There’s New Zealand, but Where Is Old Zealand (Zeeland)?
Light House Denver – Old Zealand (Zeeland) may not be a name you hear very often, but have you ever truly wondered where it is actually located? The name New Zealand is certainly familiar, especially to nature lovers and travel enthusiasts around the world.
Just like New York, which was once called New Amsterdam, or New Jersey, which refers to Jersey Island in the English Channel, the name New Zealand also has colonial roots. Interestingly, this name did not come from the British, but from the Dutch.
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The name New Zealand was given by Dutch cartographers, who named the region after a province in the Netherlands called Zeeland. This is, indirectly, the answer to the question: “Where is Old Zealand?”
Old Zealand, or Zeeland, is located in the southwest of the Netherlands, near the Belgian border and not far from the city of Antwerp. Although it is more than 17,700 kilometers away from New Zealand, these two places remain connected through the long history of European exploration.
In December 1642, a Dutch explorer named Abel Tasman became the first European to see New Zealand’s South Island. He and his team recorded the newly discovered region as Nova Zeelandia, which means “New Zeeland” in Latin. In English, the name later became New Zealand.
Unlike many other Dutch names that were later replaced by the British, such as New Amsterdam becoming New York, the name New Zealand remained unchanged. It is one of the lasting traces of Dutch history that still exists in the far South Pacific today.
Zeeland and New Zealand are separated by about 11,000 miles or approximately 17,700 kilometers. For comparison, the maximum distance between any two points on Earth’s surface is around 12,450 miles or 20,000 kilometers. This means New Zealand is practically as far from Zeeland as possible without leaving the planet.
So, if you’ve ever wondered where Old Zealand is, the answer is clear: Old Zealand is Zeeland. It is located in the Netherlands. Although separated by thousands of kilometers, these two places remain historically connected through the remarkable journeys of early explorers.
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