Alaska is both the easternmost and westernmost state in the United States.

Alaska’s Aleutian Islands stretch so far west that some of them cross the 180th meridian, the line of longitude used to define the boundary between east and west on standard maps. Semisopochnoi Island, part of that chain, sits on the eastern side of the 180th meridian by longitude, even though it’s politically part of Alaska and the United States.

That makes Alaska simultaneously the westernmost state, measured by its mainland and most of its islands, and the easternmost state, because those far-flung Aleutian islands technically fall into the Eastern Hemisphere by longitude. Alaska also holds the distinction of being the northernmost state, giving it three of the four extreme directional records among all fifty states.