# Geospatial Indexes
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Geospatial indexes are a specialized type of index designed to efficiently query and manage geospatial data stored within a collection of documents. Amazon DocumentDB supports 2dsphere indexes, which are specifically designed to handle geospatial data on a sphere (like the Earth). This allows for accurate calculations and queries based on spherical geometry.

Geospatial indexes are beneficial when your applications need to perform location-based queries, such as:
+ finding nearby points of interest,
+ determining if a location falls within a specific area
+ calculating distances between locations

## Supported index properties
<a name="indexes-geospatial-properties"></a>


| Option | 3.6 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 8.0 | Elastic Cluster | 
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | 
| [name](index-property-name.md) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 

## Creating a geospatial index
<a name="indexes-geospatial-creating"></a>

Use the `createIndex()` method to create a geospatial index. The method syntax is: `db.collection.createIndex(<key>, <options>)`

The `key` parameter is a JSON document that specifies the field and 2dsphere index type:

```
{
  "<field>": "2dsphere"
}
```

The `options` parameter is a JSON document that specifies the options for the index:

```
{
  "name": "<name>"
}
```

See [Index Properties](index-properties.md) for examples of creating geospatial indexes.