:''The following article is about the Loja Canton. For the Loja Province, see

Loja Province Loja Province () is one of 24 Provinces of Ecuador, provinces in Ecuador and shares its southern border on the west with El Oro Province, on the north with El Azuay, and on the east with Zamora-Chinchipe Province, Zamora-Chinchipe. Founded on i ...

and for the city, see

Loja, Ecuador Loja (), formerly Loxa and fully City of the Immaculate Conception of Loja (), is the capital of Ecuador's Loja Province. It is located in the Cuxibamba valley in the south of the country, sharing borders with the provinces of Zamora-Chinchip ...

.'' Loja Canton is located in the southeast of the Province of Loja bordering the

Podocarpus National Park Podocarpus National Park () is a national park located in the provinces of Zamora Chinchipe and Loja, in the south-east of Ecuador. It was created in 1982. It covers , from two spurs of the eastern range of the Andes to the basins of the Na ...

and the Province of Zamora-Chinchipe in the east and south, and the cantons of Saraguro in the north, Catamayo, Gonzanama, and Quilanga in the west. The principal city is Loja which is also the provincial capital. It is also home to Vilcabamba, the "Valley of Longevity."

Demographics

Ethnic groups as of the

Ecuadorian census The Ecuadorian census is conducted by the governmental institution known as ''INEC'', ''Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas y Censos'' (National Institute of Statistics and Census).INEC The census in Ecuador is conducted every 10 years, and its obj ...

of 2010: *

Mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

90.2% *

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

3.5% *

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

2.6% *

Afro-Ecuadorian Afro-Ecuadorians (), also known as Black Ecuadorians (), are Ecuadorians of predominantly Sub-Saharan African descent. History and background Most Afro-Ecuadorians are the descendants of enslaved Africans who were transported by predominantly B ...

2.5% *Montubio 1.1% *Other 0.1%

Sights

* City of Loja * National Shrine of Our Lady of El Cisne. * Reynaldo Espinoza Botanical Gardens (one of the world's highest-altitude botanical gardens, at 2100m) * The Incan ruins of de Ciudadela, Quinara, Taranza, and Llano Grande.

Traditional celebrations

* Border Integration Fair, September 8 * Province Day, September 18 * Independence of Loja, November 18 * Founding of Loja, December 8

References

Cantons of Loja Province {{ecuador-geo-stub