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Subject: Re: Mecca
From: Dan Allen (danallen@XXX.XXX)
Date: Fri Aug 25 2000 - 12:57:35 EDT
http://www.csfnet.org/501_99/501w/sols193.html
is a hard to read TeX file (not the HTML that the file suffix indicates).
It is called "Solstice: An Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics".
This particular file (Volume IV, Number 1 from Summer of 1993) turned up
when
I did a search using Google. It has some interesting information about the
distance to Mecca problem, along with a host of other navigation related
things relating to the spherical/elliptical nature of the earth.
-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@XXX.XXX van Gent
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2000 3:46 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@XXX.XXX
Subject: Mecca
Dear all,
I hope that my query will not be too much out of place on this list but
I would be most grateful if anyone could help me on this matter.
As most list members will know the Kabah of Mecca (Saudi Arabia)
represents the geographical centre of the Islamic world and its exact
position with respect to Greenwich would seem to be exactly known. I
know that up to fairly recent times this was not so due to the fact that
the city of Mecca was (and still is) forbidden territory for
non-Muslims, making it virtually impossible for European surveyors to
determine its position with any exactitude.
Modern encyclopaedias, atlases and internet gazetteers all give its
position as 21 degree 27 minutes North and 39 degree 49 minutes East of
Greenwich but do not specify for which part of Mecca this refers to. Can
anyone on this list quote more precise figures for the geographical
position of the Kabah of Mecca, preferably with a reference, or direct
me to sources that can provide me with this information?
Thanks in advance.
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* Zaagmolenkade 50 * *
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