Bikini Bottom

**Bikini Bottom** is the main setting in the *SpongeBob SquarePants* series. It is an undersea city where SpongeBob and his friends live. According to Nickelodeon's program summary, Bikini Bottom is located in the Pacific Ocean, beneath Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It is near Encino, California and it is close to Australia.

As shown in the episode "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?," it is revealed that Bikini Bottom has a proper population of about 538, though many episodes tend to portray a much larger scale. In Nautical Novice, Mrs. Puff stated that the Bikini Bottom is home to millions of people. The city has historically gone by the names of "Bikini Gulch," "Dead Eye Gulch," and "Bikini Bottomshire."

It consists of many various different businesses, including restaurants, stores, and manufacturers. The city has a stable economy, a balanced education system, questionable healthcare, and labor laws, a structured government, and a firm law enforcement system. There are even stadiums, amusement parks, and other recreational facilities such as Glove World!

Bikini Bottom is also home to most of the main and supporting characters on the show.

## Location

Bikini Bottom is located in the Pacific Ocean at the bottom of the ocean, below its signature island, Bikini Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands, found by Kevin Atalay and Lochem Pouw, according to Stephen Hillenburg. There are many instances of evidence of this in the show: After being scared off by "ghosts," Sandy Cheeks evacuates to Texas. She was seen flying east over the Pacific Ocean. In the *Employee of the Month* computer game, a fish mentions that Bikini Bottom is located in the Pacific Ocean. In *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*, when SpongeBob sings the song

"Goofy Goober Rock," the camera rose out of the water into outer space. When it did, it came out of the Pacific Ocean.

## Landscapes/geography

Bikini Bottom's geography consists of mountains, dense forests, lakes, lagoons, caves, grasslands, reefs, and rivers. In *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*, volcanoes, trenches, and deserts are shown in the surrounding region. Major geographic features have colorful names such as:

* Sand Mountain
* Jellyfish Fields
* Kelp Forest
* Make-Out Reef
* Ancient Mariner Valley (the location of Neptune's Paradise.)
* Goo Lagoon
* Palm Bay
* Brain Coral Fields
* Sulfur Fields
* Sea Urchin Cove
* Seashell Park
* Industrial Park
* Mermalair
* Mount Climb-up-and-Fall-off
* Sea Needle
* Bikini Bottom Dump
* Rock Bottom
* Krusty Krab
* Chum Bucket
* Kelpshake (Shut Down)

The city is divided by its main road, Conch Street, which runs from downtown, past the homes of SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick, through the Krusty Krab restaurant, Chum Bucket, and the Reef Cinema.

In every episode in which the skyline of Bikini Bottom is shown, features such as buildings, houses, and an anchor can be seen. In earlier episodes of the series, a red flower arch can be seen, which no longer appears in the skyline. In some episodes, a lighthouse appears in the skyline, most likely Mrs. Puff's Boating School. Other episodes feature the Krusty Krab's marquee. A large clam-shaped structure is seen in some episodes.

In the center of Bikini Bottom, the citizens work and live in large, gray buildings made of metal shaped like a drinking cup. There are some other forms of buildings, mostly aquatic-themed as seen above. Farther out from the town citizens need to use whatever is available and easy to live in, such as Patrick's rock, SpongeBob's hollowed-out pineapple, and the stone monument Squidward lives in.