Prime Meridian And Antimeridian -

The Prime Meridian is the 0° line of longitude. It runs directly from the North Pole to the South Pole, passing through England, France, Spain, Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, and Antarctica.

But why Greenwich? In the late 1800s, sea travel was booming, but navigation was chaos. Every country used its own "prime meridian" (Paris, Berlin, Washington D.C.—everyone wanted to be the center). Finally, in 1884, 25 nations met in Washington D.C. and voted: Greenwich won. Mostly because the U.S. had already adopted it for its own rail networks, and 72% of the world’s shipping already used it. At the Greenwich observatory, you can literally stand with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and one foot in the Western Hemisphere. It is one of the most photographed feet-in-two-places spots on Earth. There is a giant steel line embedded in the courtyard, and a green laser shoots northward into the London sky every night. The Antimeridian: The Land That Time Forgot Now, spin the globe exactly 180 degrees away from Greenwich. You have arrived at the Antimeridian (180° longitude). prime meridian and antimeridian

We stare at world maps so often that we stop seeing them. The grid of latitude and longitude has become visual white noise—a necessary but boring backdrop to the shapes of continents. The Prime Meridian is the 0° line of longitude

While the Prime Meridian is a celebration of order, the Antimeridian is a celebration of chaos. It runs mostly through the middle of the Pacific Ocean—but it takes a few dramatic detours. In the late 1800s, sea travel was booming,