Laputa

Laputa is a flying island described in the 1726 book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. It is about 4½ miles in diameter, with an adamantine base, which its inhabitants can manoeuvre in any direction using magnetic levitation. The island is the home of the king of Balnibarbi and his court, and is used by the king to enforce his rule over the lands below.

Location

Laputa was located above the realm of Balnibarbi, which was ruled by its king from the flying island. Gulliver states the island flew by the "magnetic virtue" of certain minerals in the grounds of Balnibarbi which did not extend to more than above, and beyond the extent of the kingdom, showing the limit of its range. The position of the island, and the realm below, is some five days' journey south-south-east of Gulliver's last known position, 46° N, 183° E down a chain of small rocky islands.

In foreign languages

In Spanish translations of Gulliver's Travels, "Laputa" was renamed as "Lupata", "Laput", "Lapuda", and so on, to avoid similarities with the vulgar phrase "la puta".

Legacy

On Mars's largest moon, Phobos, there is a regio, Laputa Regio, which is named after Swift's Laputa because of his 'prediction' of the two then undiscovered Martian moons, which his Laputan astronomers had discovered.
In the 1964 comedy film Dr. Strangelove, the primary target for the B-52 bomber crew is given as "the ICBM complex at Laputa".
The 1986 Japanese animated fantasy film Castle in the Sky, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, derives its name and basic premise from Swift's novel.
From 1999 to 2006 in Japan, Mazda sold the Mazda Laputa, a Rebadged version of the Suzuki Kei.