Where in the World is Antarctica?

Why, at the bottom of the world of course! Seems like an easy answer, but you would be surprised how many people get Antarctica and the Arctic confused. The early Greek geographers believed there must be a large land mass around the South Pole to "balance" the known land in the Northern Hemisphere.

They named it the opposite of the Arctic, The Anti-Arktikos or Antarctic, which means literally "opposite to the Arctic."

It might be fun for your students to follow our journey by tracking our progress on a map as we cross Antarctica. During the first week in November, we will be taking a plane from Cape Town, South Africa to a location on Antarctica called Queen Maud Land. From that point we will ski South to the South Pole, a distance of about 1,373 miles (2,197 kilometers).

From the South Pole we will ski North (it's the only way to go!) to McMurdo Sound where we complete our traverse of the continent.