Ancient Myths: the old equator!

location on the map approx Latitude:22° N Longitude: 86°W.
A few weeks back I was on a beach in Cancun overlooking the beautiful turqouise ocean color whilst the sun slowly vapourized, a symmetrical reflection of light scattering out over the horizon gave me an unearthly feeling.

That last part about the sun moving slowly, out of line of sight, I completely made up as it gives a more serene touch the overall atmosphere, I was trying to create as a writer, in real time the sun dissapeared in the blink of an eye and truth be told it was a bit of a dissapointment. Hardly time to finish my beer!

It is cool to see science work all around you and even though for most it remains a mystery why the sun goes down quicker near the equator, I rather like to figure out how it works!

For an interesting geography lesson read the below, if u can't be bothered and want to read about Ancient Myths about the equator go to part 2 below if else {break}

quick recap on geography
In 1851 astronomer and mathmatician Sir George Biddell Airy established the prime meredian.
This prime meridian is also known as the 0 degree longitude line and is exactly positioned to go through Greenwich Observatory in London.

a picture of the Greenwich Observatory.

What are meredians (lattitude) and parallels (longitude)

As you can see a meredian is an imaginary line that goes from pole to pole. Zenith being the North Pole and Nedir being the South Pole.

The imaginary lines that run from east to west connecting all locations on a map are known as parallels or latitudes. The five major circles of latitude according to the order on a map from the North Pole to the South Pole are:

the Arctic Circle (66° 33′ 38″ N)
the Tropic of Cancer (23° 26′ 22″ N)
the Equator (0° N)
the Tropic of Capricorn (Sagittarius) (23° 26′ 22″ S)
the Antarctic Circle (66° 33′ 38″ S)4

The equator is the intersection of the surface of a rotating spheroid (such as a planet) with the plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation and midway be
source: http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-parallels-and-vs-meridians/

What makes the earth rotate?
There are different explanations out there, but generally in order for something to start spinning it needs to have a force applied to it. It could have happened by an explosion for instance. The only thing that slows it down is the gravitational pull of the moon. This also causes the tides one earth.

source: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/36-our-solar-system/the-earth/general-questions/22-what-makes-the-earth-rotate-intermediate

So if you didn't know already, now you know that Cancun is 22 degrees North of the equator and 86 degrees West of Greenwich.

sun goes down quicker in Cancun
When you get closer to the equator you are going faster relatively to everything outside of earth.
The reason is that earth is a rotating sphere, if you are standing very close the north pole, let's say 10 feet the parallels only has a circumference with diameter of 20 feet approx., a full rotation of earth which takes 24 hours will then take you much less time then if you were standing on the equator where the circumference is aprrox 24901 miles.

Some facts:

At a latitude of 45 degrees (eg. Turin or Dunedin) - the speed is approx. 1180 km per hour (cos 45 x 1670)
At a latitude of 60 degrees (eg. Oslo or Villa Las Estellas) - the speed is approx. 835 km per hour (cos 60 x 1670)
If you stand on the centre of the pole - the speed is 0 km per

source: https://www.quora.com/Do-people-on-the-equator-move-faster-than-people-near-the-poles

The magnetic North pole is not directly lined up with the axis of the earths rotation, some believe that this is what keeps the earth rotating. Scientist believe the poles have swapped around many times in the history of earths existence.
In fact if you were alive 800000 years agl if you were pointing a compass to what we now call magnetic north the needle would be pointing south.
The fact that we know the magnetic poles reverse could well mean that the equator moved around as well.

source: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012-poleReversal.html

thanks Oude Kaas now I am even more bored than before you clickbaited me with the title "Ancient Myths"?

Allright point taken, let's get to it:

##Part 2 ANCIENT MYTHS##
I have always enjoyed reading about lost civilisations and the possibility of us not being the first advanced civilisation although we think we know it all, the judge is still out there, whilst our technological advancements seem all very cunning, perhaps a lot could be said about the fact that we have lost to understand the true meaning of life, whilst indulging in our electronic world of entertainment. But this is another subject.

There are loads of interesting documentaries around that prove thousands of years ago, people made creations that even with todays technology seems incredibly tough to do if not impossible. This remains intriqueing and mysterious at the same

ancient incredible feats
Other than the fact that the way the Pyramids of Giza are build with surgical precision, exactly positioned towards certain stars, the way the stones have been carved is also a tremendous feat.
It explains why after all these years they still stand strong surviving natures worst attempts to destroy them.
Remarkably it is found that the stones at easter island are carved in identical ways to the ones in Giza even though they were thousands of miles apart. The cut of the stones is to this day very difficult to achieve.

Stone carving: Easter Island

Stone carving: Giza Pyramids

mystery of easter island
It is still unknown why people decided to travel 2300 miles to discover Easter Island, how did they know it was there and why were they willing to sacrifice their lives to start a colony there.

Polynesian people most likely settled on Easter Island sometime between 700 and 1100 CE, and created a thriving and industrious culture as evidenced by the island's numerous enormous stone moai and other artefacts.

source: http://www.history.com/topics/easter-island

The old equator
One of the more interesting myths I came across is that it seems that when you start drawing a line through some of the biggest and most important ancient landmarks, to name a few are:"Easter Island, Chechenitza (Cancun) , Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, pyramids of giza" the line forms a perfect great circle around the world.
Could this have been the old equator?

This is what I like about ancient myths, maybe a lot we mention is made up or we like to think they were a lot more advanced. One thing is for sure, the more you read up about how they created these landmarks the more mysterious it becomes.

So enlighten yourself start reading about it and share, because I love reading about this sort of stuff!!