Eartha – Yarmouth, Maine - Atlas Obscura
Places near me Random place

Eartha

Garmin Headquarters
Yarmouth, Maine

The world's largest rotating world. 

View all photos
Eartha. Europe Africa Asia Julio Torres (Atlas Obscura User)
Eartha. Europe Africa Asia Julio Torres (Atlas Obscura User)
Eartha: still turning davym195 (Atlas Obscura User)
Eartha Michelle Enemark
Eartha Michelle Enemark
Eartha Michelle Enemark
Eartha Michelle Enemark
Eartha Michelle Enemark
Taken in 2013, when there was still the map store. donnatalarico (Atlas Obscura User)
1003
1059
Related Stories
Desert of Maine
sponsored

Is Maine Our Most Unusual State?

8 offbeat gems to visit in Maine this summer.
Top Places in Maine
Mount Desert Spring Blues Brothers
Southwest Harbor, Maine
Umbrella Cover Museum
Portland, Maine
Thompson Ice House Harvesting Museum
South Bristol, Maine
 See All

Were you to drive on Maine’s Interstate 295 through Yarmouth, it would be next to impossible to miss Eartha.

Eartha, housed in a three-story glass gallery at the former DeLorme Headquarters (they were acquired by Garmin in 2016), is the world’s largest rotating/revolving globe. Eartha was designed by CEO David DeLorme and successfully completed two years later in 1998. It won its Guinness Book record the next year, outshining the previous record holders in both Italy and Massachusetts.

Just over 41 feet in diameter, the enormous structure was designed as a scale model. At the scale of 1:1,000,000, or approximately one inch equaling 16 miles, California is a mere three and a half feet tall on Eartha.

Eartha is tilted at 23.5 degrees, just like Earth, and is rotated about that axis by an electric motor. Simultaneously, a second motor swivels the entire tilted, rotating globe around the attachment point to the floor, together giving a approximation of Earth’s own simultaneous day-night and annual cycles. It takes about 18 minutes for Eartha to complete a cycle.

Off to the side of Eartha on the ground floor is a display about geocaching, including a large collection of geocoins.

Know Before You Go

While the map store that housed Eartha is now closed, the sales agreement allows the globe to keep rotating.


The building is open for public access till 3 pm.

marvelous maps and measures small worlds and model towns astounding timepieces instruments of science
Nearby
The Desert of Maine
3.55 miles
Freeport McDonald's
4.77 miles
Bailey Island Bridge (Cribstone Bridge)
9.64 miles
Want to see fewer ads? Become a Member.
Near This Place
Desert of Maine
Freeport, Maine

The Desert of Maine

This tiny patch of arid sand sits in one of the greenest states in the United States.
McDonald's in Freeport, ME.
Freeport, Maine

Freeport McDonald's

When the town wouldn't allow the fast-food behemoth to build a new restaurant, they put one inside an 1850 home.
Bailey Island Bridge.
Harpswell, Maine

Bailey Island Bridge (Cribstone Bridge)

An unusually designed bridge from the 1920s was built to withstand the tides and winds of Maine.
From above.
Portland, Maine

Fort Gorges

Accessible only by boat, this centuries-old island fort never saw troops or combat.
Related Places
Mercury in Stockholm
Stockholm, Sweden

Sweden Solar System

The world's largest model of our planetary system.
From the old model
Peoria, Illinois

Peoria Scale Model of the Solar System

The world's third-largest scale model of the planets.
Boston, Massachusetts

Mapparium Globe

An enormous, inside-out glass globe built in 1935.
Borugak Jagyeongnu at Deoksugung
Seoul, South Korea

Borugak Jagyeongnu

Only a few pieces remain of a grand 16th-century water clock that once announced the changing hours with the sound of bells, gongs, and drums.
In partnership with KAYAK

Plan Your Trip

From Around the Web