Europe and Asia are one land mass and that’s why neither of them are part of the original Eight Poles. Instead, there is a Pole of Inaccessibility for Eurasia – the combination of Europe and Asia.

Being the Earth’s largest landmass, the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility (EPIA) lies furthest from the sea of all Poles of Inaccessibility at roughly 2,500km, compared to the second furthest which is 1,800km for Africa.

It sits in remote northwestern China, close to the Kazakhstan border, within the wider region of Xinjiang. At first glance, that all sounds rather definitive. It isn’t….

Early calculations placed the pole at:

The Original Location

• Latitude: 46°17.0′N
• Longitude: 86°40.0′E
• Distance from sea: 2,645km

This lies roughly 320 km north of Ürümqi, within the Gurbantünggüt Desert, and was estimated to be 2,645 km from the nearest coastline. Nearby settlements include Hoxtolgay (~50 km NW), Xazgat (~20 km W) and Suluk (~10 km E)

This location is still widely cited as the Eurasian pole—but it depends on an old definition of what counts as “ocean”.

The 2007 Revision

If the Gulf of Ob (a bay of the Arctic Ocean, located in northern Russia) is included as part of the ocean system, the solution shifts according to Garcia-Castellanos and Lombardo.

Two alternative points emerge:

• EPIA1: 44°17.40′N, 82°11.40′E — ~2,510 km from ocean
• EPIA2: 45°16.80′N, 88°08.40′E — ~2,514 km from ocean

These lie within a tight triangle centred on the Dzungarian Gate, a historic corridor between East and West. The error margins are given as ±10 km for EPIA1 and ±7 km for EPIA2, meaning that neither point can claim the absolute status as the EPIA. Instead, both points can be counted as the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility.

EPIA1

• Latitude: 44°17.40′N
• Longitude: 82°11.40′E
• Distance from sea: 2,510km

EPIA1 lies within Xinjiang’s Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, a short distance east of the Kazakhstan border and northwest of Ürümqi. It sits in low, rugged uplands on the eastern fringe of the Dzungarian Gate, where the open steppe of the Junggar Basin begins to rise into the foothills between the Altai and Tianshan ranges that have historically linked China with Central Asia.

The Location of EPIA1

EPIA2

• Latitude: 45°16.80′N
• Longitude: 88°08.40′E
• Distance from sea: 2,514km

EPIA2 lies in northern Xinjiang, within Burultokay County, well to the east of the Dzungarian Gate and deep within the Junggar Basin. The point falls in sparsely inhabited semi-desert, characterised by flat to gently undulating terrain with low relief and wide horizons, typical of the basin’s interior. It is far removed from any significant settlements, with only small, scattered communities at considerable distance, and no direct infrastructure at the location itself. Unlike EPIA1, it is not associated with any major geographic corridor, but instead represents a more isolated interior position within Eurasia’s continental core.

The Location of EPIA2

An Alternative “Eurasian Centre”

A further coordinate appears in Chinese-language sources but these tend to be travel blogs, reposted articles and “interesting fact” content.  There is no peer-reviewed paper containing these coordinates and it is not an official Chinese geographical standard, though the “Xinjiang Institute” and “Wuhan Surveying University” are sometimes quoted (without reference).

These coordinates, 46°14.00′N, 83°36.00′E, are described as:

• “亚欧大陆内心” — the heart or centre of Eurasia
• and, inconsistently, also as the point farthest from the ocean

It is typically placed north of Toli County in Xinjiang and attributed (without verifiable publication) to GIS-based calculations.

The problem is straightforward: this point conflates two different ideas—geometric centre and maximum remoteness. It aligns loosely with the pole-of-inaccessibility region but is not a recognised or methodologically distinct solution.  I’ve chosen to treat it as an informal or derivative coordinate rather than a defined geographic result.

Centre Point of Asia (亚洲大陆地理中心)

Separate again is the officially designated “Centre point of Asia” near Ürümqi:

43°40.87′N, 87°19.87′E Established by Chinese geographers in 1992 and marked by a monument, this is a cultural and touristic designation, not a strict geometric or geodetic solution

Chinese calculation for the Centre Point of Asia

Getting to the Eurasian Pole

Date Visited: Not yet visited
Visited by: –
Weather: –
Coordinates Achieved: None
Distance from Pole: –