The Great Arc of India

An exhibition has opened in the UK commemorating the measurement of The Great Arc of India. The survey, which involved moving vast amounts of equipment across all sorts of terrain and making fantastically accurate measurements along the way, took some forty years to complete. The end result provided a spine for the mapping of the entire subcontinent, as well as contributing vital data which helped establish the precise shape of the planet.

If, like me, you’ve never heard of the Great Arc of India, you’ve almost certainly heard of one of its’ consequences. Following a subsequent survey of the Himalayas, which was made possible by the Great Arc survey itself, the world’s tallest mountain was named after one of the Great Arc survey’s leaders.

There’s a book by John Keay, published a couple of years ago and available in paperback, which tells the story of the survey. This review makes it sound worth a read, so that’s yet another addition to my Amazon wishlist. And I’m going to seriously consider a trip to Birmingham to catch the touring version of the exhibition in September.

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