The top 10 places with no length, width, shape or size

Thanks to Iain Boyd for suggesting this list, and starting off with the first two.

1. Point Nemo, in the Pacific: the furthest point from land, equidistant from Motu Nui, an islet off Easter Island; Pandora, one of the Pitcairn Islands; and Maher Island, off the coast of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. It is where the US aims to bring down old satellites, such as the International Space Station in 2031.

2. Lagrange point. “Where you put something in space when you want it to stay put. In celestial mechanics, Lagrange points are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Mathematically, this involves the solution of the restricted three-body problem, fictionalised in Liu Cixin’s trilogy.”

3. Pointe du Hoc, Normandy: US rangers were charged with landing under fire, scaling a cliff and destroying German artillery that threatened the D-Day beach landings. This was achieved with heavy losses but at the top there were no guns, as they had been moved. The attack is immortalised in the movie The Longest Day. Private Joseph Lowe was one of the actors who climbed the cliffs for the film, 17 years after doing it for real. Thanks to Mark Ramsbottom.

4. Quadripoint: Kazungula, where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet, was thought to be the only example of four countries meeting at a point, but actually consists of two tripoints about 100 metres apart, in the Zambezi River on either side of the Kazangula Bridge. There was a quadripoint between 1960 and 1961 where Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and the UK (as holder of the UN mandate for the Northern Cameroons) met, until Northern Cameroons was handed over to Nigeria.

Tripoints are more common, with 175 places where three countries meet, according to Wikipedia – China is involved in 16 of them. Several countries have internal quadripoints such as the Four Corners Monument, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet. Thanks to Stewart Slater. There is an “undecipoint” at the peak of Mt Etna, Sicily, where 10 districts converge, one of them twice (on either side of one which it surrounds), making 11 altogether, nominated by Ministry of Quiz.

5. Triple Divide Peak, Montana: a raindrop that landed on it could flow into three different seas, at Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific. Thanks to Ludwig von Kochel.

6. The Dzungarian Basin: furthest from the open sea, so the opposite of Point Nemo. It is in Xinjiang, China, close to the Dzungarian Gate, or Altai Gap, the mountain pass between China and Kazakhstan; but the precise location depends on how you measure tidal rivers. Nominated by Kartar Uppal.

7. Chimborazo, Ecuador: the point furthest from the centre of the Earth. It is not as high above sea level as Everest, but because the Earth is a flattened sphere and it is closer to the equator, it sticks further out. Thanks to John Peters.

8. Fildes Point. It forms the north side of Neptune’s Bellows, the entrance to Port Foster on Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic. So named after Captain Robert Fildes of Liverpool, master of the brig Cora, who hunted seals there in 1820-21. Nominated by Graham Fildes.

9. Lizard Point, Cornwall: the southernmost point of mainland Britain, and therefore arguably more noteworthy than Land’s End, which is merely the westernmost point of England. Nominated by Jeremy Benson and Dan Frank.

10. Nul Points in Eurovision. To date, there have been 39 victims. In 2016, it was deemed almost impossible to score nul points because of the new voting system. Despite this, the United Kingdom still managed to receive nul points in 2021. This year will be different. (Yes Eurovision is geography.) Thanks to Phil Riley.

No room, then, for Point Break, 1991 crime action film, in which Keanu Reeves infiltrates a gang of criminal surfers and fires his gun in the air rather than kill Patrick Swayze (nominated by James Dinsdale); for Point Clear, a village near St Osyth in Essex (Damocles); for Grosse Point, posh suburb of Detroit, which is north of part of Canada (Dan Frank again); or for an undisclosed location that is the lowest high point in the world, the highest point of the Maldives, about 2.4 metres above sea level, found by Andrew Evans (John Peters again).

Next week: One-word sporting commentary moments, starting with Martin Tyler’s “Aguerrooooooo” when Sergio Aguero scored the injury-time goal to win Man City the Premier League in 2012.

Coming soon: People who have been compared to Caligula’s horse, starting with Sir Thomas Inskip, Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, who achieved this distinction in Guilty Men, 1940, written by Michael Foot and others under the pseudonym Cato.

Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk