The Island Map

The Island Map project is one year old today, so this seems like a good time to post what will most likely be the last map update.

The official LOST Encyclopedia came out a few months ago. It included most of the individual maps seen on the show, but it appears that the authors didn’t attempt to create a comprehensive map of the entire Island. Therefore I don’t feel the need to make any major revisions due to some geographical revelation from the encyclopedia.

Now that LOST is over, there’s not much more that can be done with the map, although there is obviously still lots of room for speculation. In the end, this map is simply my best guess based on the various bits of evidence. I’ve really enjoyed working on this project, and thanks to all of you who stuck around to see it to its conclusion.

Click here for extra hi-res version.

There are some older, fairly extensive posts about the content of the blast door map, but most of those posts were made before many of you started following this project. Since it has come up in the answers to several recent questions, let’s revisit Radzinsky and Inman’s contribution to Island cartography.

For the purposes of this project, the locations on the blast door map fall into three categories: confirmed, confident, and incorrect. This image is a simplified version of the map which contains only the most pertinent information regarding locations.

Confirmed locations are green. The places are either marked as “confirmed” on the map itself or (in the case of the Pearl) were later confirmed by the producers. For these locations, the Island Map deviates as little as possible from the blast door map, even though evidence from later seasons (like the fate of the Black Rock) can be somewhat contradictory.

Confident locations are orange. They aren’t marked as “confirmed,” but they are all well-known and long-standing DHARMA facilities. Radzinsky would have ben well-aware of these locations, and confident of the positions of the notations on his map. Again, the Island Map attempts to deviate as little as possible from the general positions of these locations.

Incorrect locations are red. These notations were marked as “alleged” or “possible” locations on the blast door map. We know that these places do exist on The Island, however, their locations are eventually shown to be very different than they appear on the blast door. It seems likely that Radzinsky would have known the accurate locations for most of these facilities, but we know that he eventually committed suicide and Kelvin Inman later finished the map. The most logical assumption is that these notations were added by Kelvin, who was not as sure about their locations. For these places, evidence from elsewhere in the show is used to determine their locations.

The Heart of The Island

I think enough time has passed since the finale that it’s safe to post spoilers, so the first order of business is to identify the location of the Heart of The Island. Jacob gave Jack clear directions on how to find it: the “source” is over a ridge, just beyond the bamboo grove where Jack first woke up in the pilot episode. We know that the bamboo grove is very close to the fuselage crash site, since Jack was able to run from the grove to the plane wreckage in a matter of moments. Therefore, the Heart must also be close to the southern coast, just a short hike from the survivors’ beach camp. Its location is indicated by the gold starburst northeast of the fuselage. Even though it’s this close to the beach camp, the survivors wouldn’t have discovered it since only the protector of The Island can find it.

After watching the final episode, it is also obvious that the cliffside cave is not located along the northern shore of The Island. The Man in Black and Jack reached the cliff far too quickly for it to to be at the extreme other end of The Island. Based on the appearance of the terrain, the cave is most likely located south of the volcanic crater. We know that, although they frequently explored the southern areas of The Island, the survivors never discovered the cave, which would indicate that they must have found another path around the crater, or that the ladder is situated in a way that makes it difficult to see.

One minor revision before the finale this weekend:

After this week’s discussion about the Black Rock, it does make sense that the ship would not have ended up on the upper ridge of the eastern mountains. So I’ve moved it out of the highlands to the base of the mountains near the Mesa. This location is still consistent with the notation on the blast door map, but also satisfies the need for some logic, at least as much as it can be satisfied when we’re talking about LOST.

Everyone enjoy the finale this weekend, and look for another update sometime next week.

The Island Map for 4/26/2010. A few minor changes have been made to the coastline, and a new marker has been added for the stone bench. The Unknown C4 marker has been removed, because frankly, I think that one is going to remain unknown. The big change, of course, is the relocation of the Hydra Island notation, based on the latest evidence presented during the episode “The Last Recruit.”

Click here to see the most recent version of the map.

We’re going back to Hydra Island, and the first thing we’re going to do is ignore every bit of dialogue anyone has ever said about its size or location. Instead, let’s look as what we have seen on-screen, as well as some real-world facts which relate to the crash-landing of Ajira flight 316.

Whenever we have seen Hydra Island, particularly during the Ajira 316 crash-landing scene, it has appeared much larger than Ben’s description that it was “twice the size of Alcatraz.” But we’re ignoring dialogue now. Let’s look at some real-world facts instead:

Ajira 316 is a Boeing 737. So how long would a runway have to be for a 737 to land? Santos Dumont Airport in Brazil is typically regarded as the airport with the shortest runway that 737s regularly land on. Even then, pilots require special training to land there. The runway length is approximately 1300 meters [0.8 miles].

OK, we know that the runway on Hydra Island wasn’t long enough for the 737 to land, but it was long enough for the plane to slow down to a speed where it wasn’t completely destroyed when it hit the trees. Let’s assume that the runway on Hydra Island [pictured above] is at least .75 miles long.

With this information, we can rule out all of the atoll islands off the west coast of the main Island. None of them is remotely large enough to contain a runway of this size.

On Rousseau’s map, she named the two largest of the minor islands: “Alex Island” in the extreme southeast, and “Robert Island” off the east coast. Both of these islands are large enough to accommodate the runway.

I’m not abandoning all of my assertions from the previous Hydra post. I still think that the island closest to the barracks would be the most likely candidate for the Hydra station. Furthermore, the Man in Black’s map indicates a large portion of the eastern coastline to the north and south of Hydra Island. If Hydra Island were actually “Alex Island,” which is located at the end of a point far to the southeast, the map would’ve looked much different.

Based on the new information provided by this latest map, combined with what we now know about real-world runways, Hydra Island is most likely the large, round island located off the east coast of the main Island. I’m going to publish a new version of the map soon, which will reflect this change.

The appearance of a new map in this week’s episode makes it necessary for us to revisit an old question - one that has never been definitively answered: Where the hell is Hydra Island?

Anyone who has been following this project for a while knows that my location for Hydra Island is simply an educated guess. There just hasn’t been enough evidence to determine a conclusive location. This map clearly shows a portion of the east coast of The Island. It even contains a compass rose so that there can be no doubt as to what we’re looking at.

Based on the dialogue in this scene, we can conclude that the smaller island further to the east [under the thumb] must be Hydra Island. So we finally have some evidence to help us find its real location. That’s good, right? Sure it is, except for the fact that this map disagrees completely with my location for the Hydra.

But it’s OK. Seeing this map is causing me to reevaluate some of my arguments regarding the location of Hydra Island. So I’m gathering some more evidence now to present in a new post soon.