This is a list of places featured in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Contents

1 Alpha Centauri 2 Allosimanius Syneca 3 Argabuthon 4 Arkinfootle Minor 5 Betelgeuse 5.1 Betelgeuse Five 5.2 Betelgeuse Seven 6 Big Bang Burger Bar, The 7 Bethselamin 8 Bistro Illegal, The 9 Brequinda 10 Brontitall 11 Café Lou 12 Cottington 13 Damogran 14 Eadrax 15 Earth 16 Eroticon VI 17 Esflovian 18 Evildrome Boozarama, The 19 Frastra 20 Frogstar 20.1 Frogstar World A 20.2 Frogstar World B 20.3 Frogstar World C 21 Golgafrincham 22 Hastromil 23 Kakrafoon 24 Jaglan Beta 25 Kria 26 Krikkit 27 Magrathea 28 Maximegalon 29 Milliways 30 New Betel 31 NowWhat 32 Old Pink Dog Bar 33 Preliumtarn 34 Santraginus V 35 Sesefras Magna 36 Slim's Throat Emporium 37 Sqornshellous Zeta 38 Ursa Minor Beta 39 Viltvodle VI 40 External links

Alpha Centauri

Apart from being one of the closest stars to Earth's solar system, Alpha Centauri is home to both small furry creatures and a local planning department office of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council.

Allosimanius Syneca

Allosimanius Syneca is a planet noted for ice, snow, mind-hurtling beauty and stunning cold. The view from the top of the Ice Crystal Pyramids of Sastanua is widely known for its ability to release the observer's mind to hitherto unexperienced horizons of beauty.

Argabuthon

Argabuthon is a technologically advanced planet whose perspex Sceptre of Justice turned out to be part of the key to the Wikkit Gate.

Arkinfootle Minor

The Hingefreel people built spaceships powered by bad news but were never welcomed at their destinations.

Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse A large star which appears to Earthbound observers to be in the constellation of Orion.

Betelgeuse Five

Betelgeuse Five is the home planet of Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox and his semi-cousin Ford Prefect.

Betelgeuse Seven

Betelgeuse Seven was the birthplace of Ford Prefect's father, who was the only survivor of the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758, which wiped out the old Praxibetel communities on the planet.

Big Bang Burger Bar, The

The Big Bang Burger Bar is mentioned by Max Quordlepleen as another place where he performs. It is the opposite of Milliway's in that it is at the beginning of the universe, namely the Big Bang.

Bethselamin

Bethselamin is a fabulously beautiful planet which attracts millions of tourists each year. Unsurprisingly, erosion is a primary concern of the local authorities. Their solution is to remove any net imbalance between the amount of matter eaten and the amount subsequently excreted through amputative surgery. Thus it is vitally important to get a receipt after every trip to the lavatory while on the planet.

Bistro Illegal, The

A no doubt seedy nightclub fondly recalled by Ford Prefect during his one way conversation with his former drinking buddy and currently-deceased rock star Hotblack Desiato. According to the Guide's onscreen playback at the beginning of the television series, The bar staff at the Bistro Illegal mix a very good Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

Brequinda

Brequinda on the Foth of Avalars was famed in myth, legend and stultifyingly dull tri-d mini-series as home of the magnificent and magical Fuolornis Fire Dragon.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Brontitall

Brontitall is a planet populated by a highly evolved bird people who live in the right ear of a 15-mile high marble statue of Arthur Dent.

Originally the bird people were ground dwellers, but gradually the planet was taken over by the shoe shops of the Dolmansaxlil Shoe Corporation, apparently thanks to the shoe shop intensifier ray deployed by the corporation in order to keep the populace buying more and more poorly made and ill-fitting shoes. Eventually, the "shoe event horizon" was reached, whereby all of the shops on the planet were shoe shops that made impossible-to-wear shoes. The result was economic collapse, ruin, and famine – the survivors evolved into birds and vowed never to walk on the ground again.

The guide later reveals that the shoe shop intensifier ray "is, in actuality, a phony, designed to make Dolmansaxlil executives feel they are doing something excitingly aggressive, when in fact all they need to do is wait".

On the ground, three clones of an archaeologist called Lintilla discover the strata of shoes, thus revealing the planet's history.

Nearby, a derelict spaceport contains a number of crumbling old spaceships, but one of which is still on power, "delayed" for millennia due to the non-arrival of its complement of lemon-soaked paper napkins.

The inspiration for the events on Brontitall arose from Douglas Adams' frustrating experience trying to buy a pair of shoes on Oxford Street in central London. The name "Dolmansaxlil" was an amalgam of several of the shoe shops he fruitlessly visited.

Brontitall is only mentioned in the original BBC radio show. However, in the books, Frogstar B has some (but not all) of the attributes of Brontitall.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Café Lou

Café Lou is a dive bar in Gretchen Town, New Betel. There are rentable rooms on the floors above the bar. Ford Prefect spent many nights in one those rooms talking and drinking with Hotblack Desiato, who was often writing songs for his ajuitar in the neighbouring room.

Cottington

Cottington is, or rather was, an obscure and unsung little country village in the West Country of England which was, for three years prior to the demolition of Earth, Arthur Dent's home. Had the Vogons not shown up, Cottington was scheduled to be transformed into a service station for the very "splendid and worthwhile" New Beddingford motorway bypass, despite the unpopularity of this project with the locals.

The village has a small hotel with a saloon bar named the Horse and Groom.

Damogran

A small, remote, uninteresting planet whose surface comprises a number of small, uninteresting islands surrounded by ocean. Two of these islands are coincidentally named "Easter Island" and "France". The starship Heart Of Gold was built, and subsequently stolen from, here.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Eadrax

Home to the main administrative hub of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints Department, according the sleeve of the first Hitchhikers LP.

Earth

Earth is a disregarded little blue-green planet far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy (specifically, Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha.) It is populated by all sorts of creatures, of which the most important are mice, dolphins and human beings, the latter of whom may or may not be descended from a race of Golgafrinchan telephone sanitisers, hairdressers , management consultants, and documentary film producers. These Golgafrinchans arrived in a space ark which crashed onto the planet about two million years before the Vogons destroyed it, and christened their new home "Fintlewoodlewix".

Though often mistaken for a planet, Earth is in reality the greatest supercomputer of all time, designed by Deep Thought to discover the Great Question of Life, The Universe And Everything (to which the answer is 42).

Earth is also home to Arthur Dent and Trillian.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy used to describe Earth as harmless. After lengthy research Ford Prefect expanded the entry, which was then cut down to "mostly harmless".

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Eroticon VI

Place of residence of Eccentrica Gallumbits, a triple-breasted whore who has several cameos throughout the series.

Esflovian

Mentioned in a Guide entry on the first Hitchhikers LP sleeve, Esflovian is a "planet populated by the descendents of an ancient personal-growth-orientated hippy peace commune... It is rumoured to have destroyed itself in recent nuclear encounter therapy".

Evildrome Boozarama, The

Noted in the television series' animated graphics for its excellent Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, The Evildrome Boozarama was one of the clubs that Ford Prefect and Hotblack Desiato would frequent before Hotblack became a rock star and Ford wound up stranded on Earth in the course of his job as a field researcher for that wholly remarkable book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Frastra

In the fire storms of Frastra, they say, life begins at 40,000 degrees.

Frogstar

The name "Frogstar" is a pun on the "Dog star", a common name for Sirius. In the original radio series, the Frogstar system does not exist and the Total Perspective Vortex is said to be located on "The Frogstar".

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Frogstar World A

Frogstar World A is the first planet of the Frogstar system and the home of the Frogstar fighters which take Zaphod Beeblebrox to Frogstar World B. Frogstar World A is an altogether more congenial place than Frogstar World B.

Frogstar World B

Frogstar World B is said to be "the most totally evil place in the galaxy". It is somewhat like the books' equivalent of Brontitall in the radio show; although there are differences between the two, they share some attributes. Although there is no statue of Arthur on Frogstar B, the bird people came about the same way; there is no archeologist called Lintilla in the part of the books that concerns itself with Frogstar B; however, the spaceport with the delayed spaceship is there.

Frogstar B is the home of the Total Perspective Vortex, a machine that effectively annihilates your soul by showing you in one instant the whole infinity of creation and yourself in relation to it.

According to the books, Frogstar World B is the future site of Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Frogstar World C

Frogstar World C is the home planet of Gargravarr, the guardian of the Total Perspective Vortex. It is said to be a beautiful place with wonderful fishing opportunities.

Golgafrincham

Golgafrincham, home of the Great Circling Poets of Arium, decided it was time to rid itself of an entire useless third of its population, and so concocted a story that their planet would shortly be destroyed in some great catastrophe. The useless population (consisting of hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers , security guards, management consultants, telephone sanitizers and the like) were packed into the B-Ark, one of three giant Ark spaceships, and told that everyone else would follow shortly in the other two. The other two thirds of the population, of course, did not follow and "led full, rich and happy lives until they were all suddenly wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone".

The B-Ark was programmed to crash-land on the first planet it came across, which happened to be Earth, and the Golgafrinchans gradually usurped the native cavemen, becoming the ancestors of humanity and thereby ruining the great experiment to find the question for the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

See also ship of fools.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Hastromil

An inhabited solar system which boils away into the ultraviolet a few minutes before the rest of the Universe ends, thus providing Milliways' patrons with a first foretaste of the apocolypse to come at the end of their meals.

Kakrafoon

Kakrafoon is an arid world which has a reddish surface similar to that of Mars, perhaps indicating a similar geologic composition and history. Unlike Mars, Kakrafoon has a sentient species known as the Belcerebons. Sentenced by Galactic Tribunal to be telepathic, the only ways of blocking out these messages is to either talk constantly about anything and everything, or to play host to a Disaster Area rock concert .

Jaglan Beta

Jaglan Beta is, evidently, the second planet in a star system near the Axle Nebula. The entry on the usefulness of towels in the Hitchhiker's Guide notes that Jaglan Beta's moons are quite cold, and that a towel is useful for wrapping up with while on them.

Kria

Home world of the Azgoths, Kria is therefore home to the second worst poetry in the Universe according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Azgoth poetry was once exceeded in awfulness by a human poet from Essex, England (on Earth), though the Vogons' demolition of that planet leaves the Azgoths in the top spot.

Krikkit

The planet Krikkit is (at the beginning of Life, the Universe, and Everything) located in a dust cloud composed chiefly of the disintegrated remains of the enormous spaceborne computer Hactar.

Due to the dust cloud, the sky above Krikkit was completely black, and thus the people of Krikkit lead insular lives and never realised the existence of the Universe. With the population thus prepared, Hactar, disintegrated but still functional, built and crashed a model spaceship onto Krikkit in order to introduce its inhabitants to the concept of the Universe. Secretly guided by Hactar, the Krikkiters built their first spaceship, Krikkit One, penetrated the dust cloud, and surveyed the Universe before them. Unbeknownst to the Krikkiters, Hactar had been subliminally conditioning their minds to the point where they could not accept a Universe into their world view. They casually, whimsically, decided to destroy it. Aided again by the mind of Hactar, the Krikkiters built an incredible battlefleet and waged a massive war against the entire Universe. The Galaxy, then in an era of relative peace, was unprepared, and spent the next 2000 years fighting the Krikkiters in war that resulted in about two "grillion " casualties.

When Krikkit was eventually defeated, Judiciary Pag sentenced Krikkit and its sun to be sealed in a time envelope within which time would pass almost infinitely slowly until the end of the Universe, thus serving the dual purpose of protecting the Universe from Krikkit, and allowing the Krikkiters to enjoy a solitary existence in the twilight of Creation.

However, a Krikkit warship carrying deadly white robots of the kind used in the war escaped before the envelope was sealed, and, within a brief ten billion years, managed to retrieve the Wikkit Gate, the key that would unlock the envelope, composed of a Perspex Pillar ("Plastic Pillar" in the American version), a Wooden Pillar, a Steel Pillar, a Silver Bail, and a Golden Bail.

The robots unsealed the envelope, but Arthur, Slartibartfast, Trillian, and Ford Prefect, with the unintentional help of Marvin, were able to disperse Hactar's particles, freeing the Krikkiters from his continued influence, and thus saving the Universe. Arthur then went to live on Krikkit for three years, before leaving for an unexplained reason.

Krikkit also managed to leave other marks besides the destruction of numerous worlds: due to racial memories, the Earth sport of cricket was based on the Krikkit Wars.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Magrathea

Magrathea is a planet whose inhabitants built customized planets for tremendous amounts of money, making Magrathea one of the wealthiest planets in the galaxy. But when the great galactic stock market crash occurred, the Magratheans went into hibernation awaiting the recovery of the economy to the point where their services could once again be afforded. They were later awoken by pan-dimensional beings who had a special order for them; they commissioned the construction of a planet-sized computer named Earth to determine the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, which is required to understand the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Magrathea orbits the twin stars of Soulianis and Rahm in the Horsehead Nebula.

One of the chief Magrathean planet designers was called Slartibartfast, and he designed the coastline of Norway. (He enjoyed doing the crinkly bits and fjords.)

In the radio series and TV series, Magrathea is the location of Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Maximegalon

The University of Maximegalon (often simply called Maximegalon) is a very august institution of higher learning that has produced many marvellous discoveries in a myriad of fields scientific and otherwise. Its faculty is composed of many of the finest minds in the Galaxy, and includes the rock band Disaster Area's chief accountant (he is the Professor of Neomathmatics.) The university also publishes the Ultra-Complete Maximegalon Dictionary of Every Language Ever.

Among the other attractions present on or near the campus is the Museum of Diseased Imaginings.

Milliways

Milliways, also known as the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, can only be visited by time travel, as it exists at the end of time and matter. One of its major attractions is that diners can watch the entire universe end around them as they eat. The terminal moment is followed by dessert. Reservations are easily obtained, since they can be booked once the patron returns to his or her original time after their meal, and the restaurant's bill can be paid by depositing a penny in any bank account of the present time: by the end of the universe, compound interest will be enough to pay the extremely high bill. Depending on when (in Milliways' timeline) they visited, the diners' cars/buggies/hovercraft/escape capsules/shuttles/spacecraft/time machines may have been parked by none other than Marvin the Paranoid Android. Near-instant transportation to the restaurant can be achieved in certain rarified circumstances, such as being next to an exploding hyperspatial field generator on the planet where Milliways will (eventually) be built several billion years after the explosion occurs.

Among the items on the menu are various cuts of meat from the very obliging Ameglian Major Cow and the slightly less obliging vegatables in a green salad. While water and Aldebaran liqueurs are in stock, tea is not.

Because of the special number of impossibilities surrounding all aspects of Milliways, their advertising firm penned the following slogan:

If you've done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliway's - the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!

In the book form of the series, the visit to Milliways takes place in book two, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

In the different versions of the story, Milliways is built on the ruins of either Magrathea or of Frogstar World B.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

New Betel

Presumably somewhere in the Betelgeuse system. Café Lou is a dive bar in Gretchen Town, New Betel. There are rentable rooms on the floors above the bar. Ford Prefect spent many nights in one those rooms talking and drinking with Hotblack Desiato, who was often writing songs for his ajuitar in the neighbouring room.

NowWhat

The planet NowWhat is physically largely the same as Earth, in that it has the same continents, location in space/time, etc. The difference is its location along an axis of probability. It is a fairly depressing place. The main town is called OhWell. The only major animal to survive (the others all having died of despair) is the NowWhattian boghog, whose only method of communication is biting very hard on the thigh. Mostly Harmless describes it thus:

The main trade that was carried out was in the skins of the NowWhattian boghog but it wasn't a very successful one because no one in their right minds would want to buy a NowWhattian boghog skin. The trade only hung on by its fingernails because there was always a significant number of people in the Galaxy who were not in their right minds.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Old Pink Dog Bar

A far from harmless bar in Han Dold City where Ford Prefect discovers that Earth was not as demolished as he previously believed at the beginning of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Before offering to write an entry for the bar in the Hitchhiker's Guide, Ford attempted to pay for his drinks bill with an American Express credit card.

Preliumtarn

Beyond what used to be known as the Limitless Lightfields of Flanux until the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine were discovered lying beyond them. Within the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine lies the star named Zarss, around which orbits the planet Preliumtarn in which the land of Sevorbeupstry they came to the Great Red Plain of Rars which was bounded on the South side by Quentulus Quazgar Mountains on the further side of which according to the dying words of Prak, they would find in thirty foot high letters of fire God's final message to his creation.

Santraginus V

Santraginus V is a planet known widely for its marble-sanded beaches. Seawater from the oceans adjoining those beaches forms a key ingredient for the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

Sesefras Magna

Sesefras Magna is a orange gas giant with a blue moon known as Epun. The space near the planet is home to space station Port Sesefron, a docking place for Xaxisian battleships and other spacecraft visiting the star system of Zondostina (known to human astronomers as Pleadies Zeta.)

Slim's Throat Emporium

One of the drinking establishments where very well-mixed Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters are served to customers. Ford Prefect and Hotblack Desiato were patrons at least once before the success of Disaster Area.

Sqornshellous Zeta

Dimly illuminated and very very swamp-intensive, Sqornshellous Zeta is the source of almost all the Galaxy's mattresses . Said mattresses (all of which are called Zem) spend most of their time flolloping, globbering, volluing, and vooning. Said activities make the planet a favorite destination of etymologists .

Marvin the Paranoid Android was invited to the planet to give a speech marking the opening of a giant new bridge intended to revive the economy of the Sqornshellous System, but the whole ceremony ended in tears, leaving Marvin stranded in the swamp with only the mattresses to talk to.

Ursa Minor Beta

The rich and sunny planet Ursa Minor Beta has the quite peculiar property that most of its surface consists of subtropic coastline. Even more peculiar, on this world it's always Saturday afternoon. Light City, the only city on Ursa Minor Beta, which can only be reached by plane, is the very place where the editorial offices of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" reside.

For page references, see the Ultra-Complete Index .

Viltvodle VI

Viltvodle VI is the home world of the small, blue, fifty-armed Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear of what they refer to as "The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief." This is their cosmology's version of the end of the Universe, and can be explained by the fact that they believe that the Universe was sneezed out by a creature called the Great Green Arkleseizure.

Other Galactic religions have sent missionaries to Viltvodle VI to attempt to convert the Jatravartids to whichever religion the specific missionary in question happens to be a follower of. The most notable of these missionaries is Humma Kavula.

External links

• BBC H2G2: Golgafrincham