The History of Zero: From Roman Milestones to the Budapest Zero Monument

The Zero Monument in Budapest

Remember when I asked you to guess where the world’s only monument to zero is located? It turns out it’s in Budapest, Hungary. The sculpture is called the “Zero Kilometre Stone,” and it’s relatively young — built in 1975.

That said, this zero doesn’t celebrate zero’s greatness in a mathematical sense. It marks zero as a reference point — a zero kilometre marker. This is common practice in many countries and cities, though most places use monuments, posts, or simple plaques rather than a sculpture of the numeral itself.

Zero as a Starting Point: From Paris to the South Pole

In Paris, the zero kilometre point — from which all roads in France are measured — sits in front of Notre-Dame de Paris. And perhaps the most self-evident zero reference point of all is the South Pole, from which every meridian on Earth originates.

The History of Zero Before Mathematics: Ancient Rome

One of the most famous zero kilometre markers from antiquity is the milestone built in Rome in 20 BC — nearly 1,500 years before zero as we know it came into widespread mathematical use. All roads of the Roman Empire began from this stone, which is precisely why the famous saying was born: “All roads lead to Rome.”

Zero in Everyday Life: Older Than You Think

And so zero entered everyday human life long before mathematicians ever got their hands on it. Which makes you wonder — are there other things we use routinely today that mathematics hasn’t fully caught up with yet?