The history of humanity is a history of exploration of our planet. Our ancestors have undertaken incredible feats to reach every corner of our planet on every continent. Now we can map our world accurately we all have a bucket list of places we’d love to travel to, but if you’d like to know you’ve been as far as you can go, here are a few suggestions, some better known than others!
High and lows
Highest point: Summit of Mount Everest
Lowest point: Shore of the Dead Sea
We’ll start with an easy one. Most people are aware that Mount Everest is the highest point on the surface of the earth and every year a few hundred people successfully complete the challenge of standing there. The lowest land point is on the shore of the Dead Sea, 418m (1,371 ft) below sea level which straddles the border between Israel, Jordan and the State of Palestine.
Getting away from it all
Remotest land point: Bouvet Island
Furthest point from sea: Near Hoxtolgay, China
The most remote piece of land on earth is a small uninhabited island in the Southern Ocean called Bouvet Island. It’s a territory of Norway, but the next nearest land is the shore of Antarctica 996 miles away. The nearest inhabited neighbor is the island of Tristan da Cunha (1,404 miles away) and then the coast of South Africa (1,603 miles away). If you’d rather stay away from the sea, your ideal location is Hoxtolgay, China close to the border with Kazakhstan. Close by is the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility, the furthest point from the sea anywhere on earth. The nearest coastline is 2,645 km (1,644 miles) away at the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh.
Remotest neighbours
From: Rosario, Argentina
To: Xinghua, China
If you want to undertake the ultimate city-to-city trip (defined as places with a population of over 100,000 people) then you’d need to go from the port city of Rosario in Argentina to Xinghua in China (or vice versa). Your total distance travelled would be 19,996 km (12,425 mi).
Longest continuous land journey
From: Greenville, Liberia
To: Wenzhou, China
The longest continuous distance in a straight line in any direction you can undertake on land without crossing a sea would start on the west coast of Africa and end at the far side of Asia on the East China Sea coast. Total distance is 13,573 km (8,434 miles). It does require crossing the Suez Canal but that’s a man-made waterway, so apparently ok!
Continental endpoints (mainland apart from Oceania)
If you’d like to be able to say that you’ve stood on the endpoints of each continental mainland, your bucket list would look like this (we’ve included islands for Oceania for obvious reasons)
Western
Eurasia Cabo da Roca, Portugal
Americas Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, United States
Africa Pointe des Almadies, Senegal
Oceania Dirk Hartog Island, Australia
Northern
Eurasia Cape Chelyuskin, Russia
Americas Murchison Promontory, Canada
Africa Ras ben Sakka, Tunisia
Oceania Kure Atoll, United States
Southern
Eurasia Tanjung Piai, Malaysia
Americas Cape Froward, Chile
Africa Cape Agulhas, South Africa
Oceania Jacquemart Island, New Zealand
Eastern
Eurasia Cape Dezhnev, Russia
Americas Ponta do Seixas, Brazil
Africa Ras Hafun, Somalia
Oceania Easter Island, Chile
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