Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above
website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed
sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above,
we pass this GPS location for Philadelphia:
36.723483, -76.593563
Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
We found eighteen communities that share the name Philadelphia.
Within Virginia, the name Philadelphia is unique.
Beyond Virginia, we know of another eighteen communities that are located throughout in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Alabama
Calhoun County
This Philadelphia is located in Calhoun County and lies 539 miles [867.4 km]<1> to the west southwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Calhoun County community of Philadelphia.
Houston County
This Philadelphia is located in Houston County and lies 620 miles [997.8 km] to the southwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Houston County community of Philadelphia.
Arkansas
Columbia County
This Philadelphia is located in Columbia County and lies 975 miles [1,569.1 km]<1> to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Columbia County community of Philadelphia.
Craighead County
This Philadelphia is located in Craighead County and lies 786 miles [1,264.9 km] to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Craighead County community of Philadelphia.
Illinois
Cass County
This Philadelphia is located in Cass County and lies 764 miles [1,229.5 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cass County community of Philadelphia.
Indiana
Hancock County
This Philadelphia is located in Hancock County and lies 543 miles [873.9 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hancock County community of Philadelphia.
Mississippi
Neshoba County
This Philadelphia is located in Neshoba County and lies 760 miles [1,223.1 km]<1> to the west southwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Neshoba County community of Philadelphia.
Missouri
Marion County
This Philadelphia is located in Marion County and lies 847 miles [1,363.1 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Marion County community of Philadelphia.
New Mexico
Cibola County
This Philadelphia is located in Cibola County and lies 1,726 miles [2,777.7 km]<1> to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cibola County community of Philadelphia.
New York
Jefferson County
This Philadelphia is located in Jefferson County and lies 515 miles [828.8 km]<1> to the north.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Philadelphia.
North Carolina
Camden County
This Philadelphia is located in Camden County and lies 44 miles [70.8 km]<1> to the southeast.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Camden County community of Philadelphia.
Richmond County
This Philadelphia is located in Richmond County and lies 213 miles [342.8 km] to the west southwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Richmond County community of Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia County
This Philadelphia is located in Philadelphia County and lies 236 miles [379.8 km]<1> to the north northeast.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Philadelphia County community of Philadelphia.
South Carolina
Darlington County
This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the South Carolina community of Philadelphia [Darlington County].
Tennessee
Jackson County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Tennessee community of Philadelphia [Jackson County].
Loudon County
This Philadelphia is located in Loudon County and lies 440 miles [708.1 km]<1> to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Loudon County community of Philadelphia.
Maury County
This Philadelphia is located in Maury County and lies 581 miles [935 km] to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Maury County community of Philadelphia.
Washington County
This Philadelphia is located in Washington County and lies 337 miles [542.3 km] to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washington County community of Philadelphia.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Philadelphia ...
As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.
Boston (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Boston have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Philadelphia to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Philadelphia and extending to:
Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 73 miles [117.5 km]<1> to the northwest (NW). If you could drive a straight line from Philadelphia to Richmond, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 152 miles [244.6 km] to the north (N). Driving would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 9 days.
The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,970 miles [9,607.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,664 miles [10,724.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,546 miles [7,316.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Philadelphia) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Philadelphia. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.7235, Longitude: -76.5936 In this case, the coordinates for Philadelphia have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<2>
We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Philadelphia, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>
If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.
Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.
Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.
Also keep in mind that Philadelphia could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong . Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<4>
The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<5>
While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<6>
The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Philadelphia to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.755 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.953 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.351 degrees.