ATLAS

VariantOMEGA-3-18-1Sheet 1 of 5 of the dossier Flat Earth

Disc, dome, infinite plane: the competing models

The flat Earth has no single shape: disc with an ice wall, domed plane, infinite plane.

A circular map of the Earth centred on the North Pole, as the author imagined it.
Flat Earth map according to Samuel Rowbotham's Zetetic Astronomy, 1881; an illustration of the thesis. Samuel Rowbotham · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Summary

The flat Earth theory is not a single model. Samuel Rowbotham, the founder of the modern movement, described in his 1865 book a flat disc centred on the North Pole and bounded on its southern edge by a wall of ice, which he identified with Antarctica, with the Sun and Moon some 3,000 miles overhead. The Flat Earth Society later promoted a similar disc, with a 150-foot wall of ice at its outer edge and a Sun and Moon each 32 miles across; its leader of the time pointed to the resemblance between this map and the emblem of the United Nations as evidence.

Other believers reject the idea of a disc flying through space and describe a stationary plane covered by a dome that holds the Sun, Moon and stars. Filmmakers who attended a conference met many people who held the Earth to be an infinite plane, possibly with more continents beyond the ice wall, and some believers are convinced that it is diamond-shaped. According to the most widespread version, NASA guards the ice wall and manipulates satellite images.

These ideas echo much older cosmologies: Egyptian and Mesopotamian sources pictured a disc floating in the ocean, and the Israelites imagined a disc under a solid firmament. The models contradict one another, and the following sheets set them against measurements and observations.

What the thesis says

The sources show where these claims circulate, not that they are true.

  1. Thesis

    In the model Rowbotham proposed in his 1865 book, the Earth is a flat disc centred on the North Pole and bounded on its southern edge by a wall of ice, Antarctica; he placed the Sun and Moon 3,000 miles above it.

  2. Thesis

    The Flat Earth Society has described a disc with the North Pole at its centre and a 150-foot wall of ice at the outer edge, with a Sun and Moon each 32 miles across; its former leader cited the resemblance of the map to the United Nations emblem as evidence.

    • Flat Earth Society, Wikipedia
      The Flat Earth Society's most recent planet model is that humanity lives on a disc, with the North Pole at its centre and a 150-foot-high (46 m) wall of ice, Antarctica, at the outer edge.
  3. Thesis

    One conference organiser describes the Earth as "a stationary plane, with the sun, moon, and stars inside a dome", while the Flat Earth Society promotes a disc flying through space, a model he finds incredibly ridiculous.

  4. Thesis

    At one flat Earth conference a substantial number of people believed that the Earth is an infinite plane, possibly with more continents beyond the circular ice wall of Antarctica.

    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      a substantial number of people believed that Earth was an infinite plane, potentially with more continents beyond the purported circular ice wall of Antarctica.
  5. Thesis

    According to the most widespread version of the theory, NASA guards the Antarctic ice wall surrounding the Earth and fabricates or manipulates its satellite images.

    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      According to the most widely spread version of current flat-Earth theory, NASA is guarding the Antarctic ice wall that surrounds Earth.
  6. Thesis

    Believers do not agree on the shape: most say the Earth is a disc, but some are convinced that it is diamond-shaped, and most do not believe in outer space.

    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      While most agree upon a disc-shaped Earth, some are convinced that Earth is diamond-shaped.
A square map of the world with angels at the four corners and Bible references around it.
"Map of the Square and Stationary Earth" drawn by Orlando Ferguson in 1893; an illustration of the thesis. Orlando Ferguson · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Verified facts

  1. Verified fact

    Early Egyptian and Mesopotamian thought pictured the world as a disc floating in the ocean, and the Israelites imagined a disc on the water under an arched firmament, a solid sky carrying the Sun, Moon and stars.

    • Flat Earth, Wikipedia
      the world was portrayed as a disk floating in the ocean.