Paris Meridian

The Paris Meridian is a meridian line running through Paris, now longitude 2°20′14″ east. It was a long-standing rival to Greenwich as the prime meridian of the world.

The Arago medallions

In 1994 the Arago Association and the city of Paris commissioned a Dutch conceptual artist, Jan Dibbets, to create a memorial to Arago. Dibbets came up with the idea of setting 135 bronze medallions into the ground along the Paris Meridian between the northern and southern limits of Paris (a total distance of 17 kilometers / 10-11 miles). Each medallion is 12 cm in diameter and marked with the name ARAGO plus N and S pointers.

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Another project, the so-called Green Meridian, aims to establish a plantation of trees along the entire length of the meridian in France.

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