It is a massive geodetic triangulation chain established in the 19th century to precisely calculate the Earth's size, shape, and exact degree of "flattening."
Led by astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve and realized between 1816 and 1855, this network is a measurement line stretching approximately 2,820 kilometers from the Hammerfest port in Norway to a point in Ukraine on the Black Sea coast. As it passes through, it connects 10 different countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine).
The core of the system is based on trigonometry: massive triangles were woven by erecting "marks" on distant hills and points visible to one another on a map, after which angles and distances were calculated with tremendous patience. With the technological means of that era meaning when modern satellites or lasers did not exist these measurements, made entirely with optical instruments, became a major turning point in the mapping of the Earth's shape (geoid) and in the history of science.
Today, the most critical measurement points along this chain (obelisks, iron crosses, rock carved marks) are protected on the UNESCO World Heritage List as the shared scientific heritage of humanity.
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