Geocentrism

So first it was geocentrism, right? The idea that the earth is at the center of the universe.

And then while that has generally proven to be false, we still kind of think like this.

Geocentrism has the sun at the center of the universe, but this idea was considered as early as 3rd century BCE.

This was explained with a bit more rigor by Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century, which led to the Copernican Revolution.

Galileo Galilei famously supported this model for which he was criticized by the Catholic Church, which investigated and determined he was wrong.

Modern conversions put his figure at 3,928.77 English miles.

While most of al-Biruni's fellow astronomers subscribe to geocentricism, he actually toyed with heliocentrism.

though without formally integrating the theory into the rest of his thought, some 500 years before Copernicus, and al-Biruni's travels to coastal areas and the Arabian deserts helped him understand the formation of canyons and composition of sand.

With the passing of time, he observed, the sea becomes dry land, and dry land the sea.