Meet Me In The Middle

Walk with us through the centre of the planet

- Shreya Acharya

Everybody knows about this imaginary line on the Earth’s surface that lies equidistant from the North Pole and the South Pole. Almost half the world’s rainforests are concentrated on the equator, and, naturally, it serves as the world’s greatest concentration of natural biodiversity. From its seasons to its people, the equatorial region is a unique and fascinating place.

What Is the Equator?

An invisible line that runs around the centre of the Earth at zero degrees latitude, the Equator may not seem like the most exciting line of topic. Halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole, the equator divides the planet into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. This roughly 40,075-kilometre line is where the Earth is at its widest. Some 78.8 percent of the equator lies across water, with the remaining 21.3 percent over land, and it crosses 13 countries over three continents – Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia, and Kiribati. Indonesia sits on the greatest length of the equatorial line across both land and sea.

It seems like things are starting to get a little interesting now.

The Earth bulges slightly at the equator, which means that sea levels are slightly higher in equatorial regions than near the poles, and the Earth’s gravitational pull is slightly weaker at the equator.