Diomede Islands: Humans have fantasized about time travel since dawn of civilization and the idea has been popularised in the modern age by sci-fi media such as novels, movies and TV shows.
While time travel is still a merely a theoretical concept with no basis in practical science, there is a mysterious island on Earth which actually people to travel to the future, in a manner of speaking.
How Diomede Islands allow 'time travel'?
The Diomede Islands, two small, rocky islands located in the Bering Strait, offer a unique experience to travellers, allowing them to venture back and forth into the future and the past if they travel between islands.
The two islands, Big Diomede, which is Russian territory, and Little Diomede (US territory), are separated just 3.8 km (2.4 miles) apart but in terms of time, the twin islands are almost a day apart due to the International Date Line passing through them.
Due to this imaginary line, there is a nearly 24-hour time difference between the Diomede Islands, essentially allowing people to travel back and forth in time in a way. This unique anomaly has earned them the nicknames "Tomorrow Island" for Big Diomede, and "Yesterday Island" for Little Diomede.
What is the International Date Line?
The International Date Line, which runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, determine where in the world the date changes, and since crossing this line changes the calendar day, it allows people to move backwards or forward in time.
For example, if one travels from Little Diomede to Big Diomede on Sunday, it will already be Monday at his destination though it might have taken barely a few hours for the person to walk there. Time travel in action, in a weird sort of way.
If a person leaves one island on Sunday, it's already Monday when they arrive on the other. This is why Big Diomede is also called Tomorrow Island and Little Diomede is called Yesterday Island. This is why these places are associated with time travel.
Why travel is restricted between Diomede Islands?
Diomede Islands were discovered on August 16, 1728 by Danish-Russian navigator Vitus Bering, and in 1982, the United States purchased Little Diomede from Russia, establishing a border which now separates the two islands.
The region is extremely cold, and in winter, an ice bridge is formed when the sea freezes, making it theoretically possible to travel between the islands on foot. However, the practice is illegal as the two islands are territories of two different countries.
Among the two, only Little Diomede has human presence, housing a tiny Iñupiat village in Alaska, while Big Diomede remains uninhabited. Travel is strictly restricted due to tensions between the US and Russia, and trespassers risk legal prosecution.