Earth Sandwich / City antipodes / Basrah

Antipode finder · Iraq

The antipode of
Basrah.

Draw a straight line from Basrah (30.51° N, 47.78° E) through the centre of the Earth and it comes out at 30.51° S, 132.22° W, in the South Pacific Ocean, 639 km from the nearest dry land, off the coast of Pitcairn. The other slice of an Earth sandwich would sink.

Two globes: one centred on Basrah, one centred on its antipode at 30.51° S, 132.22° W
Above BasrahAbove the antipode
Basrah
30.51° N, 47.78° E · about 40 m above sea level · 1,326,564 people
Antipode
30.51° S, 132.22° W
What is there
The South Pacific Ocean; the sea floor there lies about 4,360 m below the surface
Nearest dry land
639 km from the antipode, on the coast of Pitcairn
Nearest town
Adamstown, Pitcairn · 640 km from the antipode
Nearest big city
Auckland · 4,894 km from the antipode
Sandwich verdict
SOGGY the other slice lands in open water
Nearest exact spot
1,288 km away, 32 km from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ⇄ 403 km from Otepa, French Polynesia

Can you make an Earth sandwich from Basrah?

No, not from Basrah itself. The other slice would land in the South Pacific Ocean, 639 km from the nearest dry land (Pitcairn), where the sea floor lies about 4,360 m below the surface. Boats do not count (Sandwich Law § 1.3).

The nearest place from which an exact Earth sandwich is possible is 1,288 km from Basrah, 32 km from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Its other slice would go down 403 km from Otepa, French Polynesia.

How this was worked out: the antipode flips the latitude and moves the longitude by 180°. Land or sea comes from the OpenStreetMap coastline the map uses; the sandwich verdict and elevations come from the verifier's 0.2° grid (Natural Earth land, ETOPO 2022 relief); water names from Natural Earth; towns and populations from GeoNames. The city's position is GeoNames' point for it; a big city's suburbs spread tens of kilometres around that point, and the figures move with them. Generated 2026-09-29.