North Pole

The North Pole sits at the point where Earth's rotation axis meets its surface at 90 degrees north latitude in the Arctic Ocean. The ice beneath this spot floats on the sea and constantly shifts with the currents, so the exact position drifts several meters each day.

In April 1909, American explorer Robert Peary claimed to have reached this point first, though historians still debate his route. Norwegian scientists reached the spot by airship in 1926 and became the first people to verifiably drop flags onto the ice.

The names for the magnetic and geographic poles come from Latin words for cardinal directions that sailors have used for centuries to navigate. Compasses do not point to this location but to the magnetic North Pole, which lies about 310 miles away in the Arctic Ocean.

Visitors reach this point only by icebreaker or charter flight, departing from Svalbard or Murmansk during the brief Arctic summer. The ice layer can be thin, so groups must constantly check thickness and stay close to the vessels.

The sun circles the horizon completely during the six-month day and never rises higher than 23 degrees above the ice. Clocks lose meaning here, as all time zones converge at a single point and any time of day applies simultaneously.