Theta oscillations clock hippocampal activity during awake behaviour and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. These oscillations are prominent in the local field potential, and they also reflect the subthreshold membrane potential and strongly modulate the spiking of hippocampal neurons. The prevailing view is that theta oscillations are synchronized throughout the hippocampus, despite the lack of conclusive experimental evidence. In contrast, here we show that in freely behaving rats, theta oscillations in area CA1 are travelling waves that propagate roughly along the septotemporal axis of the hippocampus. Furthermore, we find that spiking in the CA1 pyramidal cell layer is modulated in a consistent travelling wave pattern. Our results demonstrate that theta oscillations pattern hippocampal activity not only in time, but also across anatomical space. The presence of travelling waves indicates that the instantaneous output of the hippocampus is topographically organized and represents a segment, rather than a point, of physical space.Theta oscillations are a prominent 4-10-Hz rhythm in the hippocampal local field potential (LFP) of all mammals studied to date 1-3 , including humans 4 . During wakefulness they are associated with different speciesspecific behaviours, and they are invariably present during REM sleep 2,3 . In the rat, theta oscillations always accompany voluntary movement and active exploration 2,5 . Theta oscillations are essential for the normal functioning of the hippocampus, because manipulations that disrupt them produce behavioural impairments that mimic hippocampal lesions 6,7 . The importance of theta oscillations is underscored by the fact that they reflect subthreshold membrane potentials [8][9][10] and strongly modulate the spiking 5,11,12,13 of hippocampal neurons. Furthermore, theta oscillations gate synaptic plasticity, because the timing of stimulation with respect to the phase of theta is important in determining the magnitude and direction of synaptic change 14,15 . Theta oscillations therefore offer macroscopic access to the internal clock of the hippocampal circuit, responsible for temporally patterning its operation. Such clocking is essential for the temporal coding of spatial information by place cells 5,16 , as evidenced by theta phase precession [17][18][19] . In addition to coding position, theta phase precession ensures that the order of place-cell firing over behavioural timescales (seconds) is preserved and compressed within individual theta cycles and inside the window of plasticity 18 . In the presence of spike-timing-dependent plasticity 20 , the resulting compression of temporal sequences offers a mechanism for the formation of hippocampal memory traces 21 . Furthermore, theta oscillations modulate activity not only in the hippocampus, but also in several subcortical, limbic and cortical structures [22][23][24] .If theta oscillations can be thought of as a clock, what time is it in different parts of the hippocampus? In other words, how does the phase of theta oscillation...