Antipodes (redirected from antipodean)

Antipodes, islands, New Zealand

Antipodes (ăntĭp`ədēz), rocky uninhabited islands, 24 sq mi (62 sq km), South Pacific, c.550 mi (885 km) SE of New Zealand, to which they belong. Explored by British seamen in 1800, the Antipodes are so named because they are diametrically opposite Greenwich, England.

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antipodes, in geography

antipodes [Gr.,=having feet opposite], people or places diametrically opposite on the globe. Thus antipodes must be separated by half the circumference of the earth (180°), and one must be as far north as the other is south of the equator; midnight at one is noonday at the other. For example, New Amsterdam and St. Paul, small islands nearly midway between S Africa and Australia, are more nearly antipodal to Washington, D.C., than is any other land.