1.
Cregneash
–
Cregneash or Cregneish is a small village and tourist destination in the extreme south of the Isle of Man, about one mile from Port Erin. Annual Manx festivals are held in Cregneash and it is home to a flock of the rare four-horned Loaghtan sheep, much of the village forms a Living Museum dedicated to the preservation of the traditional Manx ways of life. Officially opened in 1938, the Cregneash Folk Village shows the way of life of a small Manx village in the 19th century. Many original Manx cottages have been preserved and display Victorian farming and fishing equipment as museum exhibits, historically most of the cottages were thatched, a practice which to this day is reflected on many of the cottages. There are also a number of homes in the village. A central museum holds a wealth of historical information whilst many of the cottages in the village allow visitors to see country activities being performed by workers in traditional dress. Harry Kellys cottage in the centre of the village typifies a Manx villagers home, in the workshop a blacksmith demonstrates some of the tools and techniques used to make horse shoes and other metal equipment of the time. Ned Begs cottage holds an exhibition about the Manx language, as Cregneash was important in the survival of the language in the period across the turn of the twentieth century. Scenes from the 1998 film Waking Ned were filmed in and around Cregneash, along with Stormbreaker and Keeping Mum, photos tagged Cregneash on Flickr A Walking tour around Cregneash with Stanley Karran, produced in 2009 by Culture Vannin
Cregneash
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Harry Kelly's cottage and Woodturner's workshop in Cregneash
2.
Isle of Man
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The Isle of Man, also known simply as Mann, is a self-governing crown dependency in the Irish Sea between England and Northern Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann, the Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. Foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the British Government, the island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century and the Manx language, in 627, Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man along with most of Mercia. In the 9th century, Norsemen established the Kingdom of the Isles, magnus III, King of Norway, was also known as King of Mann and the Isles between 1099 and 1103. In 1266, the became part of Scotland under the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the short form often used in English, Mann, is derived from the Manx Mannin, though sometimes the name is written as Man. The earliest recorded Manx form of the name is Manu or Mana, the Old Irish form of the name is Manau or Mano. Old Welsh records named it as Manaw, also reflected in Manaw Gododdin, the name for an ancient district in north Britain along the lower Firth of Forth. The oldest known reference to the calls it Mona, in Latin, in the 1st century CE, Pliny the Elder records it as Monapia or Monabia. Later Latin references have Mevania or Mænavia, and Eubonia or Eumonia by Irish writers and it is found in the Sagas of Icelanders as Mön. The name is cognate with the Welsh name of the island of Anglesey, Ynys Môn, usually derived from a Celtic word for mountain. The name was at least secondarily associated with that of Manannán mac Lir in Irish mythology, later, a Manannán is recorded as the first king of Mann in a Manx poem. The island was cut off from the islands around 8000 BC. The first residents were hunter gatherers and fishermen, examples of their tools are kept at the Manx Museum. There were also the local Ronaldsway and Bann cultures, during the Bronze Age, burial mounds became smaller. Bodies were put in stone-lined graves with ornamental containers, the Bronze Age burial mounds created long-lasting markers around the countryside. The ancient Romans knew of the island and called it Insula Manavia although it is whether they conquered the island
Isle of Man
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The Braaid in central Isle of Man, with remnants of a Celtic-Norse
roundhouse and two
longhouses, c. 650–950 AD
Isle of Man
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Flag
Isle of Man
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The
Calf of Man seen from
Cregneash
Isle of Man
–
A composite satellite image of the Isle of Man
3.
Manx language
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Manx, also known as Manx Gaelic, and also historically spelled Manks, is a Goidelic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, historically spoken by the Manx people. Although the last surviving speaker of the language, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974. Manx has been the subject of language revival efforts, and in recent years Manx has become visible on the island, with increased signage, radio broadcasts. The revival of Manx has been made easier because the language was recorded, for example, the Bible has been translated into Manx. In Manx, the language is called Gaelg or Gailck, a word which shares the same etymology as the word Gaelic, the sister languages of Irish and Scottish Gaelic use Gaeilge and Gàidhlig, respectively, for their languages. As with Irish and Scottish, the form with the article is frequently used in Manx. To distinguish it from the two forms of Gaelic, the phrases Gaelg/Gailck Vannin and Gaelg/Gailck Vanninnagh also are used. In addition, the nickname Çhengey ny Mayrey is occasionally used, the language is usually referred to in English as Manx. The term Manx Gaelic is often used, for example when discussing the relationship between the three Goidelic languages or to confusion with Anglo-Manx, the form of English spoken on the island. Scottish Gaelic is often referred to in English as simply Gaelic, a feature of Anglo-Manx deriving from Gaelic is the use of the definite article, e. g. the Manx, the Gaelic, in ways not generally seen in standard English. The word Manx is frequently spelled Manks in historical sources, particularly those written by natives of the island, the word means Mannish, the name of the island, Man, is frequently spelled Mann. It is sometimes accompanied by a footnote explaining that it is a word, with the stress on the first syllable. It is after the island that the Irish god Manannán mac Lir derives his name, Manx is a Goidelic language, closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic. On the whole it is not mutually intelligible with these, though the speakers of the three languages find it easy to gain passive competency in each others languages and even spoken competency and these writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish transitioned into Old Irish through the 5th century, Old Irish, dating from the 6th century, used the Latin script and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts, but there are no extant examples from the Isle of Man. By the 10th century Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish, like the coastal areas of Scotland and Ireland, the Isle of Man was colonised by the Norse, who left their legacy in certain loanwords, personal names, and place names such as Laxey and Ramsey. However, they made little impact on the language overall, due to the prevalence of Gaelic-Norse bilingualism among the settlers. During the later Middle Ages, the Isle of Man fell increasingly under the influence of England, beginning in 1405, Manx experienced even more English influence under the rule of Sir John Stanley
Manx language
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An
ogham inscription on a stone in the Manx Museum written in Primitive Irish and which reads DOVAIDONA MAQI DROATA, "Of Dovaido, son of Droata".
Manx language
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Manx
Manx language
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William Christian, better known as
Illiam Dhone (Brown-haired William)
Manx language
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Lag ny Keeilley (Hollow of the Church) on
Cronk ny Arrey Laa (Hill of the Day Watch); the Manx language has had a substantial influence on the island's
toponymy and nomenclature.
4.
Calf Sound
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Calf Sound is a body of water which separates the Calf of Man island from the mainland of the Isle of Man. The sound - technically a strait - is about 700 yards in width, a visitor centre overlooking the Calf Sound holds multimedia exhibits giving information about the wildlife and history of the area. The centre, operated by Manx National Heritage also includes a café with both indoor and outdoor seating, the building erected to house the visitor centre was designed to have little visual impact when looking towards the Calf of Man, partially achieved by covering the roof with turf. There is car parking available and a bus service from Port Erin terminates here
Calf Sound
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The Calf Sound, looking towards the Calf of Man from the direction of
Cregneash
5.
Chicken Rock
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Chicken Rock, part of Rushen parish, is the southernmost island administered by the Isle of Man. It lies southwest of the Calf of Man,4.5 kilometres off Spanish Head on the Manx mainland, the most prominent feature of the rock is the 19th century Chicken Rock Lighthouse. The 44 metres lighthouse was first lit in 1875, and is owned and maintained by the Northern Lighthouse Board, list of lighthouses in the Isle of Man Northern Lighthouses Board
Chicken Rock
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Chicken Rock lighthouse with passing cargo vessel
6.
Rushen
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Rushen, formerly Kirk Christ Rushen, is a parish in the sheading of the same name in the Isle of Man. The parish is a fishing and agricultural district at the south-westernmost point of the island, the parish is one of three in the sheading of Rushen. The other two are Arbory and Malew, Rushen parish includes the south-western extremity of the island, together with the Calf of Man along its rocky outcrops Kitterland and Chicken Rock, and contains an area of about 10 square miles. The principal headlands are Port St Mary Point, Black Head, Spanish Head, and Bradda Head, and the inlets are Port St Mary Bay, Perwick Bay, Bay Stacka, Port Erin Bay. Cregneash is a village and folk museum near Mull Hill. The Isle of Man census 2006 lists the population of the parish as 1,591, the local authority is Rushen Parish Commissioners who meet at Ballafesson Hall. Rushen Parish Commissioners GeoHive Census Information Constituency maps and general election results
Rushen
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Parish of Rushen
7.
Old Norse
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Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th centuries. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century, Old Norse was divided into three dialects, Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes spoke the same language, another term used, used especially commonly with reference to West Norse, was norrœnt mál. In some instances the term Old Norse refers specifically to Old West Norse, the Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Kievan Rus, eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language, in Kievan Rus, it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod, probably lasting into the 13th century there. Norwegian is descended from Old West Norse, but over the centuries it has heavily influenced by East Norse. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and Lowland Scots and it also influenced the development of the Norman language, and through it and to a smaller extent, that of modern French. Various other languages, which are not closely related, have heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi, of the modern languages, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system, contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the phonemes, has changed at least as much as in the other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, although Swedish, Danish and the Norwegian languages have diverged the most, they still retain asymmetric mutual intelligibility. Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, the languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders
Old Norse
–
The
Rök Runestone in
Östergötland, Sweden, is the longest surviving source of early Old East Norse. It is inscribed on both sides.
Old Norse
–
Old West Norse dialect
8.
Sea level
–
Mean sea level is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earths oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured. A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a low and mean high tide at a particular location. Sea levels can be affected by factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales. The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change, the term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level. Precise determination of a sea level is a difficult problem because of the many factors that affect sea level. Sea level varies quite a lot on several scales of time and this is because the sea is in constant motion, affected by the tides, wind, atmospheric pressure, local gravitational differences, temperature, salinity and so forth. The easiest way this may be calculated is by selecting a location and calculating the mean sea level at that point, for example, a period of 19 years of hourly level observations may be averaged and used to determine the mean sea level at some measurement point. One measures the values of MSL in respect to the land, hence a change in MSL can result from a real change in sea level, or from a change in the height of the land on which the tide gauge operates. In the UK, the Ordnance Datum is the sea level measured at Newlyn in Cornwall between 1915 and 1921. Prior to 1921, the datum was MSL at the Victoria Dock, in Hong Kong, mPD is a surveying term meaning metres above Principal Datum and refers to height of 1. 230m below the average sea level. In France, the Marégraphe in Marseilles measures continuously the sea level since 1883 and it is used for a part of continental Europe and main part of Africa as official sea level. Elsewhere in Europe vertical elevation references are made to the Amsterdam Peil elevation, satellite altimeters have been making precise measurements of sea level since the launch of TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992. A joint mission of NASA and CNES, TOPEX/Poseidon was followed by Jason-1 in 2001, height above mean sea level is the elevation or altitude of an object, relative to the average sea level datum. It is also used in aviation, where some heights are recorded and reported with respect to sea level, and in the atmospheric sciences. An alternative is to base height measurements on an ellipsoid of the entire Earth, in aviation, the ellipsoid known as World Geodetic System 84 is increasingly used to define heights, however, differences up to 100 metres exist between this ellipsoid height and mean tidal height. The alternative is to use a vertical datum such as NAVD88. When referring to geographic features such as mountains on a topographic map, the elevation of a mountain denotes the highest point or summit and is typically illustrated as a small circle on a topographic map with the AMSL height shown in metres, feet or both. In the rare case that a location is below sea level, for one such case, see Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Sea level
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This marker indicating sea level is situated between
Jerusalem and the
Dead Sea.
Sea level
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Sea Level sign seen on cliff (circled in red) at
Badwater Basin,
Death Valley National Park
9.
Manx National Heritage
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Manx National Heritage is the national heritage organisation for the Isle of Man. The organisation manages a significant proportion of the physical heritage assets including over 3000 acres of coastline. It holds property, archives, artwork, library and museum collections in trust for the Manx nation and it is the Isle of Mans statutory heritage agency and an Isle of Man registered charity. Manx National Heritages role is to lead the Isle of Mans community in recognising, understanding, valuing and promoting its cultural heritage and identity to a worldwide audience. Gob ny Rona Niarbyl The Sound and the Calf of Man Upper Ballaharry Raad ny Foillan http, //www. manxnationalheritage. im/ The Friends of Manx National Heritage
Manx National Heritage
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Manx National Museum, Douglas
Manx National Heritage
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Sign at the museum
Manx National Heritage
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Entrance to Castle Rushen
Manx National Heritage
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The Laxey Wheel
10.
Lighthouses
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Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, and safe entries to harbors, and can assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance, before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since raising the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as a marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs and promontories. The most famous lighthouse structure from antiquity was the Pharos of Alexandria, coins from Alexandria, Ostia, and Laodicea in Syria also exist. The modern era of lighthouses began at the turn of the 18th century, advances in structural engineering and new and efficient lighting equipment allowed for the creation of larger and more powerful lighthouses, including ones exposed to the sea. The function of lighthouses shifted toward the provision of a warning against shipping hazards. The Eddystone Rocks were a major hazard for mariners sailing through the English Channel. The first lighthouse built there was a wooden structure, anchored by 12 iron stanchions secured in the rock. His lighthouse was the first tower in the world to have been exposed to the open sea. The civil engineer, John Smeaton, rebuilt the lighthouse from 1756–59, his tower marked a step forward in the design of lighthouses. He modelled the shape of his lighthouse on that of an oak tree and he pioneered the use of hydraulic lime, a form of concrete that will set under water, and developed a technique of securing the granite blocks together using dovetail joints and marble dowels. This profile had the advantage of allowing some of the energy of the waves to dissipate on impact with the walls. His lighthouse was the prototype for the lighthouse and influenced all subsequent engineers. One such influence was Robert Stevenson, himself a figure in the development of lighthouse design. His greatest achievement was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1810 and this structure was based upon Smeatons design, but with several improved features, such as the incorporation of rotating lights, alternating between red and white. Stevenson worked for the Northern Lighthouse Board for nearly fifty years during which time he designed and oversaw the construction and he also invented the movable jib and the balance crane as a necessary part for lighthouse construction. Alexander Mitchell designed the first screw-pile lighthouse – his lighthouse was built on piles that were screwed into the sandy or muddy seabed, construction of his design began in 1838 at the mouth of the Thames and was known as the Maplin Sands lighthouse, and first lit in 1841
Lighthouses
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The lighthouse of
Aveiro, west coast of
Portugal
Lighthouses
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Graphic reconstruction of the
Pharos according to a 2006 study
Lighthouses
–
Winstanley's lighthouse at the
Eddystone Rocks marked the beginning in a new phase of lighthouse development.
Lighthouses
–
John Smeaton 's rebuilt version of the
Eddystone Lighthouse, 1759. This represented a great step forward in lighthouse design.
11.
Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)
–
Robert Stevenson FRSE, FGS, FRAS, FSA Scot, MWS, MInstCE was a Scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses. One of his finest achievements was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, Stevenson was born in Glasgow, his father was Alan Stevenson, a partner in a West India trading house in the city. As a result, Stevenson was educated as an infant at a charity school and his mother intended Robert for the ministry and to this end sent him to the school of a famous linguist of the day, Mr. Macintyre. Stevenson served as Smiths assistant, and was so successful that, at age 19, study was interleaved with work - his next project was lighthouses on Orkney. He made use of months to attend lectures in philosophy, mathematics, chemistry and natural history, as well as moral philosophy, logic. He did not take a degree, however, having a poor knowledge of Latin, the most important work of Stevensons life is the Bell Rock Lighthouse, a scheme long in the gestation and then long and extremely hazardous in the construction. This structure was based upon the design of the earlier Eddystone Lighthouse by John Smeaton, samuel Smiles, the popular engineering author of the time, published an account taken from Rennie, which assisted in establishing his claim. History, and the Northern Lighthouse Board, give credit to Stevenson. Stevensons work on the Bell Rock and elsewhere provided a fund of anecdotes of the danger in which he placed himself, for this last innovation he was awarded a gold medal by King William I of the Netherlands. The period after Waterloo and the end of the wars was a time of much improvement of the fabric of the country. Projects included roads, bridges, harbours, canals and railways and he designed and oversaw the construction of the Hutcheson Bridge in Glasgow, and the Regent Bridge and approaches from the East to Edinburgh. He projected a number of canals and railways which were not built and he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1815. He devised and tested the hypothesis that freshwater and saltwater at river mouths exist as separate and he contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, and published in a number of the scientific journals of the day. In 1799, Robert married Jean Smith, Thomas Smiths eldest daughter by his first wife, a number of their children died young including three who died of childhood diseases early in 1808 during the construction of Bell Rock. Three of Stevenson’s sons became engineers, David, Alan, roberts surviving children also include Joseph, who emigrated to Victoria, Australia in 1832, and Jane, who assisted in writing and illustrating an account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse construction. Robert Louis Stevenson was his grandson, via Thomas, and Katharine de Mattos was his granddaughter, Stevenson died on 12 July 1850 in Edinburgh. He is buried in the Stevenson family plot in New Calton Cemetery, Stevenson College, Edinburgh was founded in 1970, and was named after Robert Stevenson. For at least some of his life Robert Stevenson lived at 1 Baxters Place, Edinburgh, bella Bathurst wrote a biographical account of the professional accomplishments of Stevenson and his sons in The Lighthouse Stevensons
Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)
–
Bust of Robert Stevenson by
Samuel Joseph, commissioned 19 July 1824 by the Northern Lighthouse Board. Illustration from the Biographical Sketch of the Late Robert Stevenson: Civil Engineer by his son Alan Stevenson, 1851
Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)
–
Robert Stevenson's grave, New Calton Cemetery
12.
Manx shearwater
–
The Manx shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift, Manx shearwaters were called Manks puffins in the 17th century, puffin is an Anglo-Norman word for the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters. The Atlantic puffin acquired the much later, possibly because of its similar nesting habits. The shearwaters form part of the Procellariidae family, a group containing nearly 100 species of medium to large seabirds. They have long, narrow wings and the characteristic “tubenose”, of these, the Hawaiian and possibly Townsends shearwaters seem to be most closely related to the Manx shearwater. Three extinct species appear to be related to the Manx shearwater, the lava shearwater. DNA recovered from the lava shearwater of the Canary Islands suggests that it is the Manx shearwater’s sister species despite being significantly smaller, the Manx shearwater was first described by Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich as Procellaria puffinus in 1764. The original usage dates from at least 1337, but from as early as 1678 the term came to be used for another seabird. The current English name was first recorded in 1835 and refers to the nesting of this species on the Isle of Man. The Manx shearwater is 30–38 cm with a 76–89 cm wingspan and it has the typically shearing flight of the genus, dipping from side to side on stiff wings with few wingbeats, the wingtips almost touching the water. This shearwater is mainly silent at sea, even when birds are gathered off the breeding colonies and it calls on its nocturnal visits to the nesting burrows in flight, on the ground and in the burrows, although moonlight depresses the amount of calling. The vocalisations largely consists of a series of croons, howls and screams. The male has some clear ringing and shrieking tones absent from the repertoire of the female. Females can recognise the voice of their mate, but not of their young and they do not provide post-nesting care, and it is likely that a chick in the burrow is their own, so there is no need for voice identification. The vision of the Manx shearwater has a number of adaptations to its way of life, like other tubenosed seabirds it has a long narrow area of visual sensitivity containing the fovea across the retina of the eye. This region is characterised by the presence of cells which are regularly arrayed. This feature helps in the detection of items in an area projecting below. It may assist in the detection of prey near the sea surface as a bird flies low over it, since it visits its breeding colonies at night, a shearwater has adaptations for nocturnal vision too
Manx shearwater
–
Manx shearwater
Manx shearwater
Manx shearwater
–
Flying in Iceland
Manx shearwater
–
In flight
13.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
