Source: www.worldatlas.com
The equator is a great circle that bisects the Earth into equal halves commonly referred to as the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The map above shows a few of the countries that straddle the Eastern and Western hemispheres as defined by two important lines, the Prime Meridian and the 180th Meridian. Now, only ONE COUNTRY is in all four hemispheres as defined by these great circles...any guesses before searching?
ACTIVITY: A fellow geographer shared with me that he had a map from an old atlas showing latitudes as is typically presented but the lines of longitudes along the top and the bottom were based on two different systems. Greenwich was becoming the standard at the time it was printed, but this U.S.-published map also references longitude from Washington D.C. as the Prime Meridian. So a fun classroom exercise would be to count multiple-hemisphere countries with DC set to 0 degrees. This can be repeated for any other city or landmark.
SPECIAL TRIVIA BONUS: That previous trivia fact is about as geo-nerdy as knowing what 2 countries in the world are double landlocked.




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