Stop 1 · Netherlands
Amsterdam
The city centre is roughly 2 m below sea level. A quarter of the country is below the line, kept dry by dunes, dikes and constant pumping.
Places that sit below sea level
Stand in any of today's stops and the ocean surface is somewhere above your head — by two metres in one case, and by more than two hundred in another.
The five stops
Stop 2 · United States
New Orleans
About half the city lies below sea level, and it keeps sinking as drained marsh soil compacts. The dead are buried above ground because the water table is so high.
Stop 3 · Azerbaijan
Baku
At about -28 m it is the lowest-lying national capital in the world. The Caspian has no outlet, so its level rises and falls with rainfall alone.
Stop 4 · Russia
Astrakhan
The Volga delta empties here at roughly 28 m below sea level — the lowest point in Europe, and until recently the source of most of the world's caviar.
Stop 5 · Palestine
Jericho
Around 258 m below sea level, it is the lowest permanently inhabited town on earth — and among the oldest, with settlement layers going back to 9000 BC.
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