Extreme points of the world

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This is a list of lists of extreme points of the world, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other locations on the landmasses, continents or countries.

1 The world
2 The Americas
3 Antarctica
4 Australasia
5 Africa-Eurasia
6 See also

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The world

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Latitude and longitude

The northernmost point of the world is the geographic North Pole, in the Arctic Ocean.
The northernmost point on land is Kaffeklubben Island, east of Greenland (Template:Coor dm), which lies slightly north of Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland (Template:Coor dm). Various shifting gravel bars lie further north, the most famous being Oodaaq. It is possible that Schmitt's Island, which lies just north of Kaffeklubben, is a permanent island. The term Ultima Thule was given by medieval cartographers for the northernmost point of land.
The southernmost point of the world and the southernmost point on land is the geographic South Pole, which is on the continent of Antarctica.
The westernmost point on land, according to the path of the International Date Line, is Attu Island, Alaska.
The easternmost point on land, according to the path of the International Date Line, is Caroline Island, Kiribati.¹

¹A 1995 realignment of the International Date Line ([1]) moved all of Kiribati to the Asian side of the Date Line, causing Caroline Island to be the easternmost. However, if the original Date Line were followed, the easternmost point would be Tafahi Niuatoputapu, in the Tonga Islands chain.

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Altitude

The highest point measured from sea level is the summit of Everest: 8,850 m (29,035 feet) above sea level.
The lowest point is Challenger Deep, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench: 10,911 m (35,797 feet) below sea level [2].
The lowest point on land is the shore of the Dead Sea: 417 m below "sea level". See List of places on land with elevations below sea level
The point farthest from the Earth's centre is the summit of Chimborazo (due to the Earth not being a perfect sphere), at 6384.4 km. (Everest's summit is at 6382.3 km.)
The point closest to the Earth's centre (~6353 km) is probably somewhere at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean (depth ~4 km) near the Geographic North pole (the bottom of the Mariana Trench is 6366.4 km from the centre of the Earth).
Highest attainable by transportation:
- Road (mountain pass): Semo La, Tibet, 5,565 m, Template:Coor dm, or Marsimik La, Indian Himalaya, 5,590 m, Template:Coor dm, depending on definition of "attainable by transportation". See Khardungla Pass, 5,359 m for more information
- Train: Tanggula Mountain Pass, Tibet, 5,072 m
- Boat (from sea level): Balsam Lake (Ontario), Canada, 256.3 m

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Remoteness

The Eurasian Pole of inaccessibility, the point on land farthest from any ocean, is located approximately 320 km (200 mi) from the city of Urumqi, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China, at Template:Coor dm (in the Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert). This position is at a distance of approximately 2648 km (1645 mi) from the nearest coastline.
The Pacific Pole of inaccessibility (also called Point Nemo), the point in the ocean farthest from any land, lies in the South Pacific Ocean at Template:Coor dm, which is approximately 2688 km (1670 mi) from the nearest land (equidistant from Ducie Island of the Pitcairn Islands to the north, Maher Island off of Siple Island near Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica to the south and Motu Nui off of Rapa Nui in the north east). It is in the middle of an area of 22,405,411 km² (8,650,778 sq mi) of ocean, larger than the entire former Soviet Union.
The most remote island is Bouvet Island, an uninhabited dependency of Norway, which lies at coordinates Template:Coor dm. The nearest land is the uninhabited Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, over 1600 km away to the south.
The most remote archipelago consists of Rapa Nui and Isla Sala y Gómez, which are 480 km apart. They lie 2250 km (1400 mi) from the Pitcairn Islands to the north-west and 3300 km off the west coast of Chile.

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Centre

Since the Earth is a near-sphere, its center (the core) is of course thousands of miles beneath its crust. However, one could perhaps consider the intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian, located at the coordinates of zero degrees by zero, to be the "centre" of the human world, especially when viewed on a map. This point is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 120 miles (~193 km) south of Accra, Ghana, in the Gulf of Guinea.

Some people, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, have claimed certain cities to be the centre of the Earth or of the universe. One such claimant is the small town of Felicity, California, in the far southeast corner of the state, where a "Center of the World Pyramid" stands. Local resident and children's book author Jacques-Andres Istel convinced officials in China, France, and Imperial County, California (in which Felicity is located), that Felicity is legally and officially the centre of the world.

In the same way, in different periods of history many cultures claimed their cities to be the center of the world: Rome, Cusco and Easter Island, also called "Te Pito Te Henua" ("the belly-button of the world") by the islanders.

Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí made an even more ambitious claim; that the railway station in Perpignan, France, is the centre of the universe. On the platform is painted « perpignan centre du monde » (French for "perpignan centre of the world") 1.

In the 1990s, a local artist posted a sign in a neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, identifying it as "East Hills: Center of the Universe". The sign stood for years, until the construction of a new retail development at that site, named "East Hills Center (of the Universe)". Official banners throughout the business district matter-of-factly echo the claim.

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