To facilitate the location of geographic space , the Earth’s surface is divided into imaginary lines that form a kind of spherical mesh. This mesh is formed by parallels (horizontal lines) and meridians (vertical lines). Tropic of Cancer
Parallels are imaginary circles that can be traced anywhere on the Earth’s surface. The equator is the 0 parallel and allows you to divide the Earth into the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere.
In each of them there are two important parallels: the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the south.
The band located between the two tropics is the intertropical zone and its situation is determined by two phenomena: the inclination of the terrestrial axis and the Earth’s translation. Tropic of Cancer
Interesting data and curiosities
As for its exact location, this parallel is found in the following geographic coordinates : 23 degrees and 27 minutes.
This line of horizontal latitude crosses several territories: central Mexico, the Bahamas, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, northern India, China and Taiwan.
In the Mexican municipality of Matehuala, belonging to the State of San Luis Potosí, there is a small town called the Tropic of Cancer. On the road that crosses it, there is a commemorative monument that refers to the presence of this imaginary line on this place. Tropic of Cancer
There are more than 350 islands in the Bahamas, with Gran Exuma being the largest of them all. It is located in the district of George Town, where there is a heavenly place: the Tropic of Cancer beach.
The name Tropic of Cancer is, in addition to an imaginary parallel, the name of a Mexican town and a beach in the Bahamas, the title of a famous novel by Henry Miller published in 1934 (this novel was accompanied by a sequel published in 1938, the Tropic of Capricorn).
The origin of this appellation goes back to antiquity
In the northern hemisphere, during the summer solstice, the sun’s rays project vertically over the tropics. When this happens the sun enters the zodiacal constellation of Cancer. The discovery of these movements came to be known through Babylonian astronomers. Tropic of Cancer
Later, in the II century; C, the Greek Hipparchus of Niceas advanced in the precession of the equinoxes. In this picture, Hipparchus of Niceas was the one who divided the Earth into parallels and meridians using the concepts of latitude and longitude.
