Almost every square meter of land on this planet is claimed by someone. Countries have gone to war over tiny rocks in the ocean, uninhabited islands, and lines on maps that nobody can even see on the ground.

And then there's Bir Tawil.

It's a trapezoid-shaped patch of desert, about 2,060 km² (roughly the size of Delaware, or twice the size of Hong Kong), sitting on the border between Egypt and Sudan. It's one of the only places on Earth, outside of Antarctica, that no recognized country claims.

Not because it's worthless. Because claiming it would cost them something much bigger.

How did this happen?

It all comes down to two lines drawn by the British over a century ago.

In 1899, when Britain and Egypt jointly ruled Sudan, they drew a straight border along the 22nd parallel. Simple. Clean. Everything north was Egypt, everything south was Sudan.

Then in 1902, Britain drew a second, "administrative" boundary to better reflect how local tribes actually used the land. This new line gave a small area south of the 22nd parallel (Bir Tawil) to Egypt, because a tribe based in Egypt grazed animals there. In exchange, it gave a much larger, coastal area north of the line, called the Hala'ib Triangle, to Sudan, because its people were more connected to Sudan.

Here's the catch:

• The Hala'ib Triangle is about 20,000 km², sits on the Red Sea coast, has towns, people, and potential resources.

• Bir Tawil is about 10 times smaller, landlocked, and is basically rock and sand.

Fast forward to independence. Both Egypt and Sudan want Hala'ib. So:

• Egypt says the real border is the 1899 line. That gives Egypt Hala'ib... but puts Bir Tawil in Sudan.

• Sudan says the real border is the 1902 line. That gives Sudan Hala'ib... but puts Bir Tawil in Egypt.

So both countries' maps actually exclude Bir Tawil. If either one claimed it, they'd be admitting the other side's border is valid, and lose their claim to the far more valuable Hala'ib Triangle.

The result: a piece of land that both countries are actively trying to not own.

Then the "kings" showed up

As you can imagine, the internet found out about this, and people started trying to claim it.

The most famous case is Jeremiah Heaton, a farmer from Virginia. In 2014, his 7-year-old daughter asked him if she could ever be a real princess. So he traveled to Bir Tawil, planted a flag his kids designed, and declared the "Kingdom of North Sudan," with his daughter as its princess. The story went viral, and Disney reportedly even bought the rights to make a movie about it.

In 2017, an Indian man named Suyash Dixit also traveled there, planted a sunflower seed, and declared himself king of the "Kingdom of Dixit."

Dozens of other people online have declared their own micronations there too.

None of these claims are recognized by anyone. Under international law, you can't just walk into land and create a country, especially without a permanent population or recognition from other states. Also, getting there legally requires permission from Egypt's military, which isn't exactly easy.

Does anyone actually live there

Not permanently. But the land isn't totally empty of human life either. Members of local tribes, like the Ababda, have historically passed through to graze animals, and there are reports of gold miners working in the area. It has a mountain, Jebel Hagar el-Zarqa, and a few dry wadis (valleys that flood briefly after rare rains).

The weird lesson here

Bir Tawil is a perfect example of how borders aren't really about land. They're about leverage. A piece of land that would normally be fought over is ignored entirely, because owning it would mean losing something bigger.

It's a no man's land created not by war, but by two countries both wanting the same thing, at the same time.

People actually live like this? This appears to be a pretty standard looking neighborhood in the Phoenix area. Neighborhoods with nothing but sand and pavement.

They look like some type of protection? is it against waves?

I had to learn the entire world map and its capitals for a geography test, i got graded a B.
(I got all countries and capitals right, i messed up the other questions... to be fair i didnt learn the rest, i was too focused on creating the site)
Its basically just the entire world map and you simply get asked random capitals or countries and you need to press on them.
I added great mobile support, which i noticed that seterra lacks for example, using a trackpad sim.
I find it pretty useful, id appreciate the feedback from other people on different devices.
Pressing on mini countries was just impossible.
I am not promoting this (mkay... maybe i kinda am) but i just created this because I myself needed it, and i decided to make it available for everyone else too, in case someone wants or needs this.
I hope you like it, and i would REALLY appreciate it if you could tell me if you encounter bugs or wrong entries aka. answers or whatever else which makes my site hard to use or simply uncomfortable for the user.
I tried making this as simple as possible (because i want to do less work...)
Thanks :)
P.S: I want to add a global leaderboard for people who love competitive geography. Do you think it would be worth it? I mean, each setting has its own leaderboard (with settings i mean which toggles you have which can be selected between countries, capitals or both, which countries and continents you have toggled etc.) Would anyone even use it? Would appreciate to hear that.
https://cxdevstudio.com/territorio/ is the page, take a quick glance over it :P

Honestly how can this be true! The CIA world factbook claims that Japans coastline is larger and consosts of more KMs than australias. But how is the true when all of japan can pretty much fit just inside the state of western Australia. Also, Japans total perimeter (coastline) is 29,751 km compared to Australias perimeter of 59,736 km, therefore how on earth is japans coastline bigger. The CIA world factbook has made a serious miscalculation here I believe!!

Sources and how it's made:

- Colour: NASA Blue Marble imagery, blurred and stylized per zoom level so it reads like a game map rather than a photo

- Elevation: ETOPO global relief, with mountains merged into rounded massifs and flat valley floors

- Coastlines: OpenStreetMap land polygons (© OpenStreetMap contributors)

- Lakes: detected from the Blue Marble colour, each given a flat water level from its shoreline, since the coastline data counts lakes as land

- Trees: one tree type per climate band (palms, acacia, cypress and stone pine, jungle, broadleaf, conifer)

- Towns: buildings in each region's own style, from a culture map of the world

- Landmarks: 582,000 GeoNames landmarks, ranked by Wikipedia page views

- Traffic: shipping lanes between real ports (GeoNames) and airliner routes as great circles between major cities

It's the world browser for our RTS, Doctrine Strike: you pick any 100–1,000 km frame and it becomes a playable map. Happy to answer anything about the data or the rendering.

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I am a huge basketball fan and have always found Indiana's basketball culture fascinating. I was curious, if you were to live out the life of hoosier hysteria culture, in which town or city would be the epitome of this experience (maybe it differs based on generations)?

1. Yao Y. et al. Reconstruction of paleocoastlines for the northwestern South China Sea since the Last Glacial Maximum //Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences. – 2009.
   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-009-0098-8

2. Xiong P. et al. Modeling paleogeographic scenarios of the last glacial cycle as a base for source-to-sink studies: An example from the northwestern shelf of the South China Sea //Journal of Asian Earth Sciences. – 2020.
   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2020.104542

The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi was planted in 288 BCE from a cutting taken from the sacred Bo tree that the Buddha achieved enlightenment under. It is in Mahamevnāwa** **Gardens, a park created during the reign of King Mutasiva some time between 367-307 BCE.

Today the tree and the park are sacred Buddhist sites with a collection of ancient stupas, or Buddhist shrines, and statues.