The state stretches from the Pacific coast 600 kilometres further inland to the tributaries of the Amazon, the Rio Napo and the Rio Putumayo. It shares borders with Columbia in the north, Peru in the south and east, and the Pacific Ocean in the west. For many years, there was a political dispute about whether a large part of the Amazon’s rainforest at the border to Peru should belong to Ecuador or Peru. This dispute was finally settled in October 1988, when a peace treaty between the two countries was signed.
The Andes divide the country into three different regions: the coastal plain (Costa), the alpine mountain range of the Andes (Sierra), and the area of the Amazon (Oriente). These areas differ in climate, forms of landscape, kinds of production, landed property and population.
The highest elevation of the country is the Cimborazo (6310 metres). The Galápagos Islands, 1000 kilometres west of the mainland, also belong to Ecuador. They are famous for their unique diversity of rare animals. As impressive as the geographic diversity of the country is, it also hampers the economic and political integration of the Ecuadorian nation.
By administration, the country is divided into 21 provinces, many of them named after mountains (Pichincha and Chimborazo) or rivers (Guayas, Napo). The provinces are subdivided into districts (cantones), each district consisting of municipalities (parroquias urbanes y rurales).
The three biggest cities are Quayaquil (about 2 million inhabitants),
which is the economic centre of the country; the capital Quito (about 1
million inhabitants) is the political centre, and Cuenca (about 500 000
inhabitants) is often called the cultural heart of the country.
Source: http://www.inwent.org/v-ez/lis/ecuador/seite1.htm
