The Island Map

In this week’s episode, “Dr. Linus,” there was an interesting bit of dialogue between Jack and Hurley when they were discussing returning to the Temple. Jack states that if they leave immediately, they can reach the Temple by nightfall. We know that it’s the morning since Hurley says he wants breakfast. So we can assume that it’s about a twelve-hour hike from the Lighthouse back to the Temple.

If we also assume that they were camping in the vicinity of the Lighthouse, they would still be 35-40 miles from the Temple. With an average adult walking speed of three miles per hour, we can calculate that the distance from the Lighthouse to the Temple, based on Jack’s estimation on how long it will take, is at least 36 miles.

This helps us to confirm the locations of the Lighthouse and the Temple at the far southeast and northwest corners of The Island, respectively.

The Lighthouse

We’ve got yet another Island landmark to find a location for. So where is the Lighthouse? We know that Hurley and Jack hiked from the Temple to the Lighthouse, and they passed by the caves en route. This would place the Lighthouse somewhere along the southern coast of The Island.

Now this is just speculation on my part, but I don’t think that the LIghthouse is located along the southwest coast. When Sayid, Jin, and Sun took the sailboat north along the west coast, Sayid kept a close watch on the shoreline, and noticed other landmarks like the four-toed statue. I don’t think he would’ve missed something as prominent as this Lighthouse.

The area east of the crater, on the other hand, has not been explored as thoroughly by the survivors. Other than a few missions to locate Rousseau or the Looking Glass, or Desmond’s camping expedition to find Naomi, very few of the survivors have explored this area of The Island.

The Lighthouse is obviously high in the mountains, but still very close to the shore. There is likely a beach at the base of the cliff, since we know that people have hiked around this area of The Island by sticking to the beaches. The Lighthouse may be situated in such a way that it’s difficult to see from the beach below, but easy to see from the mountains or from out at sea.

Finally, Jacob tells Hurley that he wanted to get them as far from the Temple as possible. If we take this statement literally, then the Lighthouse would be located at the extreme southeastern tip of The Island.