in the northern Andes.

During the 16th century the Incas extended their area of influence from Peru and, following various battles, asserted their control over the Quito region. They established Quito as their key administrative centre from which to control the territories of their northern Empire.

The Spanish thirst for new land and riches brought them across the oceans to the Americas. The meeting of the two cultures proved cataclysmic. By the time the Spaniards arrived in what is today Quito, they found only ashes and ruins: the Inca general Rumiñahui razed the city rather than let the Inca kingdom fall into Spanish hands.

The city of San Francisco de Quito, formerly established in 1534, blossomed. As the wealth of its citizens grew and the religious orders accrued influence, day by day and year by year the city acquired more beauty and extravagance, burgeoning into one of the great cities of Spanish America.

However, by the dawn of the 19th century, social unrest and revolution were sweeping across the continent. The blood of civil war fell on Ecuadorian soil. In Ecuador, the struggle for independence began with the liberals' 'cry of freedom' in Quito in 1809, continued with the triumph over the Spanish in 1822 at the Battle of Pichincha on the slopes above the city, and ended with the proclamation of the Republic of Ecuador in 1830.

As the staunchly colonial city of Quito entered the 20th century, it finally outgrew the confines laid out over three hundred years before. The growth of the city was spurred mainly by the Pacific-Andean railway line that linked the coastal city of Guayaquil with the highland capital of Quito. This connection between the coast and sierra unleashed a great internal migration and unprecedented commercial expansion, bringing with it modern infrastructure and fresh styles of architecture complemented by new building materials.

The banana boom of the forties fuelled the city's expansion and opened up the north of the city. The wealthy families established in the colonial centre looked to this area for new land and family homes. Ecuador used its new-found prosperity to implement infrastructure projects such as hospitals, schools, universities, prisons and an international airport.

The second wave of development came on the coat-tails of the petroleum boom of the seventies, high rise buildings spiking the skyline, new public buildings such as Ministries, courts and a Legislative Palace rising up, and new residential neighbourhoods sprouting where once fields and forest ruled. The face of Quito was never the same again.

Today, Quito has also expanded into the eastern valleys of Tumbaco and Cumbaya, and continues to spread northwards into the valley of Calderón, and southwards towards the looming volcanoes in the distance. Its population is around two million

During the first millennium, nomadic communities hunting for animals and foraging for food arrived in the rich and fertile valley of Quito. Over time, tribes settled and Quito became an important settlement and major trading centre known as 'Tianguez.' Quito evolved into a cross-roads of cultures, and the most important economic centre in the northern Andes.

During the 16th century the Incas extended their area of influence from Peru and, following various battles, asserted their control over the Quito region. They established Quito as their key administrative centre from which to control the territories of their northern Empire.

The Spanish thirst for new land and riches brought them across the oceans to the Americas. The meeting of the two cultures proved cataclysmic. By the time the Spaniards arrived in what is today Quito, they found only ashes and ruins: the Inca general Rumiñahui razed the city rather than let the Inca kingdom fall into Spanish hands.

The city of San Francisco de Quito, formerly established in 1534, blossomed. As the wealth of its citizens grew and the religious orders accrued influence, day by day and year by year the city acquired more beauty and extravagance, burgeoning into one of the great cities of Spanish America.

However, by the dawn of the 19th century, social unrest and revolution were sweeping across the continent. The blood of civil war fell on Ecuadorian soil. In Ecuador, the struggle for independence began with the liberals' 'cry of freedom' in Quito in 1809, continued with the triumph over the Spanish in 1822 at the Battle of Pichincha on the slopes above the city, and ended with the proclamation of the Republic of Ecuador in 1830. As the staunchly colonial city of Quito entered the 20th century, it finally outgrew the confines laid out over three hundred years before.

The growth of the city was spurred mainly by the Pacific-Andean railway line that linked the coastal city of Guayaquil with the highland capital of Quito. This connection between the coast and sierra unleashed a great internal migration and unprecedented commercial expansion, bringing with it modern infrastructure and fresh styles of architecture complemented by new building materials.