Friday, July 23, 2010

LOST Geography, Tunisia and Membata

LOST is my favorite drama tv-series, one that incorporates some great geography- both real and fictional. As I await the release of the Season 6 DVD I started to think about MY unanswered questions.

If I could have one question answered it would probably be about the importance of Tunisia. The Tunisian desert was the place where Ben and Locke ended up after turning the frozen donkey wheel in the well. It is supposedly the one-way exit off the island. Tunisia was also where Charlotte came across polar bear remains and a Dharma Initiative symbol. While there was plenty of discussion about pockets of energy in various places on the earth, one being the island, (the fictional Membata off the coast of Sumba in Indonesia) the significance of Tunisia was never revealed. I've searched LOSTpedia- which is a great source by the way, blogs, and the only thought seems to be that Tunisia is a near antipode of Membata. The problem with that theory is that it simply isn't true- I find the antipode to be the coast of Venezuela, almost 5,000 miles from Tunisia. I checked it using the sandwich tool and took a screen shot.


So for any of you GEO-LOSTies out there - Why do you think Tunisia was used? What is its significance?



And for your reference, the presumed location of Membata using "the numbers" is 10°48'15.16"S / 117°23'42.01"E If you use that in Google Earth you'll be flown right to the islands mythical location :)

3 comments: