Pichincha, << puh CHIHN chuh or pee CHEEN chah, >> a twin-cratered volcano, rises 15,696 feet (4,784 meters) in the Andes Mountains in north-central Ecuador. Climbers may ascend the peaks from Quito, which is about 5 miles (8 kilometers) to the southeast. On Pichincha’s lower slopes, patriot forces defeated the Spanish royalists in the Battle of Pichincha in 1822, thus liberating Ecuador.
