Antipode Map — Find the Exact Opposite Point on Earth
Click any point on the left map and instantly see its antipode — the exact opposite point on the other side of the globe — on the map beside it. Open in full screen ↗
An antipode is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite another — draw a straight line through the planet's core from where you're standing, and the point where it exits the other side is your antipode. This tool plots both points on two synced maps side by side: click anywhere on the left map, and the right map instantly jumps to show exactly what's on the other side of the world.
Watch: Antipode Map in Under a Minute
Prefer to watch instead of read? This short walkthrough covers clicking a location and finding the exact opposite point on Earth.
Why Most Antipodes Are Ocean
Water covers about 71% of Earth's surface, and land is unevenly distributed — most of it sits in the Northern Hemisphere, while the Southern Hemisphere is overwhelmingly ocean. That imbalance means the antipode of almost any point on land lands in open water: only a small fraction of Earth's land area has another landmass directly opposite it. Spain and New Zealand are one of the few well-known land-to-land antipodal pairs, along with parts of China and Argentina.
Real-World Use Cases
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Travel & Trivia Content
Bloggers, YouTubers, and social accounts use antipode pairs as a fun, shareable geography fact for a specific city or landmark.
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Flight Path Curiosity
Understand why the longest possible direct flight on Earth connects a point to somewhere near its antipode.
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Long-Path Radio Propagation
Amateur radio operators use antipodal points as a reference for long-path, "the long way around", signal propagation planning.
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Geography Education
Teachers and students explore antipodes hands-on to understand how rare land-to-land pairs actually are, and why.
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"Digging to China" Trivia
Settle the classic playground claim by checking exactly where a hole straight through the Earth from your location would actually come out.
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Earthquake & Seismic Wave Study
Seismologists note that certain seismic waves from a major earthquake refocus and are detectable again near the epicenter's antipode.
Common Questions
Can I really dig a hole to the other side of the Earth?
Not in practice — the pressure and temperature at Earth's core make it physically impossible with any current technology — but the antipode tells you exactly where a theoretical straight tunnel would come out.
What are some famous antipode pairs?
Spain and New Zealand are a well-known land-to-land antipodal pair, as are parts of China and Argentina, and parts of Indonesia and the coasts of Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil.
How accurate is the "likely ocean" label?
It's based on whether a reverse geocoding lookup finds a named place near the antipodal coordinates. No result usually means open ocean, but very remote or unnamed land areas could occasionally show the same result.
Does this tool work for any location on Earth, including the poles?
Yes — the North Pole's antipode is the South Pole, and any point along the equator has its antipode also on the equator, exactly opposite in longitude.
Does this tool store my searched locations?
No. Points and results stay in your browser. The only outbound requests are the map tiles and a single reverse-geocoding lookup for the antipodal point, with no accounts or saved history.
Can I use this on mobile?
Yes — tap the left map to set a point the same way you'd click on desktop, and the two maps stack vertically on narrow screens instead of sitting side by side.
Why is my antipode almost always in the ocean?
Water covers about 71% of Earth's surface and most land sits in the Northern Hemisphere, while the Southern Hemisphere is mostly ocean — so an antipode landing in open water is far more common than landing on another landmass.
What exactly is an antipode?
It's the point on Earth's surface exactly opposite another, reached by drawing a straight line through the planet's center. If you stood at one point and dug straight down through the Earth, in theory you'd emerge at its antipode.
Is the distance between a point and its antipode always the same?
Yes. Any point and its antipode are always exactly half of Earth's circumference apart along the surface, about 20,015 km, because they sit at opposite ends of every great circle passing through them.
How is the antipode calculated?
Flip the sign of the latitude and shift the longitude by 180°, wrapping around the ±180° line if needed. A point at 40°N, 74°W has an antipode at 40°S, 106°E.
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Famous Antipode Pairs
Land-to-land antipodes are rare enough that the ones we do know about tend to become geography trivia in their own right. Here are some of the best-known pairs — a few landing almost exactly opposite each other, others close enough to be a genuine curiosity:
Madrid (Spain)↔Christchurch (New Zealand)
One of the most commonly cited antipodal pairs — the two sit almost exactly opposite each other on the globe.
Wellington (New Zealand)↔Alaejos (Spain)
New Zealand's capital antipodes to a small town in north-central Spain, one of the closest known land-to-land matches anywhere on Earth.
Auckland (New Zealand)↔Málaga (Spain)
New Zealand's largest city sits almost exactly opposite the southern coast of Spain.
Taipei (Taiwan)↔Asunción (Paraguay)
A rare direct antipodal link between East Asia and South America, with both cities landing within a few degrees of true opposite.
Beijing (China)↔Bahía Blanca area (Argentina)
China's capital antipodes to the sparsely populated plains of southern Argentina, in Patagonia.
Shanghai (China)↔Buenos Aires area (Argentina)
One of the world's largest cities sits close to opposite one of South America's largest, though not an exact match.
Hong Kong (China)↔La Quiaca (Argentina)
Hong Kong's antipode falls in the high-altitude Andean plains of northern Argentina — one of the more precise city-to-city matches on record.
Singapore (Singapore)↔Quito (Ecuador)
Singapore sits almost exactly opposite Ecuador's capital — fittingly, both cities lie within a degree of the equator.
Step by Step
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Step 1
Open the tool
Both maps load zoomed out to the whole world, ready for you to click a point on the left map.
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Step 2
Click a point
Click anywhere on the left map, "Your Point", to drop a marker there.
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Step 3
Watch the right map jump
The right map, "Antipodal Point", automatically centers on the exact opposite point on the globe, with its own marker.
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Step 4
Read the location info
Below the maps, see both points' coordinates and whether the antipode lands on a named place or open ocean.
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Step 5
Search instead of clicking
Type an address, city, or lat,lng coordinates into the search bar and press Enter to jump straight to that point.
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Step 6
Use your own location
Click the location icon to set your point to where you currently are, and see what's on the exact opposite side of the world.
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Step 7
Fine-tune the point
Drag the marker on the left map to adjust its position — the right map updates instantly.
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Step 8
Export the result
Click "Download GeoJSON" to save both points and the line between them for use in GIS software.
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Where the Idea Comes From
Ancient Greek geographers coined the word from anti- (opposite) and podes (feet) — literally "people with their feet opposite ours" — to describe a hypothetical southern landmass they reasoned must exist to balance the known world, centuries before anyone had sailed far enough to check. The idea resurfaced constantly through the Age of Exploration, and it's the reason behind the popular saying about digging a hole straight through the Earth to China — from most of the continental United States, that tunnel would actually surface in the Indian Ocean, nowhere near China at all.
The Geometry Behind It
Finding an antipode is simple spherical geometry: flip the latitude's sign (a point at 40° N becomes 40° S) and shift the longitude by 180°, wrapping around if it crosses the ±180° line. The great-circle distance between any point and its antipode is always exactly half of Earth's circumference — about 20,015 km — no matter which point you start from, since the two points sit at opposite ends of every line that passes through the planet's center.
Latitude flip: the antipode's latitude is the negative of the original — a point 40° north of the equator has an antipode 40° south of it.
Longitude shift: the antipode's longitude is 180° away, wrapping around the ±180° meridian so it always stays within a valid range.
Constant distance: any point and its antipode are always exactly half of Earth's circumference apart — roughly 20,015 km along the surface, or a straight line right through the core.
Muhammad Gulraiz Khan is a GIS expert with over a decade of professional experience delivering geospatial solutions for the energy sector, including projects for the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and USAID. He built OnlineMapMaker.com to make professional-grade mapping tools free and accessible to everyone.
