<P> Monument marking the Tropic of Capricorn just north of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia </P> <P> As the major portion of earth's land is located in the Northern Hemisphere there are only four countries entirely south of the Tropic of Capricorn (there are 74 countries entirely north of the Tropic of Cancer): </P> <Ul> <Li> Lesotho </Li> <Li> New Zealand </Li> <Li> Swaziland </Li> <Li> Uruguay </Li> </Ul> <P> The Tropic of Capricorn is so named because, when it was named about 2,000 years ago, the sun was also in the direction of the constellation Capricornus (capricorn is Latin for goat horn) at the December solstice . In modern times the sun appears in the constellation Sagittarius during this time . The change is due to precession of the equinoxes . The word "tropic" itself comes from the Greek trope (τροπή), meaning turn, change in direction or circumstances, referring to the fact that the sun appears to "turn back" at the solstices . </P>

Four sovereign states whose land area sits entirely below the tropic of capricorn