What is the Struve Geodetic Arc, a UNESCO World Heritage Site spanning across the countries of BELARUS, ESTONIA, FINLAND, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, MOLDOVA, NORWAY, RUSSIA, SWEDEN, and UKRAINE? The UNESCO World Heritage Site webpage (↗) provides an interactive map and description:
The Struve Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through 10 countries and over 2,820 km. These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian. This helped to establish the exact size and shape of the planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. It is an extraordinary example of scientific collaboration among scientists from different countries, and of collaboration between monarchs for a scientific cause. The original arc consisted of 258 main triangles with 265 main station points. The listed site includes 34 of the original station points, with different markings, i.e. a drilled hole in rock, iron cross, cairns, or built obelisks.
Surveyors from around the world and other people involved in geodesy and geography might consider adding a [probably expensive] trip through Eastern Europe onto their travel "Bucket List"! The UNESCO description is available under license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Intergovernmental Organization 3.0 license (↗).
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