Antipodes

For other uses, see Antipode.

"Antipodean" redirects here. For other uses, see Antipodean (disambiguation).

In geography, the antipode (/ˈæntɪˌpoʊd, ænˈtɪpədi/) of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points antipodal (/ænˈtɪpədəl/) to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass through Earth's center. Antipodal points are as far away from each other as possible.^{[note 1]} The North and South Poles are antipodes of each other.

This map shows the antipode of each point on Earth's surface—the points where the blue and yellow overlap are land antipodes; most land has its antipodes in the ocean. This map uses the Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. The yellow areas are the reflections through Earth's center of land masses of the opposite Western Hemisphere.

The same map, from the perspective of the Western Hemisphere. Here the blue areas are the reflections of the Eastern Hemisphere.

In the Northern Hemisphere, "the Antipodes" may refer to Australia and New Zealand, and Antipodeans to their inhabitants.^[2] Geographically, the antipodes of the British Isles are in the Pacific Ocean, south of New Zealand. This gave rise to the name of the Antipodes Islands of New Zealand, which are close to the antipode of London. With the exception of a part of the Perth metropolitan area near Baldivis and Rockingham that is antipodal to Bermuda, the antipodes of Australia are in the North Atlantic Ocean, while parts of Spain, Portugal, France and Morocco are antipodal to New Zealand.

Approximately 15% of land territory is antipodal to other land, representing approximately 4.4% of Earth's surface.^[3] Another source estimates that about 3% of Earth's surface is antipodal land.^[4] The largest antipodal land masses are the Malay Archipelago, antipodal to the Amazon basin and adjoining Andean ranges; east China and Mongolia, and small sections of southeast Russia, antipodal to Argentina and Chile; and Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, antipodal to East Antarctica. There is a general paucity of antipodal land because the Southern Hemisphere has comparatively less land than the Northern Hemisphere and, of that, the antipodes of Australia are in the North Atlantic Ocean, while the antipodes of southern Africa are in the Pacific Ocean.

Geography

Since the antipode of any place on the Earth is the place that is diametrically opposite of it, a line drawn from one to the other will pass through the centre of Earth and form a true diameter.^[5] For example, the antipodes of New Zealand's lower North Island lie in Spain. Most of the Earth's land surfaces have ocean at their antipodes; this is a natural consequence of most of the Earth's surface being covered in water.

The antipode of any place on Earth is distant from it by 180° of longitude and as many degrees to the north of the Equator as the original is to the south (or vice versa); in other words, the latitudes are numerically equal, but one is north and the other south.^[5] The maps shown here are based on this relationship; they show a Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection of the Earth, in yellow, overlaid on which is another map, in blue, shifted horizontally by 180° of longitude and inverted about the Equator with respect to latitude.

Noon at one place is midnight at the other (ignoring daylight saving time and irregularly shaped time zones) and, with the exception of the tropics, the longest day at one point corresponds to the shortest day at the other, and midwinter at one point coincides with midsummer at the other. Sunrise and sunset do not quite oppose each other at antipodes due to refraction of sunlight.

Mathematical description

If the geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) of a point on the Earth's surface are (φ, θ), then the coordinates of the antipodal point are (−φ, θ ± 180°). This relation holds true whether the Earth is approximated as a perfect sphere or as a reference ellipsoid.

In terms of the usual way these geographic coordinates are given, this transformation can be expressed symbolically as

x° N/S y° E/W  ↦  x° S/N (180 − y)° W/E,

that is, for the latitude (the north–south coordinate) the magnitude of the angle remains the same but N is changed to S and vice versa, and for the longitude (the East/West coordinate) the angle is replaced by its supplementary angle while E is exchanged for W. For example, the antipode of the point in China at 37° N 119° E (a few hundred kilometres from Beijing) is the point in Argentina at 37° S 61° W (a few hundred kilometres from Buenos Aires).

Etymology

The word antipodes comes from the Greek: ἀντίποδες (antípodes),^[6] plural of ἀντίπους (antipous), "with feet opposite (ours)",^[7] from ἀντί (antí, “opposite”) + πούς (poús, “foot”). The Greek word is attested in Plato's dialogue Timaeus, already referring to a spherical Earth, explaining the relativity of the terms "above" and "below":

For if there were any solid body in equipoise at the centre of the universe, there would be nothing to draw it to this extreme rather than to that, for they are all perfectly similar; and if a person were to go round the world in a circle, he would often, when standing at the antipodes of his former position, speak of the same point as above and below; for, as I was saying just now, to speak of the whole which is in the form of a globe as having one part above and another below is not like a sensible man.

— Plato^[8]

The term is taken up by Aristotle (De caelo 308a.20), Strabo (Geographica 1.1.13), Plutarch (On the Malice of Herodotus 37) and Diogenes Laërtius (Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers book 3), and was adopted into Latin as antipodes. The Latin word changed its sense from the original "under the feet, opposite side" to "those with the feet opposite", i.e. a bahuvrihi referring to hypothetical people living on the opposite side of the Earth. Medieval illustrations imagine them in some way "inverted", with their feet growing out of their heads, pointing upward.

In this sense, Antipodes first entered English in 1398 in a translation of the 13th century De Proprietatibus Rerum by Bartholomeus Anglicus, translated by John of Trevisa:

Yonde in Ethiopia ben the Antipodes, men that haue theyr fete ayenst our fete.

(In Modern English: Yonder in Ethiopia are the Antipodes, men that have their feet against our feet.)

The modern English singular antipode arose in the 16th or 17th century as a back-formation from antipodes; antipous or the Latinate antipus would have been closer to the original singular. Most dictionaries suggest a pronunciation of /ˈæntɪˌpoʊd/ for this form.^[9][10][11]

Historical significance

Pomponius Mela, the first Roman geographer, asserted that the earth had two habitable zones, a North and South one, but that it would be impossible to get into contact with each other because of the unbearable heat at the Equator (De orbis situ 1.4).^{[note 2]}

 

The Terrestrial Sphere of Crates of Mallus (c. 150 BCE), showing the region of the antipodes in the southern half of the western hemisphere

From the time of Augustine of Hippo, the Christian church was skeptical of the notion. Augustine asserted that "it is too absurd to say that some men might have set sail from this side and, traversing the immense expanse of ocean, have propagated there a race of human beings descended from that one first man."^[13]

In the Early Middle Ages, Isidore of Seville's widely read encyclopedia presented the term "antipodes" or, as he said "antipodas" as referring to antichthones (people who lived on the opposite side of the Earth), as well as to a geographical place:

Apart from these three parts of the world, there exists a fourth part beyond the interior Ocean; it is in the south and is unknown to us because of the burning heat of the Sun; within its borders the fabled Antipodeans are reputed to dwell.^[14]

In using the form antipodas rather than the more usual Latin antipodes Isidore simply transcribed the original Greek αντίποδας, the singular case of the name: the plural case is αντίποδες (antipodes), used in converting the name into Latin. These people came to play a role in medieval discussions about the shape of the Earth.^[15]

In 748, in reply to a letter from Boniface, Pope Zachary declared the belief "that beneath the earth there was another world and other men, another sun and moon" to be heretical. In his letter, Boniface had apparently maintained that Vergilius of Salzburg held such a belief.^{[16][17][18][19]}

The antipodes being an attribute of a spherical Earth, some ancient authors used their perceived absurdity as an argument for a flat Earth.^[20] However, knowledge of the spherical Earth was widespread during the Middle Ages, only occasionally disputed—the medieval dispute surrounding the antipodes mainly concerned the question whether people could live on the opposite side of the earth: since the torrid clime was considered impassable, it would have been impossible to evangelize them. This posed the problem that Christ told the apostles to evangelize all mankind; with regard to the unreachable antipodes, this would have been impossible. Christ would either have appeared a second time, in the antipodes, or left the damned irredeemable. Such an argument was forwarded by the Spanish theologian Alonso Tostado as late as the 15th century and "St. Augustine doubts" was a response to Columbus's proposal to sail westwards to the Indies.^[21]

The author of the Norwegian book Konungs Skuggsjá, from around 1250, discusses the existence of antipodes. He notes that (if they exist) they will see the sun in the north in the middle of the day and that they will have seasons opposite those of the Northern Hemisphere.

Herodotus recorded that Pharaoh Necho II of the 26th Dynasty (610–595 BC) commissioned an expedition of Phoenicians which in three years sailed from the Red Sea around Africa back to the mouth of the Nile, and that "as they sailed on a westerly course round the southern end of Libya (Africa), they had the sun on their right"— to northward of them, proving that they had been in the Southern Hemisphere.^[22] The earliest surviving account by a European who had visited the Southern Hemisphere is that of Marco Polo (who, on his way home in 1292, sailed south of the Malay Peninsula). He noted that it was impossible to see the star Polaris from there.

The idea of dry land in the southern climes, the Terra Australis, was introduced by Ptolemy and appears on European maps as an imaginary continent from the 15th century. Antipodes was what Giovanni Contarini, on his world map of 1506 called the land later named America by Martin Waldseemüller.^[23] When the land discovered by Pedro Alvarez Cabral in April 1500, Brazil, was formally named Santa Cruz by the assembled Portuguese court on 20 May 1503, it was also referred to in the official record of the proceedings as the “Land of the Antipodes”: terra Antipodum.^[24]

The land reached by Columbus in 1492 was identified as that of the Antipodes by the diplomatist Peter Martyr who, in a letter he wrote from Barcelona dated 14 May 1493, said: "A few days since, a certain Christopher Columbus, a Ligurian, returned from the Western Antipodes".^[25] Perhaps influenced by this, Fernão Vaz Dourado in his Atlas of 1571 inscribed over the map of Mexico and adjacent parts of America, Tera Antipodum regis Castelle inventa a Xforo Columbo Januensi (Land of the Antipodes, discovered for the King of Castile by Christopher Columbus of Genoa).^[26]

In spite of having been discovered relatively late by European explorers, Australia was inhabited very early in human history; the ancestors of the Indigenous Australians reached it at least 50,000 years ago.

True trip "around the world"

To make the longest distance trip around the planet, a traveler would have to pass through a set of antipodal points. All meridians can be crossed in one hemisphere—indeed, this is possible by walking in a several-foot-wide circle around one of the poles—but such trips are shorter than a minimum circumnavigation. On the other hand, the greatest straight line distance that could in theory be covered is a trip exactly on the Equator, a distance of 40,075 kilometres (24,901 mi). The Earth's equatorial bulge makes this slightly longer than a north–south trip around the world along a set of meridian lines, which is a distance of 40,008 kilometres (24,860 mi). Any other closed great circle route starting on the equator and traveling at an angle between 0° (an equatorial route) and 90° (a polar route) would be between 40,075 and 40,008 kilometres (24,901 and 24,860 mi). In all of these cases, after half of the world has been traversed, every subsequent point will be antipodal to one already visited.

Air travel between antipodes

Non-stop antipodal flights by commercial aircraft (scheduled)

There are currently no commercial aircraft capable of traveling non-stop between antipodes with a standard full commercial passenger load.

The current world record-holder Airbus A350-900ULR is capable of flying 18,000 kilometres (9,700 nmi; 11,000 mi),^[27] or roughly 90% of an average antipodal distance. Singapore Airlines currently holds the world record for the longest scheduled passenger flight, and utilizes this model in their non-stop Singapore to New York-JFK route SQ23/24.^[28]

In 2019, Qantas completed separate non-stop flights taking 19–20 hours to encompass the 16,013 km (9950 miles) from New York and 17,016 km (10,573 miles) from London, both to Sydney, Australia with a limit of 49 passengers on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and who underwent medical tests on the flight. The London-Sydney direct routes are said to be the world's most profitable ultra-long haul flights annually. Their plans for the same pair of experiments were quickly put on hold due to global travel restrictions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.^[29][30]

Non-stop antipodal flights by commercial aircraft (chartered)

In March 2021, a Comlux 787-8, registered P4-787, flew a non-scheduled (chartered), non-stop flight from Seoul Incheon to Buenos Aires, which are nearly antipodal points. This set a new record for the longest commercial non-stop flight with paying passengers, covering 19,483 kilometres (10,520 nmi; 12,106 mi) in 20 hours 19 minutes.

The business jet variant of the Airbus A350, the ACJ350, which entered into service in 2020,^[31] has a range of 20,550 km (12,770 miles),^[32] enabling it to operate between any two available antipodes. As of September 2021,^[update] there are three ACJ350s now in service globally. The owner of the first ACJ350, the German Government, has already taken it on a close to antipodal flight with a flight from Cologne, Germany to Canberra, Australia in November 2020.^[33] The upcoming Boeing business jet variant, the BBJ 777-8, will also have an antipodal reach with its published range of 21,570 km (13,403 miles).^[34] Both aforementioned variants from Airbus and Boeing are the first aircraft designed to handle flights exceeding the Earth's average antipodal distance of 20,000 km (12,420 miles).

Direct flights

Among flights with fuel stop and crew-change stop but still same flight number, Air New Zealand previously had the world's longest active plane route—the Auckland–Los Angeles–London marathon, at 19,240 km (11,960 mi) over Los Angeles (directly 18,360 km or 11,410 mi)—until the airline cancelled this route late in 2019. The current record holder for such a flight is co-owned by Qantas and British Airways in their operating of the Kangaroo Route's Sydney—Singapore—London flights covering a great circle distance of 17,176 km (10,673 mi; 9,274 nmi).^[35][36]

Future theoretical antipodal routes

A hypothetically almost perfect antipodal flight would be Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport, Morocco (IATA: TNG), to Whangarei Aerodrome, New Zealand (IATA: WRE), whose designated locators are 10,800 nautical miles (20,002 km) apart,^[37] almost the maximum possible distance. However, with only a length of 3,599 ft (1,097 m), Whangarei's runway is too short to accommodate any current (as of 2015^[update]) commercial jet airliner, especially one with the required range. Traveling between them would currently need at least two plane changes.

Other near-antipodal major city pairs include:^{[citation needed]}

• Hamilton, Bermuda and Perth: 19,966 km (12,406 mi) apart
• Taipei and Asuncion: 19,912 km (12,373 mi) apart
• Santiago and Xi'an: 19,897 km (12,363 mi) apart
• Madrid and Wellington: 19,876 km (12,350 mi) apart
• Tangier and Auckland: 19,859 km (12,340 mi) apart
• Jakarta and Bogota: 19,808 km (12,308 mi) apart
• Quito and Kuala Lumpur: 19,700 km (12,200 mi) apart
• Buenos Aires and Shanghai: 19,630 km (12,200 mi) apart
• Hanoi and La Paz: 19,210 km (11,940 mi) apart
• Johannesburg and Honolulu: 19,188 km (11,923 mi) apart

List of antipodes

Earth

 

Some cities and towns which are near-antipodes in equirectangular projection. Blue labels pertain to cyan and brown labels pertain to yellow areas. Areas where cyan and yellow overlap (coloured green) are land antipodes.

Around 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans, and seven-eighths of the Earth's land (when excluding Antarctica) is confined to the land hemisphere, so the majority of locations on land do not have land-based antipodes. About 15% of the earth's land has an antipode on land.^[3] Rough calculation shows that, of the 29% of the earth that is covered by land, if 15% of that has antipodes on land, then about 4% (0.15 × 29% = 4.35%) of the earth's surface has antipodes that are both land surfaces. Spilhaus estimates this at about 3%.^[4]

The two largest human-inhabited antipodal areas are located in East Asia (mainly eastern China) and South America (mainly Argentina and Chile). The two largest monolithic antipodal land areas are most of Chile and Argentina along with eastern and central China and Mongolia, and most of Greenland along with a part of Antarctica. The Australian mainland is the largest landmass with its antipodes entirely in ocean, although some locations of mainland Australia and Tasmania are close to being antipodes of islands (Bermuda, Azores, Puerto Rico) in the North Atlantic Ocean. The largest landmass with antipodes entirely on land is the island of Borneo, whose antipodes are in the Amazon rainforest.

Cities

Exact or almost exact antipodes:

• Christchurch (New Zealand) – A Coruña (Spain)
• Levin (New Zealand) – Ávila (Spain)
• Hamilton (New Zealand) – Córdoba (Spain)
• Santa Vitória do Palmar (Brazil) – Jeju (South Korea)
• Torres (Brazil) – Toshima, Kagoshima (Japan)
• Barra do Quaraí (Brazil) – Zhoushan (China)
• Hong Kong – La Quiaca (Argentina)
• Lianyungang (China) – Junín (Argentina)
• Madrid (Spain) – Weber (New Zealand)
• Mangawhai (New Zealand) – Rock of Gibraltar (British overseas territory)
• Masterton (New Zealand) – Segovia (Spain)
• Nelson (New Zealand) – Mogadouro (Portugal)
• Padang (Indonesia) – Esmeraldas (Ecuador)
• Palembang (Indonesia) – Neiva (Colombia)
• Pekanbaru (Indonesia) – Machachi (Ecuador)
• Tauranga (New Zealand) – Jaén (Spain)
• Ulan Ude (Russia) – Puerto Natales (Chile)
• Wellington (capital of New Zealand) – Alaejos (Valladolid, Spain)
• Whangarei (New Zealand) – Tangier (Morocco)
• Wuhai (China) – Valdivia (Chile)
• Wuhu (China) – Rafaela (Argentina)

To within 100 km (62 mi), with at least one major city (population of at least 1 million):

• Auckland (New Zealand) – Seville and Málaga (Andalusia, Spain)
• Beijing (China) – Bahía Blanca (Argentina)
• Nanjing (China) – Rosario (Argentina)
• Shanghai (China) – Salto (Uruguay)
• Taipei (Taiwan) – Asunción (Paraguay)
• Tianjin (China) – Bahía Blanca (Argentina)
• Xi'an (China) – Santiago, or more precisely Rancagua or San Bernardo (Chile)

Taiwan (formerly called Formosa) is partly antipodal to the province of Formosa in Argentina.

Capital cities within 200 km (120 mi) of each other's antipodes:

• Taipei (Taiwan) – Asunción (Paraguay), ~80 km (50 mi)
• Madrid (Spain) – Wellington (New Zealand), ~150 km (90 mi)
• Bogotá (Colombia) – Jakarta (Indonesia), ~200 km (120 mi)

Other major cities or capitals close to being antipodes:

• Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) – Tokyo (Japan); the host cities of successive Summer Olympic Games (2016 and 2020), ~1,450 km (900 mi)
• Beijing (China) – Buenos Aires (Argentina); both cities have populations in the millions, and have been twinned since 1983, ~540 km (340 mi)
• Shanghai (China) – Buenos Aires (Argentina); Buenos Aires is actually closer (~380 km (240 mi)) to the antipode of Shanghai (Salto, Uruguay) than to the antipode of Beijing (Bahía Blanca)
• Tongchuan (China) – Licantén (Chile)
• Guayaquil (Ecuador) – Medan (Indonesia), ~220 km (140 mi)
• Phnom Penh (Cambodia) – Lima (Peru), ~220 km (140 mi)
• Dili (Timor-Leste) – Paramaribo (Suriname), ~310 km (190 mi)
• Irkutsk (Russia) – Punta Arenas (Chile)
• Suva (Fiji) – Timbuktu (Mali)
• Melbourne and Canberra (Australia) – Azores, Atlantic Ocean (Portugal)
• Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (France) – Antipodes Islands (New Zealand)
• Pago Pago (American Samoa) – Zinder (Niger)
• Barranquilla (Colombia) – Christmas Island (Australia)
• Doha (Qatar) – Pitcairn Island (British overseas territory)
• Hué and Da Nang (Vietnam) – Arequipa (Peru)
• Manila (Philippines) – Cuiabá (Brazil)
• Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) – Cuenca (Ecuador)
• San Juan (Puerto Rico) – Karratha (Australia)
• Limerick (Ireland) – Campbell Islands (New Zealand)
• Arrecife, Lanzarote (Canary Islands) – Norfolk Island
• Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) – Rapa Iti (French Polynesia)
• Bangkok (Thailand) – Lima (Peru)
• Quito (Ecuador) – Singapore
• Perth (Australia) – Hamilton (Bermuda)
• Montevideo (Uruguay) – Gwangju (South Korea)

Cities and geographic features

 

The villages of Alzon, France and Waitangi, New Zealand are an example of antipodal settlements.

Gibraltar is approximately antipodal to Te Ārai about 85 km (53 mi) north of Auckland, New Zealand. This illustrates the old yet correct saying that the sun never sets on the British Empire; the sun still does not set on the Commonwealth of Nations.

The northern part of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France, is antipodal to some thinly populated desert in Mauritania, a part of the former French West Africa. Portions of Suriname, a former Dutch colony, are antipodal to Sulawesi, an Indonesian island spelled Celebes when it was part of the Netherlands East Indies. Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines, is antipodal to eastern Bolivia. As with the British Empire, the sun set neither on the French Empire, the Dutch Empire, nor the Spanish Empire at their peaks.

Santa Vitória do Palmar, the most southerly town of more than 10,000 people in Brazil, is antipodal to Jeju Island, the southernmost territory of South Korea.

Hawaii is antipodal to parts of Botswana. The Big Island of Hawaii is antipodal to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, with the island's largest city, Hilo, antipodal to Nxai Pan National Park.

Desolate Kerguelen Island is antipodal to an area of thinly inhabited plains on the border between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and the US state of Montana. The only permanent settlement on Kerguelen Island, the research station Port-aux-Français, is antipodal to fields 10 km (6.2 mi) northeast of Senate, Saskatchewan. Other Canadian towns with antipodes on Kerguelen Island include: Consul, Nashlyn and Govenlock in the vicinity of Senate, and in Alberta Eagle Butte, Elkwater and Manyberries as well as the Red Coat Trail between Orion, Alberta and Etzikom. The northern part of Liberty County, Montana, especially the communities Goldstone, Fox Crossing and Sage Creek Colony, also have antipodes on Kerguelen Island.

St. Paul Island and Amsterdam Island are antipodal to thinly populated parts of the eastern part of the US state of Colorado. They are situated ca. 10.2 km (6.3 mi) south-south-east of Firstview and 30.5 km (19.0 mi) south-south-west of Granada, Colorado, respectively. Together with the northern part of Liberty County, Montana, they are the only three areas of the Contiguous United States with antipodes on land.

The north-eastern coast of Alaska from Utqiaġvik (former Barrow) over Prudhoe Bay to the Canadian border, and the coasts of the Canadian territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, are antipodal to Antarctica.

The Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an uninhabited Australian territory, is antipodal to an area in central Saskatchewan, including the towns of Leask and Shellbrook.

Tigres Island, the largest uninhabited island of Angola, is approximately antipodal to Johnston atoll, which is the third largest uninhabited island of the United States.

Easter Island is antipodal to an area close to Desert National Park, 35 km (22 mi) from Jaisalmer, India. The only town on Easter Island, Hanga Roa, is antipodal to the village of Serawa 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Jaisalmer. Serawa is the only village in India to be antipodal to a human settlement. Its neighbouring villages Mokla and the northern part of Bhadasar also have antipodes on Easter Island. The small, rocky, uninhabited island of Sala y Gómez, 391 km (243 mi) east-northeast of Easter Island, is antipodal to an area in the city of Ajmer, India, just east of Ana Sagar Lake. All the rest of India has its antipodes in the sea.

Kiritimati, the largest island of Kiribati and the largest coral atoll in the world, is antipodal to Salonga National Park, which is the largest national park of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the largest tropical rainforest reserve in Africa.

Serra da Estrela Natural Park, the largest natural park of Portugal, is antipodal to Kahurangi National Park, the second largest national park of New Zealand.

South Georgia Island is antipodal to the northernmost part of Sakhalin Island.

Lake Baikal is partially antipodal to the Straits of Magellan.

The Russian Antarctic research base Bellingshausen Station is antipodal to a land location in Russian Siberia.

Rottnest Island, off the coast of Western Australia, is approximately antipodal to Bermuda.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, is almost antipodal to Nicaragua's Corn Islands.

Flores Island, the westernmost island of the Azores, is nearly antipodal to Flinders Island between Tasmania and the Australian mainland.

Point Nemo, the point in the South Pacific Ocean most distant from any other land, is precisely opposite a desolate piece of desert in western Kazakhstan.

By definition, the North Pole and the South Pole are antipodes.

Null Island, 0°N 0°E / 0°N 0°E / 0; 0, at the intersection of the prime meridian and the equator, has its antipodes at 0°N 180°E / 0°N 180°E / 0; 180, at the intersection of the antimeridian and the equator. This point lies northeast of Nikunau in the Gilbert Islands and southwest of Baker Island, a United States territory.

As can be seen on the purple/blue map, the Pacific Ocean is so large that it stretches halfway around the world; parts of the Pacific off the coast of Peru are antipodal to parts of the same ocean off the coast of Southeast Asia. For example, the island of Ko Chang—which is the second or third largest island in Thailand—is nearly antipodal to San Lorenzo Island, which is the largest island of Peru.

The antipodes of the Antipodes Islands, considered by early European explorers to be antipodal to the United Kingdom, are the town of Barfleur on France's Cotentin Peninsula.

The remote Pacific atoll of Tematagi is antipodal to the Islamic holy city of Mecca, meaning the direction of Muslim prayer would vary widely from that of surrounding islands.

Angkor Wat is roughly antipodal to Machu Picchu.

Countries

The following countries are opposite more than one other country. (Antarctica is considered separately from any territorial claims.)

Country	No. of antipodal countries	Antipodal countries
New Zealand	12	Mainland: Spain, Portugal, Morocco, UK (Gibraltar) Chatham Islands: France Kermadec Islands: Algeria Niue: Niger Tokelau: Nigeria Cook Islands: Chad, (Penrhyn) Central African Republic, (Mangaia) Libya, (Pukapuka) Cameroon, (Nassau) Nigeria
France	12	Mainland: New Zealand (Chatham Islands) Southern & Antarctic Lands: Canada, United States French Guiana: Indonesia New Caledonia: Mauritania, Western Sahara Wallis and Futuna: Niger French Polynesia: Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Ethiopia
Brazil	9	China, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia
Indonesia	8	Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana, France (French Guiana)
Peru	7	Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China
United States	7	Mainland: France (Southern & Antarctic Lands) Hawaii: Botswana, Namibia Alaska: Antarctica Palmyra Atoll & Kingman Reef: DR Congo American Samoa: Niger, Nigeria
United Kingdom	7	Falklands: China, Russia Gibraltar: New Zealand South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands: Russia Pitcairn: Saudi Arabia, UAE Bermuda: Australia
China	6	Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, UK (Falkland Islands)
Niger	5	Samoa, Tonga, United States (American Samoa), France (Wallis and Futuna), New Zealand (Niue)
Antarctica	5	Greenland, Canada, United States, Russia, Norway
Argentina	4	China, Taiwan, Mongolia, Russia
Malaysia	4	Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Colombia
Chile	4	China, Mongolia, Russia; Easter Island: India
Kiribati	4	Phoenix Islands (Orona): Nigeria; Line Islands: DR Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan
Russia	4	Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, United Kingdom (Falklands etc.)
Australia	3	Mainland: Bermuda (UK), Portugal (Azores) Heard Island and McDonald Islands: Canada Christmas Island: Colombia
Ecuador	3	Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia
Philippines	3	Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay
Vanuatu	3	Mauritania, Senegal, (Mere Lava) Mali
Paraguay	3	Taiwan, Japan, Philippines
Mali	3	Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands
Colombia	3	Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia (Christmas Island)
Nigeria	3	New Zealand (Tokelau, Cook Ils), United States (American Samoa), Kiribati
Canada	3	Antarctica, France (Kerguelen), Australia (Heard Island and McDonald Islands)
Taiwan	2	Paraguay, Argentina
Tonga	2	Algeria, Niger
Mongolia	2	Chile, Argentina
Tuvalu	2	Ghana, (Nanumanga, Nanumea) Ivory Coast
Fiji	2	Mali; (Rotuma) Burkina Faso
Solomon Islands (Temoto)	2	Guinea, (Tikopia) Mali
Uruguay	2	China, South Korea
Bolivia	2	China, Philippines
Sudan	2	France (French Polynesia), Kiribati
Mauritania	2	France (New Caledonia), Vanuatu
Algeria	2	Tonga, New Zealand (Kermadec)
Central African Republic	2	Kiribati, New Zealand (Cook Ils)
Saudi Arabia	2	France (French Polynesia), UK (Pitcairn)
DR Congo	2	Kiribati, United States (Palmyra, Kingman Reef)
Japan	2	(Ryukyu) Brazil, Paraguay
South Korea	2	Uruguay, Brazil
Norway	2	(Svalbard) Antarctica, (Peter I Island) Russia
Portugal	2	Mainland: New Zealand Azores: Australia (Melbourne)

Countries matching up with just one other country are Morocco, Spain, Chad, Libya, Cameroon (with the Cook Islands of New Zealand); Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia (with French Polynesia); Senegal (Vanuatu); the UAE (Pitcairn); Ghana, Ivory Coast (Tuvalu); Burkina Faso (Rotuma in Fiji); Guinea (Solomon Islands); India (Easter Island); Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand (all with Peru); Singapore (Ecuador); Brunei, Palau, Micronesia (all with Brazil); Venezuela and Suriname (Indonesia).

Of these, the larger countries which are entirely antipodal to land are the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Fiji, Vanuatu, Brunei, and Samoa. Chile was as well prior to its expansion into the Atacama with the War of the Pacific.

Geological features antipodal to impact basins

In a number of cases on extraterrestrial bodies in the Solar System, unusual geologic features (e.g., jumbled terrain or unique volcanic constructs) are located antipodal to major impact basins. It has been hypothesized that this results from focusing of some of the seismic waves (p-waves and surface waves) produced by an impact at its antipode.^[38]

• Caloris Basin – "Weird Terrain" (Mercury)^[38]
• Mare Orientale – Mare Marginis (The Moon)^[38]
• Mare Imbrium – Mare Ingenii (The Moon)^[38]
• Hellas Planitia – Alba Mons (Mars)^[39][40][41]
• Isidis Planitia – Noctis Labyrinthus (Mars)^[39][40][41]
• Kerwan – Ahuna Mons (Ceres)^[42]

In popular culture

• In the Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing, Benedick offers to travel from Messina to the Antipodes in an apparent attempt to avoid the company of Beatrice.^[43]
• On the TV show Angel, the Deeper Well is a hole that goes through the world, with its entrance in the Cotswolds in England and its antipode in New Zealand.
• At the closing ceremonies of the Rio 2016 Olympics, antipodes were used as a tool to invite viewers to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, including an image of the video game character Mario using his pipes to travel between Tokyo and Rio, arriving at the closing ceremonies.^[44]
• In the 2012 film Total Recall, a gravity train called "The Fall" goes through the center of the Earth to allow people to commute between Western Europe and Australia.^[45][46]
• In 2006, Ze Frank challenged viewers of his daily webcast the show with zefrank to create an "Earth sandwich" by simultaneously placing two pieces of bread at antipodal points on the Earth's surface. The challenge was successfully completed by viewers in Spain and New Zealand.^[47]
• The song “Ana Ng” by alternative rock band They Might Be Giants is about someone who believes that their soulmate lives antipodal to them. John Linnell, the singer and songwriter, has since joked that because the name Ng is Vietnamese and Peru is the antipode of Vietnam, “…the song, presumably, is about somebody in Peru, writing about somebody in Vietnam. But I didn’t know that when I wrote it.”^[48]

See also

• Antichthones
• Antipodal hotspot
• Antipodal point
• Antipodes Islands
• Clime
• Pole of inaccessibility
• Spherical Earth

Notes

1. In British English, "antipodes" can be either plural or singular.^[1]
2. Almost the same assertion had been previously made in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 1, lines 45–51. See the fifth paragraph in More's translation of "The Creation".^[12]

References

1. "antipodes". Dictionary.com. Retrieved December 2, 2017.
2. . Compact Oxford English Dictionary. 2008. Archived from the original on October 1, 2005. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
3. Sawe, Benjamin Elisha (April 25, 2017). "What Is An Antipode In Geography?". World Atlas. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
4. Spilhaus, Athelstan (1991). Atlas of the World with Geophysical Boundaries: Showing Oceans, Continents and Tectonic Plates in Their Entirety. American Philosophical Society. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-87169-196-5. Retrieved March 16, 2019. Only about three percent of the surface of the earth is anitpodal land.
5.   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Antipodes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 133–134.
6. ἀντίποδες, Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
7. ἀντίπους Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
8. Plato, Timaeus 63a, translated by Benjamin Jowett, (Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill, 1949).[1]
9. "Definition of Antipode". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
10. . Lexico. Archived from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
11. "Definition of Antipode". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
12. More, B. (1922). "Ovid's Metamorphoses". Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co. OCLC 715284718. Retrieved 2019-04-07.
13. De Civitate Dei, Book XVI, Chapter 9 — Whether We are to Believe in the Antipodes, translated by Rev. Marcus Dods, D.D.; from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College
14. "Extra tres autem partes orbis quarta pars trans Oceanum interior est in meridie, quae solis ardore incognita nobis est; in cuius finibus antipodas fabulose inhabitare produntur”; Isidorus Hispalensis (Isidore of Seville), Etymologiae, Venice, Peter Loslein, 1483, liber xiv, cap.v, "De Libya", p.71v.[2]
15. Stevens, Wesley M. (1980), "The Figure of the Earth in Isidore's "De natura rerum"", Isis, 71 (2): 274, doi:10.1086/352464, JSTOR 230175, S2CID 133430429; Robert J. King, “The Antipodes on Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 World Map”, The Globe, no.91, 2022, pp. 43–60.
16. Loughlin, James (1907), Antipodes in The Catholic Encyclopedia
17. ¥Hasse, Wolfgang; Reinhold, Meyer, eds. (1993), The Classical Tradition and the Americas, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-011572-7
18. Moretti, Gabriella (1993), The Other World and the 'Antipodes'. The Myth of Unknown Countries between Antiquity and the Renaissance, p. 265, ISBN 9783110115727. In Hasse & Reinhold (1993, pp.241–84).{{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
19. MGH, Epistolae Selectae, 1, 80, pp. 178–9 2014-04-11 at the Wayback Machine; translation in M. L. W. Laistner, Thought and Letters in Western Europe, pp. 184–5.; see also Jaffe, Biblioth. rerum germ., III, 191
20. Lactantius (311), "The Divine Institutes, Book III, Chapter XXIV", in Roberts, D.D., Rev. Alexander; Donaldson, LL.D., James (eds.), THE ANTE-NICENE FATHERS, vol. VII, Grand Rapids, Michigan: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing (published 1979), pp. 94–95, retrieved July 20, 2013
21. Columbus, Ferdinand (1960) [1543]. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus. Translated by Keen, Benjamin. London: The Folio Society. p. 62.
22. Herodotus, The Histories 4.42.
23. Giovanni Contarini, Orbem terrarum in planam et maria omnia mappam Europam Lybiam atque Asiam Antipodesque redegit (“The world and all its seas reduced on a plane map, Europe, Lybia [Africa], Asia, and the Antipodes"); Robert J. King, “The Antipodes on Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 World Map”, The Globe, no.91, 2022, pp. 43–60.
24. Abel Fontoura da Costa, Cartas das ilhas de Cabo Verde de Valentim Fernandes, Lisbon, Divisao de Publicacoes e Biblioteca, Agencia Geral das Colonias, 1939, p.93; Oscar Marcondes de Sousa, “O Ato Notarial de Valentim Fernandes de 20 de maio de 1503: Navegação dos Portugueses para além do Circulo Equinocial”, Revista de História, vol.16, no.34, 1958, pp.375, 378; Benjamin B. Olshin, A Sea Discovered: Pre-Columbian Conceptions and Depictions of the Atlantic Ocean, Toronto, University of Toronto, 1994, p.141.
25. “Poft paucos inde dies rediit ab antipodibus occiduis Chriftophorus quidam Colonus vir Ligur”; P. Martire ad Io. Borromeo, pridie id.Maii mccccxciii, in Pietro Martire d' Anghiera, Opus epistolarum Petri Martyris Anglerii Mediolanensis, Aedibus Michaelis de Eguia, 1530, lib.VI, f.xxxiv.
26. Atlas de Fernão Vaz Dourado: reprodcão fidelissima do exemplar do Torre do Tombo, datado de Goa, 1571, Porto, Livraria Civilizacao, 1948, fol.18.
27. . 2017-05-13. Archived from the original on 2017-05-13. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
28. ""Singapore Airlines To Begin Non-Stop Services To New York's JFK International Airport"". Singapore Airlines.
29. "Qantas completes longest non-stop New York-Sydney flight". AP NEWS. October 20, 2019.
30. Lewis, Aimee. "Qantas test flight completes record 19-hour non-stop flight from New York to Sydney". CNN.
31. Madureira, Catarina (2020-05-07). "Luftwaffe Receives First Airbus ACJ350 XWB". SamChui.com. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
32. . Airbus. Archived from the original on 2021-01-10. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
33. Schlappig, Ben (2020-11-24). "German Air Force's A350 Flies Around The World". One Mile at a Time. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
34. "Boeing Launches Longest-Range Business Jet Ever with BBJ 777X". investors.boeing.com. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
35. "BA16 schedule. (British Airways flight: Sydney -> London via Singapore)". info.flightmapper.net. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
36. "QF1 schedule. (Qantas flight: Sydney -> London via Singapore)". info.flightmapper.net. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
37. Great Circle Mapper Access date: 2017-09-24,
38. Schultz, P. H.; Gault, D. E. (1975). "Seismic effects from major basin formations on the moon and Mercury". The Moon. 12 (2): 159–177. Bibcode:1975Moon...12..159S. doi:10.1007/BF00577875. S2CID 121225801.
39. Peterson, J. E. (March 1978). "Antipodal Effects of Major Basin-Forming Impacts on Mars". Lunar and Planetary Science. IX: 885–886. Bibcode:1978LPI.....9..885P.
40. Williams, D. A.; Greeley, R. (1991). "The Formation of Antipodal-Impact Terrains on Mars" (PDF). Lunar and Planetary Science. XXII: 1505–1506. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
41. Williams, D. A.; Greeley, R. (1994). "Assessment of antipodal-impact terrains on Mars". Icarus. 110 (2): 196–202. Bibcode:1994Icar..110..196W. doi:10.1006/icar.1994.1116.
42. Ruesch, O.; Platz, T.; Schenk, P.; McFadden, L. A.; Castillo-Rogez, J. C.; Quick, L. C.; Byrne, S.; Preusker, F.; OBrien, D. P.; Schmedemann, N.; Williams, D. A.; Li, J.- Y.; Bland, M. T.; Hiesinger, H.; Kneissl, T.; Neesemann, A.; Schaefer, M.; Pasckert, J. H.; Schmidt, B. E.; Buczkowski, D. L.; Sykes, M. V.; Nathues, A.; Roatsch, T.; Hoffmann, M.; Raymond, C. A.; Russell, C. T. (2016-09-02). "Cryovolcanism on Ceres". Science. 353 (6303): aaf4286. Bibcode:2016Sci...353.4286R. doi:10.1126/science.aaf4286. PMID 27701087.
43. "Much Ado About Nothing Act 2, Scene 1 Translation". litcharts.com. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
44. "Tokyo's party started the moment Rio 2016 said goodbye". International Olympic Committee. 2017-08-22. Retrieved 2020-01-29. Remarkably, it was all the brainchild of one of Abe's predecessors. "The starting point of our performance was that Brazil is on the opposite side of the world from Japan, and so President Mori (Yoshiro Mori, Prime Minister of Japan 2000–2001 and now President of TOCOG) came up with the idea of showing a tunnel being bored between the famous 'Scramble' pedestrian crossing in Shibuya (Tokyo) all the way through the earth to the Olympic Stadium in Rio, and having Prime Minister Abe make an appearance," Takaya explained.
45. Martinez, Jason (2012-08-13). "The Science of Total Recall". Wolfram-Alpha Blog. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
46. Rothman, Lily (August 6, 2012). "Spoiler Alert: The 8,000-Mile Hole in Total Recall". Time. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
47. . the show with zefrank. Archived from the original on 2020-02-17. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
48. They Might Be Giants- MTV Interview about Ana Ng, retrieved 2023-11-11

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Antipodes maps.

• Antipodes Map Interactive map which draws an imaginary tunnel to the other side of the Earth.
• findLatitudeAndLongitude, interactive tool to show antipodes
• 3D dual globe schematic 3D representation of the earth and the anti-earth on the same place.
• Map Tunneling Tool Tunnel to the Other Side of the Earth
• Calculate the other side of the world
• Antipodes 2013-05-16 at the Wayback Machine An online and photographic project which pairs webcam images from places on opposite sides of the globe.
• Map Tunneller Find out what part of the earth is directly below you using the interactive maps
• Antipodal hotspots and bipolar catastrophes: Were oceanic large-body impacts the cause?
• Antipode Finder Tool to find the opposite side of the world by city or country.
• Antipodes map helps find the antipodes (the other side of the world) of any place on Earth.