| Bir Tawil - the land no one wants |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|10:07 pm]
The Eidolon
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I was glancing at a map in The Economist, and I noticed that
there were two different sets of dotted lines in the southeast
corner of Egypt denoting its border with Sudan. Interesting--
I had never realized that Egypt and Sudan had a disputed
border. A quick web search reveals that the disputed area is
called the Hala'ib Triangle, claimed by both Egypt and Sudan.
Apparently two different borders were described by the British
in 1899 and 1902. Based on this discrepancy both Egypt and
Sudan claim the larger of the two areas of disparity between the
two borders. Since claiming the smaller of the two areas would
undermine the claim to the larger (and more important) one,
neither country claims the small area known as Bir Tawil. This
allegedly makes it one of the only land areas in the world
outside of Antarctica claimed by no country. |
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