The First Geodesic Mission arrived to Ecuador in 1736 conformed by the French Pedro Bouger, Luis Godin and Carlos Maria de la Condamine, the Spanish Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa and the Ecuadorian Pedro Vicente Maldonado to verify of scientific way the Earth roundness. The studies mission lasted nine years and after this long period of time, it began to call the territory of Quito "Territories of Ecuador" taking the reference to the parallel that divides the planet in two hemispheres. One second mission arrived to Quito in 1802, headed by the French Charles Perrier and it settles down in the country and it corroborated the data collected by the first group of investigators.

In 1836, the Ecuadorian geographer Luis Tufiño, located the landmarks left by the First Mission and to commemorate the visit of the scientific expedition, an obelisk of 10 meters high in San Antonio de Pichincha was erected, which was later transferred to Calacalí by the Provincial Council.

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