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British writer Graham Hancock has made some claims about the location of Easter Island, Giza, and Angkor Wat.

Because the distance between the Great Pyramid and Angkor is very nearly 20% of the circumference, they are very nearly 72° apart, along the circle. Because the distance from the Great Pyramid to Easter Island is very nearly 40% of the circumference, and the distance from Angkor to Easter Island is very nearly 40% of the circumference, the Great Pyramid and Angkor are both very nearly 144° away from Easter Island, along the circle.

Is this true?

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    Welcome to Skeptics! To avoid use tackling strawman arguments, we expect references to places where this claim is being made. I went to add such an example of the claim, and it did not match your description. Please either show that he said they were "exactly" 72° apart, or update the question based on what he actually claims.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 3:22

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A quick Google search gives

Angkor wat: 13.4125° N, 103.8670° E

Great pyramid of Giza: 29.9792° N, 31.1342° E

So they differ in longitude by 72.73°

Easter island is at 27.1127° S, 109.3497° W

Which is 140.4° West of Giza.

So, not that close to the supposed exact values.

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    Damn, you beat me to it. It is worth adding that at the latitudes of Easter Island and Giza, a single degree of longitude is nearly 100km long, which makes the approximation not very close.
    – matt_black
    Commented Jan 9, 2018 at 18:13
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    Note that this answer tackles a strawman, set up in the original version of the question.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 3:23
  • This answer appears to be missing references. Presumably the longitudes/latitudes are fairly uncontroversial, so Wikipedia links should suffice. WolframAlpha's great for linking calculations, if you care to get fancy.
    – Nat
    Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 18:34

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