Mountain · Nauru
Command Ridge
Command Ridge is the highest point of Nauru, one of the smallest countries in the world. The stony rise on the island's central plateau reaches about 65 metres above the Pacific Ocean.
Where is Command Ridge?
Command Ridge is part of the Central plateau, a raised coral atoll.
You will find it in: Nauru.
Summit: 0.531° S, 166.917° E
The story behind it
Nauru is a raised coral atoll: a reef that was pushed up out of the sea, with a ring of sandy coast around a rocky middle that everyone calls Topside. For about a hundred years phosphate was dug out of that middle, a rich soil formed from seabird droppings and coral, and the digging left a strange landscape of grey limestone pinnacles that look like rows of stone teeth. Command Ridge is the highest of these rocky humps, and different sources put it at 65 metres or a few metres more. Rusted guns and a concrete bunker still stand there from the Second World War, when soldiers used the high ground to watch the sea and the sky. A short track leads up, and from the top you can see nearly the whole country, which a car can drive around in about twenty minutes.
Find it on the globe
Command Ridge is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How high is Command Ridge?
About 65 metres above the sea, roughly as tall as a block of flats with twenty floors. Sources give slightly different numbers, yet it is always the highest ground on the island.
Which country is Command Ridge in?
It lies in Nauru, a single island in the western Pacific, just south of the equator. The ridge sits in the middle of the island, above the ring road and the villages on the coast.
Can you visit Command Ridge?
Yes, a track and a set of steps lead up in a few minutes from the road. The sharp limestone and the old military ruins are easy to trip on, so sturdy shoes and a bit of care are needed.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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