Ecuador is a multicultural country with a rich cultural, natural and archaeological sites. It is named as a sovereign state, the Republic of Ecuador, in turn named because of the terrestrial equator, which crosses the territory of this country.
It occupies an area of 256,370 square kilometres, and includes the Galapagos Islands, located 956 miles from the mainland. Its capital is San Francisco of Quito and the most populated city in the country is Santiago of Guayaquil, one of the most important ports of South America and main engine of the Ecuadorian economy. This country is divided administratively into 24 provinces, all but one mainland which consists exclusively of the Galapagos Islands, also called Archipelago Colon (although coastal provinces also have a lot of islands adjacent to the coastline).