Close your eyes and picture the most remote place on Earth. What do you see? Perhaps the windswept ice of the South Pole, or the crushing depths of the Mariana Trench. While these are certainly isolated, geographers have a specific, more poetic concept for the ultimate middle-of-nowhere: the Pole of Inaccessibility.

These aren’t physical poles like the ones our planet spins on. Instead, they are calculated points, the locations on a landmass or ocean that are the furthest possible distance from any coastline. They are the deepest hearts of the continents and the loneliest spots in the sea—geographic bullseyes of isolation.

What Exactly is a Pole of Inaccessibility?

The definition sounds simple: find the spot on a continent that is farthest from the sea. In practice, it’s a cartographer’s headache. What defines a “coastline”? Does the frozen Arctic Ocean count, or just liquid water? What about massive inland seas like the Caspian? Because of these ambiguities, the precise locations of some poles are still debated. Each calculation yields a point that represents the pinnacle of terrestrial or oceanic remoteness, a place defined not by what is there, but by what isn’t: the ocean.

Let’s take a journey to some of Earth’s most significant Poles of Inaccessibility.

The Continental Hearts of Isolation

The Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility (EPIA)

The most “continental” place on the planet lies deep within China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Depending on the calculation, the EPIA is located approximately 2,645 kilometers (1,644 miles) from the nearest ocean. Reaching it means crossing vast, unforgiving landscapes.

• The Landscape: The journey takes you to the Dzungarian Basin, a starkly beautiful but harsh desert landscape, flanked by the mighty Tian Shan and Altai mountain ranges.
• The Challenge: Historically, its remoteness made it a blank spot on the map. The first verified expedition to reach one of the candidate points for the EPIA was by British explorers Nicholas Crane and Richard Crane in 1986, who famously traveled on foot and by bicycle.
• Human Geography: This Pole isn’t entirely empty. It lies in a region of incredible cultural mixing, historically a crossroads on the Silk Road and home to the Uyghur people, as well as Kazakhs and other Central Asian groups.

The Antarctic Pole of Inaccessibility

If the EPIA is the most continental, the Antarctic Pole is arguably the most formidable. Located on the high, barren East Antarctic Ice Sheet, it is one of the coldest, driest, and most difficult-to-reach places on Earth. At an altitude of over 3,700 meters (12,140 feet), the thin air and brutal temperatures—averaging around -58°C (-72°F)—present an extreme challenge to human survival.

In December 1958, during the International Geophysical Year, a Soviet expedition muscled its way across the ice to establish a temporary research station here. When they left, they marked the spot with a bust of Vladimir Lenin. Today, atop a snow-buried cabin, the statue still stands, perpetually facing Moscow, a lonely monument in an endless expanse of white.

The North American Pole of Inaccessibility

Not all poles are in desolate wastelands. The North American Pole offers a fascinatingly different picture of remoteness. It’s located in southwestern South Dakota, about 1,650 kilometers (1,025 miles) from the nearest coastline. Specifically, it lies near the small town of Allen on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota Nation.

Unlike its Eurasian counterpart, this pole is inhabited. It highlights that remoteness in a developed country isn’t about empty deserts, but about distance from economic centers and services. The pole’s location in one of the most historically marginalized and impoverished areas of the United States adds a profound layer of human geography to its physical isolation.

Point Nemo: The Loneliest Spot on Earth

If you truly want to get away from it all, you need to head to the ocean. The Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility, better known as Point Nemo, is the place in the ocean that is farthest from land. Located in the desolate expanse of the South Pacific, it is a staggering 2,688 kilometers (1,670 miles) from the nearest dry ground.

The closest landmasses are:

• Ducie Island, a tiny, uninhabited atoll in the Pitcairn Islands, to the north.
• Motu Nui, a rocky islet near Easter Island, to the northeast.
• Maher Island, part of Antarctica, to the south.

The name “Nemo” is a tribute to Captain Nemo from Jules Verne’s novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and it’s also Latin for “no one”—a fitting name for this watery void. Life here is scarce. It’s located within the South Pacific Gyre, a rotating ocean current that blocks nutrient-rich water from reaching the area, making it one of the least biologically active regions of the world’s oceans.

The Cosmic Connection

Point Nemo has a unique and otherworldly distinction. It is so far from any human settlement that the closest people are often not on Earth at all. When the International Space Station (ISS) passes overhead on its orbit, its astronauts, soaring 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) above, are the nearest human beings to Point Nemo.

This extreme isolation has given it a modern purpose: it’s a spacecraft cemetery. When old satellites and space stations need to be de-orbited, space agencies aim for Point Nemo. Its remoteness ensures that falling debris is highly unlikely to harm anyone or anything. Russia’s Mir space station crashed here in 2001, and the ISS is destined for the same watery grave at the end of its operational life.

Why Do These Points Fascinate Us?

Poles of Inaccessibility are more than just geographic curiosities. They are a physical manifestation of concepts that captivate the human imagination: solitude, challenge, and the unknown. For explorers, they represent some of the last terrestrial goals. For scientists, they are unique environments for studying climate, geology, and even the limits of life.

In a world that feels increasingly small and interconnected, these points remind us of our planet’s vastness. They are a testament to the fact that even in the 21st century, there are still places that are fundamentally, profoundly, and beautifully remote.