Well, where exactly is the North Pole? Simply put, at the top of the Earth. Well, yes, but where’s the top? So let’s start from the beginning. Everyone knows what a sphere is. We’ve been learning about this mysterious shape since childhood. For example, I still remember the taste of perfectly spherical coconut candies. My neighborhood kids and I would play fierce games of dodgeball right after school, and for that, we needed a ball. So, that’s settled, the sphere has been with us since our earliest days. Our Earth is just such a sphere, only obviously much larger than a ball. But if it’s a sphere, where’s the top? Things get a little more complicated, because we’re actually dealing with an ellipsoid, not a sphere. It’s a bit like sitting on a basketball for too long. I’ve heard more than once: Don’t sit on a ball, or it’ll turn into an egg. The Earth is similarly flattened, especially at the poles. But isn’t it suspicious that our planet is shaped like a perfect ellipsoid? After all, its surface is covered with mountains, valleys, gorges, canyons, and the landscape around us often deviates significantly from a perfectly spherical shape. This is because the Earth is, in reality, nothing more than a giant potato traveling around the Sun—or, more precisely, a geoid. For example, if we keep moving north, we will eventually reach the Earth’s pole. And how do we know we’re there? Well, from there, regardless of which direction we choose, it will always be south.

Humans learned to read north long before the age of compasses. The stars that accompany us in the cloudless night sky came to our aid. Our imagination and innate curiosity allowed us to describe the sky by grouping tiny luminous points into constellations. Over time, we learned more and more about the sky, until it eventually served us well for navigation. The constellation Ursa Major helped sailors and travelers determine north for many years. The pole star Polaris itself was once called the “celestial guide.” It was only a matter of time before someone brave enough to set off north. First attempts to conquer the Earth’s poles date back to the early 20th century. So who was the first to reach the North Pole? There are several candidates. Frederick Albert Cook, an American physician, claimed to be the first to conquer the pole, but his story is rather dubious and has never been confirmed. Robert Edwin Peary, an English military engineer, claimed that he and his team were the first, reaching the pole in 1906. Many years later, after a thorough analysis of the expedition’s records, it turned out that Peary’s team had indeed made it quite far, but fell just short of the pole. It is Peary and his team, however, who are credited with the title of conqueror. An expedition to the North Pole? Tempting, maybe next time.