---
type: Object
title: The Meridian
description: A bronze true north-south line in the Institute's Corran Hill campus
  courtyard, the reference bearing for every survey in the Republic.
tags:
- kelvarra
- the-institute
- measurement
- instruments
resource: raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md
timestamp: '2026-07-16T15:03:08Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

# The Meridian

The Meridian is a bronze line some ninety paces long, let into the paving of the great courtyard at the centre of [the Institute](../organizations/the-institute.md)'s Corran Hill campus, laid true north to south when the campus was built.[^s1] Every survey in the Republic of Kelvarra takes its bearing from it, and students are said to cross it daily.[^s1]

By the *[Aldervane Primer of Natural Measurement](the-aldervane-primer-of-natural-measurement.md)*'s account, all of the Institute's angular work — its theodolites, harbour ranges, and the star transits that check its clocks — "comes home, in the end," to the Meridian.[^s2]

Not to be confused with *The Meridian*, a periodical whose winter 1991 number reviewed the [Instrument Works](../organizations/instrument-works.md)' [Saltglass Lens](the-saltglass-lens.md) — an unrelated entity that happens to share this bearing line's name.

## See also
- [The Institute](../organizations/the-institute.md)
- [The Aldervane Primer of Natural Measurement](the-aldervane-primer-of-natural-measurement.md)
- [The Saltglass Lens](the-saltglass-lens.md)

## Sources
[^s1]: [raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md](../../raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md), lines 54-57 — the Meridian's location, length, and orientation (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s2]: [raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md](../../raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md), lines 57-60 — the Institute's angular work referencing the Meridian (ingested 2026-07-04)
