Monument
A reproduction of the pyramids that marked the baseline for measurement at Yaruqui (which was destroyed by Quito authorities in the 1740s) was erected in 1836, the centennial of the expedition, by the Rocafuerte administration of the nascent republic of Ecuador. This monument fell into disrepair over the next century but was rebuilt in 1936, minus its original French inscription, for the bicentennial of the first geodesic expedition along with a second pyramid at San Antonio de Pichincha on the equator. These monuments still exist today. The new Quito international airport will open in the Yaruqui valley in 2011 and will include a mural celebrating the Geodesic Mission.
In 1936, the French American Committee of Ecuador sponsored the idea of the Ecuadoran geographer Dr. Luis Tufiño and raised a monument commemorating the bicentennial of the arrival of the First Geodesic Mission. They raised a 10-meter-high monument at Mitad del Mundo in San Antonio de Pichincha, in Pichincha Province of Ecuador. However, there is no record that the Mission ever visited the area. Moreover, the monument bears a suspicious resemblance to a fictitious pyramid in Frederic Edwin Church's painting "Cayambe" rather than to any actual Ecuadorian site.
Read more about this topic: French Geodesic Mission
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