Equator map

Where the equator runs

The equator is 24,901 mi (40,075 km) long. Of that, 8,382 km runs over land (21%), 185 km over lakes and 31,508 km over the sea (79%): it’s mostly ocean.

According to the map data used, it crosses 10 countries over land: Gabon, Republic of the Congo, DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. It also passes through the waters of Kiribati, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Maldives without touching land. Here’s the full list in order, starting at the prime meridian and heading east, with the longitude where it enters and leaves each one.

It passes 15 mi (24 km) from the islands of the Maldives and 9.1 mi (15 km) from those of Kiribati: inside their territorial sea, which reaches 12 nautical miles (13.8 mi) from the baseline along their reefs. It also grazes Baker Island, a U.S. territory, at 13 mi (21 km).

São Tomé and Príncipe shows up among the waters here because the map data used (Natural Earth 1:10m) doesn’t include Rolas Islet, just south of São Tomé Island. The equator does cross that islet, which is why the usual lists count the country as crossed over land. Either way, these are the same 13 countries almost every source gives.

Peru stops just 2.0 mi (3.2 km) short of the equator: its northern border with Colombia never reaches the line.

Cities near the equator

The large cities closest to the line are Pontianak (Indonesia), 2.1 mi (3.3 km) away, and Macapá (Brazil), 2.2 mi (3.6 km) away (measured from each city center). The nearest capital is Quito (Ecuador), 15 mi (24 km) to the south.

Straight-line distances on the ellipsoid from each city’s center point (as given by Natural Earth) to the equator. “N” and “S” tell you which side it’s on.

What the equator is and why it’s there

The Earth spins on an axis that runs through both poles. The equator is the circle right in the middle, at a right angle to that axis: every point on it is as far from the North Pole as from the South Pole. That makes it latitude 0°, the line every other latitude is measured from, and the border between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Unlike the other lines of latitude, the equator isn’t a convention and it doesn’t move: Earth’s rotation sets it. It’s also the only parallel that’s a great circle, which makes it the longest one.

The Earth isn’t a perfect sphere: its spin makes it bulge at the equator. The radius there is 13 mi (21 km) longer than the radius to the poles (values from the WGS84 ellipsoid, the one GPS uses). And since the planet turns once every 23 h 56 min, a point on the equator moves at about 1,040 mph (1,674 km/h) without you feeling a thing.

The sun at the equator: equal days and no winter

On the equator, day and night each last about 12 hours all year round. The noon sun is directly overhead at the equinoxes, around March 20 and September 22 or 23, and it never strays far from overhead.

At the solstices the noon sun stands 66.6° above the horizon, to the north in June and to the south in December. That’s a small change, so the equator doesn’t get a summer and a winter like the mid-latitudes do: many places there talk about a dry season and a rainy season instead.

Equator facts

The equator crosses Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, for 115 mi (185 km), almost all of it in Ugandan waters.

The country where it runs the longest over land is Brazil, with 1,376 mi (2,215 km). Indonesia has 910 mi (1,465 km) of it over land, spread over many islands: from its first island to its last there are 2,148 mi (3,457 km).

The highest point on the equator is at 4,690 m (15,387 ft), on the southern slope of the Cayambe volcano in Ecuador. It’s the only place on the line with snow on the ground.

The Middle of the World monument near Quito was built between 1979 and 1982 to mark the equator, honoring the 18th-century French Geodesic Mission, which measured an arc of meridian in the area. Measured with GPS, the equator actually runs about 240 m (790 ft) north of it.

Ecuador is named after the line (its name is simply Spanish for “equator”), and so is Equatorial Guinea, even though the equator misses it: it runs through the sea between the country’s mainland and the island of Annobón.