Far Off
The longest straight line you can travel on Earth
32,090 km across water from Pakistan to Kamchatka, and 11,241 km over dry land from China to Portugal. Both paths, their exact endpoints, and the maths that found them.
6 min read Read the articleTravel times
Seven days by train without leaving one country, and a straight line of 32,000 kilometres without touching land.
A distance becomes concrete when you translate it into time. Nine thousand kilometres means nothing; seven nights in the same carriage does.
It is also the most misleading measure, because it depends on the mode of transport far more than on geography. Two cities the same distance apart can be three hours or three days from each other.
Journeys in numbers
- 9,289 km for the Trans-Siberian, Moscow to Vladivostok, on a single line.
- About 7 days of continuous travel to complete it, across eight time zones.
- About 32,000 km for the longest navigable straight line, from Pakistan to the Kamchatka peninsula.
- 11,241 km for the longest straight line over land, from Portugal to China.
- About 4,500 hours of walking to circle the Earth at the equator, if a continuous path existed.
Articles on this topic
Frequently asked questions about travel times
What is the longest train journey in the world?
The Trans-Siberian, between Moscow and Vladivostok, covers 9,289 kilometres on a single line in about seven days and eight time zones. Routes assembled from several lines can go further, but no scheduled service beats it in one continuous run.
What is the longest possible straight line on Earth?
Over water, about 32,000 kilometres, from southern Pakistan to Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula without ever crossing land. Over land, 11,241 kilometres between Portugal and China. Both were established by computed search in 2018.
How long would it take to walk around the Earth?
At the equator, 40,075 kilometres at five kilometres an hour comes to roughly 8,000 hours of walking, close to a year at eight hours a day. The figure is theoretical: no continuous path circles the globe, the oceans cut the route.
Why are two cities the same distance apart not the same time apart?
Because duration depends on the network, not on geography. A direct air link brings together two cities that road or rail keeps apart. A 500-kilometre trip can take an hour by plane, five hours by train, ten hours by bus.
Can you travel from Paris to Beijing by train?
Yes, by combining several lines, mainly via the Trans-Siberian or the Trans-Mongolian. The journey takes around ten days and several changes. No single service links the two cities directly.