Although it is more than 40,000km long, there are surprisingly few towns along the line – much of its length consists of ocean, and on land it crosses large expanses of tropical rainforest.

We start our journey, appropriately enough, in the country named after its location: Ecuador. Perhaps the best known monument marking the equator is Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World), just outside the capital, Quito. These days, GPS-laden tourists are often alarmed to find that the true zero line appears to be 240 metres north of the line on the ground.

It’s all a question of which map datum¹ you use: The Global Positioning System, along with most online maps, uses the WGS84 datum. So, in the same way that the Greenwich meridian is 100 metres or so away from GPS 0° longitude, the GPS equator (shown in red below) is somewhat north of the Mitad del Mundo line (in blue).

Just to the northeast of the offical Mitad del Mundo monument is a small private museum called Inti-Ñan, which claims to be on the “real” equator. It is, but only on an older datum called SAD69 (shown in yellow). Your GPS won’t read zero until you walk into the main road outside.

Heading eastwards through Ecuador, we soon come to the highest point on the equator, and the only place on the line with permanent snow cover: Volcán Cayambe. The summit, just inside the northern hemisphere, is 5,790 metres above sea level; the highest point on the equator itself is some 1,100 metres lower.

On the other side of South America, in the city of Macapá in Brazil, we find a football² stadium supposedly built right on the equator, with one half of the pitch in each hemisphere. This is the Estádio Milton Corrêa, better known as the Zerão (”Big Zero”), and it’s only slightly marred by the fact that the WGS84 equator actually runs just past the southern end of the pitch. A little way to the east, along Avenida Equatorial, is a monument known as Marco Zero.

Next we cross the Atlantic to Africa. A popular tourist stop in Kenya is this layby on the outskirts of Nanyuki, where a sign (arrowed) marks the location of the equator. In this case it’s pretty accurate, being just 20 metres or so south of the WGS84 line. You can usually find enterprising locals here willing, for a few shillings, to “demonstrate” how water flows down the plughole in opposite directions either side of the line. However, it’s an urban myth and the demonstration is all down to sleight of hand.

Our last location is in Indonesia, in Pontianak on the island of Borneo. Built in 1990, the Equator Monument is a replica of the marker first erected in the 1920s by Dutch surveyors. It’s five times the size of the original, but again it’s disappointing to note that it is 120 metres too far north, according to GPS.

One final Google oddity – if you search for the location “0,0″, then as you’d expect you get a placemark at the intersection of the equator and the Greenwich meridian, off the coast of west Africa. What’s more unexpected is the address that is given: 23208 Glenbrook St, St Clair Shores, Michigan. Is this unassuming neighbourhood the real centre of the universe?

Locations: Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kenya / Categories: Monuments, Weirdness

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However, in the small English town of Happisburgh that process is being reversed, as the waves tear apart the coast and drag the land away into the North sea.

The rate of erosion is so fast that houses are being abandoned as they fall into the sea, and homes that once boasted a long garden up to the sea edge now hang precariously over it.

In 1959, work began to build sea defences along the edge of Beach Road to stop the tide eroding the cliff. As you can see, the defences had all but disappeared by the early 90s and in some places Beach Road now lies over 80m into the sea.

It’s a similar story near the small Brazilian city of São João da Barra, where high temperatures have accelerated coastal erosion and 183 buildings have fallen to the sea in the last 30 years.

The most recent building to be lost at Atafona beach is this high rise which just yesterday it finally gave up the struggle and collapsed. Local news broadcast a video clip of the building falling.

There’s more history and pictures of Happisburgh on the official website and pictures of Atafona and the fallen building on Flickr.

Thanks to Rob and Leo Carbonell.

Locations: Brazil, England / Categories: Buildings

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Goodyear have built more than 300 blimps over the years and today there are three which officially share the “Goodyear blimp” name.

The “Spirit of America” has been California’s blimp since 2002 and has a full-time crew of 18, which covers pilots, engineers, cameramen, etc.

The ‘Spirit of Innovation‘, seen here flying over its hometown of Pompano Beach, Florida, was named last year in a web-based public poll (and that was the best they could come up with?).

The third of the fleet, ‘Spirit of Goodyear’ sadly can’t be seen on Google Earth as yet. However, worldwide there’s at least another 3 blimps with the Goodyear emblem.

In Brazil, flying over the city of Sao Paulo, is ‘Spirit of the Americas‘.

And roaming around Europe somewhere are two blimps, both called “Spirit of Europe“. Here’s one of them, parked in a English airbase.

On a slightly related note, can you guess which company produces the most tyres annually. Goodyear? Michelin? Pirelli? All wrong: the correct answer is LEGO, who produce 306 million tiny tyres each year

More Goodyear blimp info on the Official Website, Wikipedia and MyAirship.com

Thanks: JosieNorden and Virtual Globetrotting.

Locations: Brazil, California, England, Florida / Categories: Aircraft

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Anyway, I haven’t got the slightest clue why somebody went to all this effort. Has anyone got any ideas?

Thanks to whoever these guys got this location from in the first place (they seem to have a bad habit of neglecting to include any attribution you see).

Locations: Brazil / Categories: Large Type, Watercraft

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The story goes that the pilot ran out of fuel over the city of Sao Jose dos Campos and was forced to land in the small park. Then, for some unknown reason, the Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia was never removed.

Embraer’s headquarters are actually located just down the road from the crash site, but it’s not a very good advertisement for their products…

Updated: It would seem that this plane didn’t crash after all, it is a prototype model of the Embraer 110 Bandeirante on permanent display. You can see ground-level pictures on airliners.net and Flickr.

Thanks: Cerávolo & Marc

Locations: Brazil / Categories: Aircraft

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They have a complex numbering scheme for their buildings – you’ll see that this is number 1 and to the West is number 2. I spent a while considering why they’ve numbered the buildings on the roof but I gave in and decided to post it anyway

Thanks: Ivan

Locations: Brazil / Categories: Large Type

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Iguazu Falls are wider in area than the Niagara or Victoria falls and despite being reportedly more spectacular than both have failed to achieve as much fame. When the First Lady Mrs. Roosevelt saw Iguazu Falls she exclaimed “Poor Niagara”, yet to be honest I hadn’t heard about Iguazu until about 10 minutes ago. Still, I’ve learned my lesson now and read the Wikipedia page.

Thanks: PZ, Doug Olson, Vinicius Lage, Zara, Román Gorojovsky, Michael Walter & Spamboy

Locations: Argentina, Brazil / Categories: Natural Landmarks

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Itaipú is 196 metres high and contains enough iron and steel to build 380 Eiffel Towers. It took 40 thousand people to build it, and they had to move 50 million tons of earth and rock to do it.

In 1995 Itaipú provided 25% of the total energy requirement of Brazil, as well as 78% of Paraguay’s! The facility has been constantly upgraded since then, and the expansion is expected to bring the amount of energy produced next year to over 100 million megawatt-hours.

Make sure you zoom in on the flow from the spillway, and there’s more fascinating facts at Wikipedia!

Thanks to floki, Oliver Dueck, Luciano A. Ferrer, Rhaffael C. C de Barros, Bong Laden, Doug Olson, Vinicius Lage, Juliano Oliveira, Olaf van Zandwijk and Manuel Fernandez.

Locations: Brazil, Paraguay / Categories: Structures, Watercraft

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Thanks: Wagner Fajardo

Locations: Brazil / Categories: Aircraft

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It all seems completely unbelievable somehow, and yet Wikipedia tells us it’s true…

Thanks to Gus.

Locations: Brazil / Categories: Watercraft

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