17th parallel north

The 17th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 17 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. The parallel is particularly significant in the history of Vietnam (see below).

Geography

Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 17° north passes through:

Country, territory or sea	Notes
Red Sea	Including the Farasan Islands of
Arabian Sea
Bay of Bengal
(Burma)
	See below
South China Sea	Passing through the disputed Paracel Islands
Pacific Ocean	Philippine Sea
	Passing between the islands of Guguan and Sarigan
Pacific Ocean
Caribbean Sea
	Antigua island
Atlantic Ocean
	Santo Antão island
Atlantic Ocean

Vietnam

The Seventeenth parallel (vĩ tuyến 17) was the provisional military demarcation line established in Vietnam by the Geneva Accords of 1954. The line did not actually coincide with the 17th parallel but ran south of it, approximately along the Ben Hai River in Quang Tri Province to the village of Bo Ho Su and from there due west to the Laos-Vietnam border. But in 1976 the demarcation line was made redundant as Vietnam was unified following the surrender of the South Vietnamese government. The 17th parallel of Vietnam, was also a demilitarized zone of Vietnam.

See also

• Partition of Vietnam