The Island Map

The hike from the Swan to the Temple

Whenever I measure distances on The Island, I use this distance scale from Rousseau’s map as my guide. With this information, combined with what we know about the locations of the Swan station and the Temple, we can determine that it’s about a 25-mile hike from one to the other.

Average adult walking speed is three miles per hour. We can assume that our heroes were moving at a faster-than-average speed, given the severity of Sayid’s injury. They would have been able to cover much of the distance by traveling over the mesa and through the central valley, which would’ve been easier terrain to negotiate. Even though the old DHARMA roads are overgrown on the modern Island, they probably could’ve used the van to travel at least part of the distance. I’m surprised that they didn’t.

So let’s assume that they were able to cover four miles per hour. It would’ve taken them about six hours to reach the wall of the Temple. When Sawyer extracts Juliet from the Swan wreckage, the sun has just risen, indicating that it is early in the morning. Jack’s group could’ve arrived at the Temple by mid-afternoon.

The smoke monster was obviously occupied with other matters, and we can assume that all of the Others are either at the Temple or at the four-toed statue, so the group could’ve traveled unimpeded to their destination. I suppose the only conclusion must be that nothing interesting happened during the hike, and that Sayid was able to cling to life for about seven hours. Therefore the producers decided that it wasn’t necessary to show the journey from the Swan to the Temple on-screen.