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In geography, the antipode () of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points ''antipodal'' () 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. The North and South Poles are antipodes of each other. In the
Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
, "the Antipodes" may refer to
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and New Zealand, and Antipodeans to their inhabitants. Geographically, the antipodes of Britain and Ireland 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. Another source estimates that about 3% of Earth's surface is antipodal land. The largest antipodal land masses are the
Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...
, antipodal to the
Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
and adjoining Andean ranges; east
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and Mongolia, antipodal to Argentina; and Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, antipodal to
East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains. It lies almost ...
. 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

The antipode of any place on the Earth is the place that is diametrically opposite it, so a line drawn from the one to the other passes through the centre of Earth and forms a true diameter. 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 being 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 The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
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. 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 Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours. ...
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 An Earth ellipsoid or Earth spheroid is a mathematical figure approximating the Earth's form, used as a reference frame for computations in geodesy, astronomy, and the geosciences. Various different ellipsoids have been used as approximations ...
. 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 In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle. Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles are ...
while E is exchanged for W. For example, the antipode of the point in China at (a few hundred kilometres from Beijing) is the point in Argentina at (a few hundred kilometres from Buenos Aires).


Etymology

The word ''antipodes'' comes from the Greek: ἀντίποδες (antípodes), plural of ἀντίπους (antipous), "with feet opposite (ours)", from ἀντί (antí, “opposite”) + πούς ( poús, “foot”). The Greek word is attested in Plato's dialogue ''
Timaeus Timaeus (or Timaios) is a Greek name. It may refer to: * ''Timaeus'' (dialogue), a Socratic dialogue by Plato *Timaeus of Locri, 5th-century BC Pythagorean philosopher, appearing in Plato's dialogue *Timaeus (historian) (c. 345 BC-c. 250 BC), Greek ...
'', already referring to a spherical Earth, explaining the relativity of the terms "above" and "below": The term is taken up by Aristotle (''De caelo'' 308a.20),
Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
(''
Geographica The ''Geographica'' (Ancient Greek: Γεωγραφικά ''Geōgraphiká''), or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Ancient Greek, Greek and attributed to Strabo, an educated citizen ...
'' 1.1.13), Plutarch ('' On the Malice of Herodotus'' 37) and
Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a ...
(''
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sourc ...
'' 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: (''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 for this form.


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). From the time of St Augustine, 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." In the Early Middle Ages,
Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
's widely read
encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
presented the term "antipodes" as referring to
antichthones Antichthones, in geography, are those peoples who inhabit the antipodes, regions on opposite sides of the Earth. The word is compounded of the Greek ''ὰντὶ'' ("opposed") and ''χθών'' ("earth"). Classical and Medieval Europe considere ...
(people who lived on the opposite side of the Earth), as well as to a geographical place; these people came to play a role in medieval discussions about the
shape of the Earth Figure of the Earth is a term of art in geodesy that refers to the size and shape used to model Earth. The size and shape it refers to depend on context, including the precision needed for the model. A sphere is a well-known historical approxim ...
. In 748, in reply to a letter from
Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...
,
Pope Zachary Pope Zachary ( la, Zacharias; 679 – March 752) was the bishop of Rome from 28 November 741 to his death. He was the last pope of the Byzantine Papacy. Zachary built the original church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, forbade the traffic of slav ...
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. The antipodes being an attribute of a spherical Earth, some ancient authors used their perceived absurdity as an argument for a flat Earth. 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. 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. The earliest surviving account by a European who had visited the Southern Hemisphere is that of
Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
(who, on his way home in 1292, sailed south of the
Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...
). He noted that it was impossible to see the star
Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...
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 Giovanni Contarini (1549–1605) was an Italian painter of the late Renaissance. History Born in Venice, Contarini was a contemporary of Palma il Giovane. He was a great student of the works of Tintoretto and Titian and is declared to have been a ...
, on his world map of 1506 called the land later named ''America'' by Martin Waldseemüller. In spite of having been discovered relatively late by European explorers,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
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 maximum 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 . 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 . Any other closed
great circle In mathematics, a great circle or orthodrome is the circular intersection of a sphere and a plane passing through the sphere's center point. Any arc of a great circle is a geodesic of the sphere, so that great circles in spherical geomet ...
route starting on the equator and traveling at an angle between 0° (an equatorial route) and 90° (a polar route) would be between . 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 or roughly 90% of an average antipodal distance. The current world record holder for the longest scheduled passenger flight, Singapore Airlines, utilizes this model in their non-stop Singapore to New York-JFK route SQ23/24. In 2019, Qantas completed separate non-stop flights taking 19–20 hours to encompass the 16,013 km from New York and 17,016 km 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. Future flights for the same pair of experiments are currently put on hold due to global travel restrictions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.


Non-stop antipodal flights by commercial aircraft (chartered)

In March 2021, a
Comlux Comlux is an aviation company based in Switzerland, headquartered in Zürich. It provides services in the fields of aircraft operations, charter management, aircraft sales, acquisitions, maintenance, and upgrades. Overview Comlux Aviation Comlu ...
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 in 20 hours 19 minutes. The business jet variant of the Airbus A350, the ACJ350, which entered into service in 2020, has a range of 20,550 km, enabling it to operate between any two available antipodes. 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 Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The c ...
in November 2020. The upcoming Boeing business jet variant, the BBJ 777-8, will also have an antipodal reach with its published range of 21,570 km. 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.


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 AucklandLos AngelesLondon marathon, at over Los Angeles (directly )—until the airline cancelled this route late in 2019. The current record holder for such a flight is Air China's Beijing - Madrid - São Paulo flight which flies .


Future theoretical antipodal routes

A hypothetically almost perfect antipodal flight would be Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport, Morocco (
IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...
: TNG), to
Whangarei Aerodrome Whangārei Airport is an airport to the south east of Whangārei city, in the suburb of Onerahi, on the east coast of Northland in the North Island of New Zealand. The airport has a single terminal with two gates. History The first aerodrome ...
, New Zealand (IATA: WRE), whose designated locators are apart, almost the maximum possible distance. However, with only a length of , Whangarei's runway is too short to accommodate any current () commercial jet airliner, especially one with the required range. Traveling between them would currently need at least two plane changes. Other near-antipodes major city pairs include: *
Hamilton, Bermuda The City of Hamilton, in Pembroke Parish, is the territorial capital of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It is the territory's financial centre and a major port and tourist destination. Its population of 854 (2016) is one of the sm ...
and Perth: apart * Taipei and Asuncion: apart * Santiago and Xi'an: apart * Madrid and Wellington: apart * Tangier and Auckland: apart *
Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
and Bogota: apart *
Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...
and Kuala Lumpur: apart * Buenos Aires and Shanghai: apart * Hanoi and
La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
: apart * Johannesburg and Honolulu: apart


List of antipodes


Earth

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 The land hemisphere and water hemisphere are the hemispheres of Earth containing the largest possible total areas of land and ocean, respectively. By definition (assuming that the entire surface can be classed as either "land" or "ocean"), the t ...
, so the majority of locations on land do not have land-based antipodes. About 15% of the earth's land has an antipodes on land. 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%. 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 Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m a ...
( Spain) * Hamilton ( New Zealand) – Córdoba ( Spain) *
Santa Vitória do Palmar Santa Vitória do Palmar (lit. "Saint Victoria of the Palms") is a Brazilian city and municipality. It is the southernmost municipality in Brazil, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. To the west of the municipality is the Lagoa Mirim a ...
( Brazil) – Jeju ( South Korea) * Torres ( Brazil) – Toshima, Kagoshima (
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
) *
Barra do Quaraí Barra do Quaraí (also ''Quarahim'' in archaic Portuguese spelling) is a Brazilian municipality located near the border with Uruguay (on the Rio Quaraí) and Argentina on the Uruguay River. The town became the westernmost city in the state of Rio ...
( Brazil) –
Zhoushan Zhoushan , formerly romanized as Chusan, is an urbanized archipelago with the administrative status of a prefecture-level city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. It consists of an archipelago of islands at the southern mouth of H ...
(
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) * Hong KongLa Quiaca ( Argentina) * Lianyungang (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) – Junín ( Argentina) * Madrid ( Spain) –
Weber Weber (, or ; German: ) is a surname of German origin, derived from the noun meaning " weaver". In some cases, following migration to English-speaking countries, it has been anglicised to the English surname 'Webber' or even 'Weaver'. Notable pe ...
( New Zealand) * Mangawhai ( New Zealand) –
Rock of Gibraltar The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabel-al-Tariq) is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British territory of Gibraltar, near the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and near the entrance to the Mediterr ...
(
British overseas territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...
) *
Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...
( New Zealand) – Segovia ( Spain) * Nelson ( New Zealand) – Mogadouro ( Portugal) * Padang ( Indonesia) – Esmeraldas ( Ecuador) *
Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...
( Indonesia) – Neiva (
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
) *
Pekanbaru Pekanbaru is the capital of Indonesian province of Riau, and a major economic center on the eastern part of Sumatra, Sumatra Island. Its name is derived from the Malay language, Malay words for 'new market' ('pekan' is market and 'baru' is new). ...
( 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 China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) – Valdivia ( Chile) * Wuhu (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) – Rafaela ( Argentina) To within , with at least one major city (population of at least 1 million): * Auckland ( New Zealand) – Seville and
Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...
( Andalusia, Spain) * Beijing (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) –
Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 3 ...
( Argentina) * Nanjing (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) –
Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...
( Argentina) * Shanghai (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) – Salto ( Uruguay) * Taipei ( Taiwan) – Asunción ( Paraguay) * Tianjin (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) –
Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 3 ...
( Argentina) * Xi'an (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) – Santiago, or more precisely Rancagua or San Bernardo ( Chile) Taiwan (formerly called Formosa) is partly antipodal to the province of
Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...
in Argentina. Capital cities within of each other's antipodes: * Taipei ( Taiwan) – Asunción ( Paraguay), ~ * Madrid ( Spain) – Wellington ( New Zealand), ~ *
Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
(
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
) –
Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
( Indonesia), ~ Other major cities or capitals close to being antipodes: * Rio de Janeiro ( Brazil) – Tokyo (
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
); the host cities of successive Summer Olympic Games (
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
and
2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
), ~ * Beijing (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) – Buenos Aires ( Argentina); both cities have populations in the millions, and have been
twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...
since 1983, ~ * Shanghai (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) – Buenos Aires ( Argentina); Buenos Aires is actually closer (~) to the antipode of Shanghai ( Salto, Uruguay) than to the antipode of Beijing (
Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 3 ...
) * Tongchuan (
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) – Licantén ( Chile) * Guayaquil ( Ecuador) – Medan ( Indonesia), ~ *
Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
( Cambodia) – Lima ( Peru), ~ *
Dili Dili (Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...
( Timor-Leste) – Paramaribo (
Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
), ~ *
Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...
( Russia) – Punta Arenas ( Chile) *
Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...
(
Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
) – Timbuktu (Mali) * Melbourne and Canberra (
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
) – Azores, Atlantic Ocean ( Portugal) * Cherbourg-en-Cotentin ( France) – Antipodes Islands ( New Zealand) * Pago Pago (American Samoa) – Zinder (Niger) * Barranquilla (
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
) – Christmas Island (
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
) * Doha (Qatar) – Pitcairn Island (
British overseas territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...
) * Hué and Da Nang (Vietnam) – Arequipa ( Peru) * Manila (Philippines) – Cuiabá ( Brazil) * Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) – Cuenca, Ecuador, Cuenca ( Ecuador) * San Juan (PR), San Juan (Puerto Rico) – Karratha (
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
) * 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 Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...
( Ecuador) – Singapore * Perth, Western Australia, Perth (
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
) – Hamilton, Bermuda, Hamilton (Bermuda) * Montevideo ( Uruguay) – Gwangju ( South Korea)


Cities and geographic features

Gibraltar is approximately antipodal to Te Arai, Te Arai Beach about north of Auckland, New Zealand. This illustrates the old yet correct saying that the The empire on which the sun never sets, 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 Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
, 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 colonial empire, French Empire, the Dutch Empire, nor the Spanish Empire at their peaks.
Santa Vitória do Palmar Santa Vitória do Palmar (lit. "Saint Victoria of the Palms") is a Brazilian city and municipality. It is the southernmost municipality in Brazil, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. To the west of the municipality is the Lagoa Mirim a ...
, the most southerly town of more than 10,000 people in Brazil, is antipodal to Jeju-do, Jeju Island, the southernmost territory of South Korea. Hawaii is antipodal to parts of Botswana. The Hawaii (island), 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 northeast of Senate, Saskatchewan. Other Canadian towns with antipodes on Kerguelen Island include: Consul, Saskatchewan, Consul, Nashlyn and Govenlock in the vicinity of Senate, and in Alberta Eagle Butte, Alberta, Eagle Butte, Elkwater, Alberta, 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, Montana, Goldstone, Fox Crossing and Sage Creek Colony, also have antipodes on Kerguelen Island. Île Saint-Paul, St. Paul Island and Île Amsterdam, Amsterdam Island are antipodal to thinly populated parts of the eastern part of the US state of Colorado. They are situated ca. south-south-east of Firstview, Colorado, Firstview and 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, Saskatchewan, Leask and Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, 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, from Jaisalmer, India. The only town on Easter Island, Hanga Roa, is antipodal to the village of Serawa 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 Isla Salas y Gomez, Sala y Gómez, 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 (Azores), 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, , at the intersection of the prime meridian and the equator, has its antipodes at , 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, Peru, San Lorenzo Island, which is the largest island of Peru.


Countries

The following countries are opposite more than one other country. (Antarctica is considered separately from any territorial claims.) 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 Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
, 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 wave#Mechanical waves, surface waves) produced by an impact at its antipode. * Caloris Basin – "Weird Terrain" (Mercury (planet), Mercury) * Mare Orientale – Mare Marginis (The Moon) * Mare Imbrium – Mare Ingenii (The Moon) * Hellas Planitia – Alba Mons (Mars) * Isidis Planitia – Noctis Labyrinthus (Mars) * Kerwan (crater), Kerwan – Ahuna Mons (Ceres (dwarf planet), Ceres)


In popular culture

* On the TV show ''Angel (1999 TV series), 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 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony#Warming up! Tokyo 2020, closing ceremonies of the Rio 2016 Olympics, antipodes were used as a tool to invite viewers to the 2020 Olympics, 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. * In the 2012 film ''Total Recall (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. * 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.


See also

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


Notes


References


External links


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.

Tunnel to the Other Side of the Earth
Calculate the other side of the world

Antipodes
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. {{Authority control Physical geography