Antipode

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Antipodal globe. This map uses azimuthal equal area projection . The yellow areas are the reflections through the center of the earth of the land masses of the opposite western hemisphere .
World map of the antipodes.

Antipodes (from Greek ἀντί antí “against” and πούς poús “foot”, literally “counter-footer”; Latinized Antipodes ) is the name for the areas on the opposite side of the earth and for the people living there. The feet of the antipodes are visually facing those of the caregiver.

Ideas in history

The possibility of human existence on the opposite side of the globe was controversial up to modern times.

Antiquity

Pomponius Mela , the first Roman geographer, claimed that the earth had two habitable zones, one northern and one southern, but that it was impossible to come into contact with one another because of the unbearable heat at the equator. Almost the same claim had previously been made in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book 1, lines 45-51, see also the fifth paragraph in More's translation of "The Creation").

The terrestrial sphere of the crate of Mallos (approx. 150 BC) shows the region of the Antipodes in the southern half of the western hemisphere.

In ancient times, different worldviews were represented side by side. The advocates of a spherical earth raised the question of possible inhabitants of the opposite half of the earth. Pythagoras , Plato , Cicero, and other authors of antiquity believed the existence of antipodes possible. The leading ancient geographer Strabo, on the other hand, rejected it as unfounded speculation.

For Laktanz (250–325 AD) the idea of ​​antipodes was simply absurd: “What do those who think there are antipodes who turn their feet to us proclaim? Yes, who is so foolish as he who believes that there are people whose feet are above their heads? Or where what is pointing down at us hangs up? Where do plants and trees grow down? Where rain and snow and hail fall up to the earth? ”With this obvious absurdity of the idea, he also justified his rejection of the spherical shape of the earth.

At the end of antiquity, the church father Augustine (354-430) joined the rejection of the antipodes, even if he considered a spherical shape of the earth to be possible. His contemporary Martianus Capella, on the other hand, whose main work was widespread in the European Middle Ages, let the opposite side of the earth be inhabited.

middle Ages

Even if in the Middle Ages hardly any scholar believed in a flat earth , for geographical, philosophical and theological reasons the existence of people on the other side of the earth was largely not considered possible.

Geographically, the idea played a role that the equatorial region was extremely hot, making it impossible to cross. For this reason nobody could have reached the other half of the world. This is related to the conviction of the common origin of all human beings, which is also expressed in the creation story of the Bible. In addition, Christ's missionary mandate could not be fulfilled and would be nonsensical if people were to live inaccessible on other continents. In addition, there was the idea that the globe outside the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe was completely covered by water.

In 1496, the scholar Zacharias Lilius was using this argument to deny the existence of the antipodes when he was discussing Columbus' first reports. The following reports by Columbus and other explorers quickly led to the insight that life is possible on the other side of the earth.

Word usage today

Today, antipodes are simply two opposite points on the earth's surface , so that a straight line connecting these two points through the center of the earth could be laid. New Zealand is on the opposite side of the globe from Spain . Australia and New Zealand together are considered to be the antipodes of Europe (“Down Under”), although this is only partially true geographically. In fact, most of the antipodes of a land area lie in an ocean.

In a figurative sense, it also denotes (intellectual, political, etc.) opponents with opposing, usually incompatible and / or irreconcilable views and views or interests. Synonym: antagonists (antagonism).

List of antipodes

Only 4% of the earth's surface or 14% of the land surface have both antipodes on land. At 46% of the earth's surface, both antipodes are in the water. The remaining 50% are mixed.

The two largest human-inhabited antipodal areas are East Asia (especially East China ) and South America (especially Argentina and Chile ).

The Australian continent is the largest landmass, the antipodes of which are entirely in the sea. However, some places in Australia and Tasmania are almost antipodes of islands in the Atlantic ( Bermuda , Azores , Puerto Rico ).

The largest land mass, whose antipodes are entirely on land, is the island of Borneo , whose antipodes are in the Amazon rainforest , west of the city of Manaus .

In Europe

Areas in Europe with antipodes on land:
In Spain, Portugal and a bit of France

In Europe there are only large areas in Spain , the antipodes of which are on land. These are located in New Zealand on the North Island (central Spain with Madrid , and most of Andalusia with Málaga and Córdoba ) and the north of the South Island (the northwest half of Galicia with Santiago de Compostela and northern Portugal ).

Otherwise there are only a few villages in France whose antipodes are on islands southeast of New Zealand:

In addition, the antipodes of the northern part of Svalbard , including the settlements Ny-Ålesund and Pyramiden , lie in the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The coasts of the Wijdefjord are opposite the Roosevelt Island , which is enclosed in the ice shelf, and thus on land.

The rest of Europe has antipodes in the water.

Cities

Some cities and places that are in equirectangular projection near the antipodes. Blue labels refer to cyan and brown labels refer to yellow areas. Areas in which cyan and yellow overlap are colored green and are land antipodes.

Exact or almost exact antipodes:

Antipodes within a radius of 100 km with at least one city of millions:

The antipodal point of Mecca , from which the qibla is correct in any direction, is in the sea in the south of French Polynesia . The next country is the Tematangi Atoll about 59 km southwest, the next but one is Mururoa Atoll, 147 km east-southeast , which became famous through French nuclear weapons tests . The antipodal point of Jerusalem is also in the sea. The next country is the uninhabited rock island of Marotiri 460 km north, which belongs to the Austral Islands in French Polynesia.

The antipodes of Taiwan , formerly known as Formosa, are partly in the Province of Formosa in Argentina.

Film documentation

Web links

Wiktionary: Antipode  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ B. More: Ovid's Metamorphoses . Cornhill Publishing Co .. 1922.
  2. ↑ 12 Divin. inst. 3, 24: “Quid illi qui esse contrarios vestigiis nostris antipodas putant num aliquid locuntur? Aut est quisquam tam ineptus qui credat esse homines quorum vestigia sint superiora quam capita? Aut ibi quae aput nos iacent, inversa pendere, fruges et arbores deorsum versus crescere, pluvias et nives et grandines sursum versus cadere in terram? ”According to Klaus Anselm Vogel: Sphaera terrae - the medieval image of the earth and the cosmographic revolution.
  3. ↑ Klaus Anselm Vogel: Sphaera terrae - the medieval image of the earth and the cosmographic revolution. P. 66ff
  4. ↑ Vogel zu Lilius especially p. 406ff.