Lying in northwestern China, near the Kazakhstan border sits the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility, the furthest possible point on land from the ocean.
Poles of Inaccessibility (PIA) are points on the map that are the furthest from a boundary in any direction.
PIA’s are located at the most distant point from the boundaries within a given area.
The remote landscape of the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility is a whopping 1,644 miles from the nearest coastline.
The exact location of the European POI is determined to be at: Latitude: 55° 45.614′ N and Longitude: 40° 39.172’W.
Hoxtotgay Town, located 31 miles to the northwest) is thought to be the closest settlement to the point.
Hoxtolgay is one of the remote town’s most remote from any coastline, it is approximately 1,66 miles from the Arctic Ocean.
At 200 miles away its nearest city is Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwestern China.
Ürümqi sits at the end of the Hexi Corridor, the passage opened during the Han Dynasty in 130 BCE that connected Eastern and Western civilisations.
Thanks to the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility redefining the word ‘remote’ many explorers have it on their bucket list visit but reaching it is an extremely hard adventure.
The point is not marked so having a GPS on hand is essential and could take days to reach.
There are eight Poles of Inaccessibility in total, these refer to the six Continental Poles (Europe and Asia being one combined land mass), the Northern Artic Pole and the Oceanic Pole, also known as Point Nemo.
Point Nemo’s closest land is 1,670 miles away, the area is about 34 times larger than France and is mostly lifeless, with marine life remaining particularly undeveloped due to its remoteness and weak ocean currents.
For those seeking the ultimate uncrowded spot, Point Nemo – or the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility – is found in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the water is just above freezing. “Nemo” also derives from the Latin word for “no one”.
The area was officially discovered in 1992, by Croatian survey engineer Hrvoje Lukatela and has not been explored in person much since.
