The Greenwich Observatory is located in the southeastern suburbs of the city of London, which was built in 1675 and expanded in 1835. Later, due to air and light pollution caused by industrialization, it affected the observation of starlight observation, and in 1948 it was moved to Hurstmonsuburg in Sussex, United Kingdom. The site is used as a museum, and some of the collections are displayed for visitors to see.
The most famous attraction on the site of the original Greenwich Observatory, and the favorite place for tourists to take photos here, is called the prime meridian. Standing on this meridian, tourists have the meaning of stepping on the east and west hemispheres of the earth. This meridian is also the zero degree meridian on Earth, which serves as the starting point for calculating geographical location and the starting point for the UTC zero time zone. Later, some countries in the world established their own prime meridian and used the meridian through their main astronomical observatories as their prime meridian, so there is not only one prime meridian in the world. But the Greenwich Observatory's meridian is the earliest and most famous.
In the museum on the site of the former Greenwich Observatory, there are early astronomical telescopes, clocks and globes mainly used for navigation, and Chinese armillary spheres.
The former Greenwich Observatory site is located on a local high ground with views of Greenwich Town and part of London. In the middle of the avenue in front of the gate is a statue of General James ·, a general who died heroically in the Battle of Quebec.
Not far west of the former Greenwich Observatory is the Royal Observatory.
To the west of the Royal Observatory is Greenwich Park.
Author: Dr. Shi Renjie