The Geographical Curiosities

(Odd geographical facts with a personal touch)

Odd Geographical Fact - 11/16/2001

On this page, I have already celebrated a few of my friend's birthday. Though my birthday was six days ago, I am choosing not to celebrate it on this page as I am celebrating a different birthday. Yesterday was the birth of a new county and what an interesting county it is. Broomfield County in Colorado started its existence yesterday though the city is older. The city of Broomfield overlapped the four counties of Jefferson, Boulder, Adams and Weld, though there was no quadripoint among it but two tripoints. As the city found it quite annoying to get permission from four different counties for its affairs, it chose to become a county in itself. The vote was held in Colorado on November 3, 1998 to make Broomfield a county, and it became one yesterday. It happens to be the smallest county in Colorado at 33 square miles and the fifth smallest in United States. There are a few thin roadways that almost create enclaves. There is also what suspiciously looks like intersecting border creating a semi-enclave of Broomfield. If that is the case, an even more interesting three-county quintipoint is created among Boulder, Jefferson and the new county.

Odd Geographical Fact - 10/19/2001

We all seem to think of Daniel Defoe made up the story of Robinson Crusoe, the shipwrecked sailor. Though much of the details are changed or exaggerated, it is based on a true story of a person, a person named Alexander Selkirk, and an island, the island currently called Robinson Crusoe. There are three islands in the San Fernandez archipelago of Chile. To the west is Alexander Selkirk Island, and to the east is Robinson Crusoe Island with the tiny Santa Clara next to it. Oddly, Alexander Selkirk actually lived in Robinson Crusoe Island and not the one named after him. He wasn't shipwrecked as he actually asked to be left on the first island he saw after he thought the ship he was a crew of wasn't seaworthy. He was left on the island on 1704 and was picked up on 1709 wearing goatskin. The island of Robinson Crusoe isn't really famous now, it is an integral part of English literature. 

Odd Geographical Fact - 10/12/2001

The city of Key West in the small island of the same name in Florida is south of any other city in the continental United States. But according to some imaginative souls in Key West, it stopped being so for a minute in 1982. The only way to commute between Key West and the rest of the country is Highway 1. Illegal Haitian and Cuban immigrants used the highway so in April of 1982, the federal government blocked the highway to check identification. The traffic jams this caused totally separated Key West from the rest of the country. As a protest, the mayor of Key West declared independence calling the area Conch Republic noon of April 23, 1982. One minute later he rejoined the country and asked for a billion dollar in foreign aid. As a source of amusement, the day of April 23 is still celebrated in the city of Key West.

Odd Geographical Fact - 10/05/2001

NYC Fact #4

There are a few cities in United States that fills the county it is situated in completely like Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Denver and San Francisco among others. Most cities in United States are situated in only parts of county. But there is only one city that fills five counties completely and that is New York City. The last piece of it was filled on January 1, 1914, when Bronx became a separate county though it was already a borough of New York City. As most of the headquarters of the county was in Manhattan, Bronx felt left out as the other boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island were already counties and had the headquarters. It especially did not help that the headquarters of New York county was in lower Manhattan, about as far in Manhattan as possible from the Bronx. The lawyers, jurors and witnesses hated the long trek from Bronx to the courthouses, so in 1914, Bronx became the fifth and final New York City County.

Odd Geographical Fact - 09/28/2001

NYC Fact #3

Like Manhattan, Staten Island or Richmond county is an island, but the county has a land border. Not only does it have a land border, it quite possibly has a tripoint with two counties in New Jersey. Staten Island has three smaller islands next to it. They are Prall's Island, Shooter's Island and Isle of Meadows, all part of Richmond County. Neither Staten Island or the other two has land boundaries, but the New York-New Jersey border goes through Shooter's Island. This happened because when the land was reclaimed next to the island, it went up to and past the boundary. The New Jersey portion is divided into Hudson County and Union County. The tripoint on the map is either on land very close to the water or on water very close to land. Even detailed topographic maps do not show the area clearly. It is actually possible that the tripoint may switch from maritime to not maritime. The reason is that there are pieces of wood that floats next to the island which were not cleaned up due to the fact the area is a bird sanctuary and if the tripoint is in water, pieces of wood may flow there gradually anytime.

Odd Geographical Fact - 09/21/2001

NYC Fact #2

For the war of 1812, when New York City feared attack by the British, five forts were crated. They were called batteries probably because battering rams were needed to destroy it. Among the five, there are two famous ones which were build on tiny islands that were completely built-on by the forts and neither of them are still forts though both of the islands are still being used for other important purposes. Castle Clinton was a 1-acre island. Later on the land around was reclaimed and now it lies in the park aptly named Battery. The fort became an auditorium, an aquarium and an immigration station at different times. Currently it is one of the few national monuments that is something else besides a tourist spot. It is the ticket station for another tourist spot, the Statue of Liberty. Fort Lafayette was also one a 1-acre island. Currently the fort does not exist, but the island, in severely altered form, has its use. It is the one of the platform of the span of Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Odd Geographical Fact - 09/14/2001

NYC Fact #1

To honor the greatest city in the world and my hometown after the vicious attack on it, I have decided to go with geographical facts on New York City for four weeks. And I will start from the borough and county World Trade Center used to be in, Manhattan or New York county as it is called. Everybody assumes that because it is an island, it shares land boundaries with no other counties in United States. Nothing could be further from the truth as it borders four counties. Because New York County has jurisdiction over much of the water on its eastern boundary, many of the piers in Brooklyn and Queens actually belong to it. Thus there is boundary between the two counties and New York in those piers. There is a tiny section of Inwood which is in the Bronx side of Spuytin Devil Creek. This was left when the creek straightened its course and started moving through what used to be land in Manhattan. And there is another land border created recently when Ellis island was carved between New York and New Jersey. A portion of New York County is enclaved within Hudson County, New Jersey.

Odd Geographical Fact - 09/07/2001

China is a big and powerful country. The odd thing is that it has had territory a few miles from it which it did not govern for the last century or so and still does. Over the last century it has foreign territories of France, Germany, Russia, England and Portugal either on the coast or a few miles of it. There is still a few islands that belong to Taiwan that are only five miles from China's. The island of Quemoy is the closest territory of Taiwan to China, but there are two other island groups on the coast of China that belongs to Taiwan. Because it was so close, they have been the only part of Taiwan that has been attacked by China up to now. Quemoy is so close that there are legends that simple rifles and other guns were actually used to attack the island from China among other things.

Odd Geographical Fact - 08/31/2001

It is always a good idea to check where the boundaries lie before something gets build because sometimes it ends up altering the boundary of cities, provinces or even countries.  There is a sizable town on Connecticut boundary which had to be given to Massachusetts because settlers from Massachusetts settled there. There is actually an island between Finland and Sweden where the boundary had to be altered because of a lighthouse. The island of Market is divided between Sweden and Finland. The lighthouse on it was erected in 1885 by Russians, who ruled Finland. As it was actually on the Swedish side of the border, the boundary had to be corrected in Finland's favor. Finland was nice enough to give a similar piece of territory to the Swedes. This creates salients that are only about 40 feet long and makes the boundaries butterfly-shaped where straight line would have been the norm. 

Odd Geographical Fact - 08/24/2001

Guadeloupe is a small French colony made up of a few small islands and one sizable one. This island is divided by a channel into two parts called Basse-Terre and Grand-Terre. Now whoever has a cursory understanding of French would know that Basse-Terre means low land and Grand-Terre means big land. The odd thing is Basse-Terre is sizable area being mostly volcanic and Grand-Terre is mostly flat and smaller. This happened because the islands are not named because of their relief, but their position which determines wind pattern. Basse-Terre means windward and Grand-Terre means leeward in French terms and thus explains the names in Guadeloupe. Sometimes you have to do research in geography to learn French.  

Odd Geographical Fact - 08/17/2001

My sister is now two decades old, twenty years old two days ago. Unfortunately, my dad had to stay in Philippines for a few months around the time my sister was born and thus he missed the moment, though the way he showered her with toys, she never minded. Unlike many other countries, my dad could not have swum twelve miles and be outside of Philippines, at least not in all directions. Philippines actually claims a rectangle around the islands which can extends more than a hundred miles from the nearest island in some directions. The maritime claim is even extended in cases when an island crosses the rectangle. The only other country to claim a rectangle around its islands is Maldives. Needless to say, both claims are disputed.

Odd Geographical Fact - 08/10/2001

Most people know Death Valley as the lowest point on land in the Western Hemisphere. What many of us do not know is that there was another area that not only gave Death Valley a run for its money in depth but also was and still is a much larger depression below sea level. Salton Sea is a lake in an area of Southern California which originally had land that was 280 feet below sea level. That is not the case anymore as in 1905 the area was flooded by runoff from Colorado River. Currently the lowest point on the shore is 235 points below the sea level and the lake is 25% more saline than the sea. The lowest point in Death Valley is 282 foot below sea level. However, whereas Death Valley is a thin valley. Salton Sea lies in a basin which was the remnants of Lake Cahuila and much wider. and longer. Some points below sea level in the depression actually extends to Mexico and happens to be the lowest point in Mexico, though Laguna Salada, a depression about two miles from the Salton Sea depression is lower when dry.

Odd Geographical Fact - 08/03/2001

Another friend I have had a birthday last Sunday. She is from India. I was born in Bangladesh, a small country right next to it. She used to ask me whether I have been to India or not. Well, I had not been to India after 1979, at least that is what I used to think. As my friend Brendan Whyte informed me, I technically have been to India in 1988, the year I came to America. The few months before moving to United States, my family and I was visiting all our family members. We went to my mother's original home in Mirjapur, Panchagarh, where many of her relatives lived. Panchagarh is among the few districts which share enclaves with India. To go there from Dhaka, where we lived, we had to take the national highway on bus. The national highway actually goes through an enclave of India for about 1000 feet. So now I answer I have been to India in 1988, though only 1000 feet of it.

Odd Geographical Fact - 07/27/2001

Yesterday was my best friend's birthday. She happens to be part Irish. One of the oddest things about Ireland is that it has no snakes whatsoever. The legend is that St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland drove them about the time he introduced Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century. Ireland does happen to be one of the two countries in the world without snakes, but the reason it does not have any snakes is probably because it is cold northern island. Because in general the more north you get, the summer gets colder, cold-blooded animals such as snakes has trouble staying. As Ireland is an island and isolated, the snake population has no chance of reintroduction from the continent and the Irish live their peaceful existence.

Odd Geographical Fact - 07/20/2001

Rivers are very important for many countries.  Sometimes this need for access to a river can create strange shapes. There are few such cases in South America where there are a few very powerful and large rivers which flows through mostly uninhabited or Native American-inhabited places. Paraguay, except for its Northwestern side, is almost exclusively bordered by rivers. Bolivia has a salient for access to Paraguay River near the Bolivia-Brazil-Paraguay where the end is approximately five times longer than the neck. The most famous salient for access to a river probably is the Leticia Salient. This area extends from the compact form of the rest of Colombia for about 100 miles. Oddly, the salient is for access to Amazon River, even though much of the external and a few internal borders are defined by rivers that also drain into Amazon. Another oddity is the fact this is a second salient near a tripoint, the Brazil-Colombia-Peru one.

Odd Geographical Fact - 07/13/2001

We always seem to accept the fact that any boundary in the world goes straight up in the atmosphere and straight down in the ground. This would create a megapoint in the core of the earth, but that is not the subject of my fact for the week. It is to remind that this principle is so important that it was actually given as the reason for a sizable war. Persian Gulf War started because Iraq took over the country of Kuwait. There are a few reasons for that happening besides the fact that Saddam Hussein is completely nuts. The reasons given by Iraq were the fact that Ottoman Empire supposedly had Kuwait in the same province as the rest of Iraq and that the islands of Bubiyan and Warbah blocks Iraqi access to the sea. A third reason that was also given by Iraq was that Kuwait was supposedly pumping oil from the Rumaila oilfield not straight down as most boundaries are thought to be but slanted towards Iraq. Instead of the oil that were there quota, Kuwait would thus gain an extra amount of oil. This same reasoning is still given by Iraq against Kuwait still to this day even in other oilfields.

Odd Geographical Fact - 07/06/2001

A look at the eastern portion of the borders of South Australia seems to signify a completely straight boundary. Well, you would be wrong. Though mostly straight, it is not really completely straight. There are three provinces to the east of South Australia. They are Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. When the boundaries of South Australia with Queensland and New South Wales were surveyed, the boundaries connected out to be a straight line. The problem was when the boundary with Victoria was surveyed, it was slightly off from the line to the west. Thus the two straight lines did not connect. To solve the problem, the River Murray where the tripoint is becomes the boundary of South Australia for a few miles, the only non-straight boundary in South Australia.

Odd Geographical Fact - 06/29/2001

There are many boundary freaks among us who probably wants to visit the tripoint in Mexico between Morelos, Puebla and Mexico state. Well, as my friend Raul Conde reminds me, it probably is not such a good idea to visit this particular tripoint. The reason is that the tripoint lies in the crater of the volcano Popocatepetl.  Not only will it be hard to climb the mountain which is 5452 meter tall, but also the volcano is very active.  The last eruption was on December 2000 and smoke comes out of the crater, which is 300 meter wide every so often. We shouldn't exactly be surprised that Popocatepetl is such an active volcano as its name means smoking mountain in Nahuatl language.

Odd Geographical Fact - 06/22/2001

Yesterday was a special day for almost the whole earth. In the Northern Hemisphere, it was the longest day and in the Southern Hemisphere is the shortest day. Only on the equator does it not matter, as all the days are exactly 12 hours there. There are only a few countries which are both in Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Among them, the one that barely counts is Sao Tome and Principe. The country is made up two islands of Sao Tome and Principe and the islets of Tinhosa Grande, Tinhosa Piquena, Bombom, Caroco, Cabras and Rolas, all of which is only a few square miles in area. All the islands are in the Northern hemisphere except Rolas, whose main claim to fame is that it lies on the equator. The only tourist spot in the whole island is the pillar at equator. and towards the south lies the less than 1% of the country in Southern Hemisphere.

Odd Geographical Fact - 06/15/2001

The world is full of international boundaries that are straight line, but other geometric shapes are rare in boundaries. There is only one instance where the boundary is ellipsoidal. This happens to be in the boundary between Italy and Vatican City in Rome. When the boundary between Italy and Vatican City were created, it followed the outside of compound of St Peter's. St Peter's Square, which is definitely not a square, is a structure whose outer wall forms the boundary. The easternmost part has the shape of an ellipse and thus forms the only ellipsoidal boundary. This is a case where not only is the boundary easily marked, but also the center of the ellipse is also easily marked by an obelisk.

Odd Geographical Fact - 06/08/2001

When I went to Argentina three years ago, I saw a big rivalry between two soccer teams. Boca Juniors and Rio Plata. I am not sure how the second team got its name, but it is possible the name is from Rio de la Plata, which is the estuary of the rivers Uruguay and Parana. Rio de la Plata and Rio Uruguay forms the whole boundary between Argentina and Uruguay. The oddest part of the boundary is near the town of Fray Bentos. A few miles north of it, there are many islands and it divides Rio Uruguay clearly into two channels. One is the Filomena Channel and the other is El Medio Channel. The El Medio Channel divides the sovereignty of the two countries and the jurisdiction of the islands. To the west is Argentina and to the east is Uruguay. However, the Filomena Channel, which is to the east of the other, divides the jurisdiction of the water. Thus there is a small portion in the boundary where the jurisdiction of a few islands that are completely Uruguayan is surrounded by waters whose jurisdiction is completely Argentinean.

Odd Geographical Fact - 06/01/2001

In the country of United States I live in, the first-order administrative division is a state and a second-order administrative division is a county. Now the above-stated fact is mainly true except for a few oddities here and there. The District of Columbia is a first-order division that is not a state. In the second-order division, Alaska has all boroughs or city boroughs, Louisiana has all parishes and Nevada, Missouri, Virginia and Maryland has cities that are independent from nearby counties but without their own county government. There is just one other unique case in Montana. Yellowstone National Park is a huge park that is mostly in Wyoming, but touches the corners of Idaho and Montana. There is a 213 square mile area of it in Montana. While the Idaho and Wyoming portions of the park belongs to counties in the states, the Montana portion does not. It is independent of the other counties and the park portion stands as its own second-order division. Fortunately very few people live there and not much county government is needed.

Odd Geographical Fact - 05/25/2001

There are a few administrative divisions in the world that are completely surrounded by another. Most of them happen to be cities that are so important that they are chosen to be a division of the country separate from its surroundings. Some examples are Berlin and Moscow. But Denmark has something rarer. The only division in the world that is completely surrounded by a division that itself is completely surrounded is in the heart of Denmark. There is a sizable county in Denmark that is called Copenhagen. Very confusingly, the municipality of Copenhagen that is surrounded by Copenhagen county is also a county. The Copenhagen Municipality County does touch the sea, but the land and maritime boundaries end up closing it. It is almost a relief that Frederiksberg Municipality County border is not as confusing. It's a tiny city that is completely surrounded by Copenhagen and the boundary is all on land. The tiny city used to be a tax haven for the rich. It is not a tax haven anymore, but it remains the Beverly Hills or Chevy Chase of Denmark. Jesper Nielsen, my distinguished friend from Denmark, happens to live in the unique oddity.

Odd Geographical Fact - 05/18/2001

When we mention the area of Indochine or what we identify as French Indochina, we assume South East Asia or the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. While that is technically what Indochina is, the French had a slightly bigger area in mind, including a very small piece of China. The territory of Kwang-Chou-Wan was a small French territory that was in China and administratively connected to Indochina. The port territory was situated in a peninsula just north of Hainan island. There was approximately a 300 square mile area that belonged completely to France and approximately 2000 square miles that was neutral. The location was chosen for two reasons. One is the obvious easiness of administering the area if it was close to the rest of Indochina. The second reason was that the port was a counterpoint to Hong Kong and Macau. It was given back to China in 1949, a few years after World War II.

Odd Geographical Fact - 05/11/2001

There are quite a number of fragments and enclaves in the world at the national level. Many countries have provinces that are divided in large or small pieces and most of them have an interesting history behind them. One such area is the province of Tyrol in Austria which has two pieces separated by Salzburg province and parts of Italy. Looking at a map, it looks a curious decision to separate the two parts. We should remember that the decision to divide the province wasn't Austria's. Tyrol was a large continuous province in Austria-Hungary. When Austria-Hungary was being broken apart in many countries right after World War I, Italy wanted parts of the province where Italians were a substantial minority or a majority. Allies did not give Italy all the lands they demanded, but they did give a substantial part of Tyrol and that included a chunk in the middle of the province. Austria never bothered to redraw the provincial boundaries and that caused Austrian Tyrol to be divided in two parts with Italian Tyrol in between.

Odd Geographical Fact - 05/04/2001

Any time a planned city is finished, we find that the city has a specific geometrical structure that differentiates it from most cities. This is done to show the world that modernity and uniqueness of the new great city. Washington, the capital of USA, has circular plazas at distance from each other around which six streets come out. New Delhi in India has circles spreading out from the center. But Brasilia tops them all. The plan of the capital of Brazil is such that from the sky and on the map, the buildings near the center form the shape of an aeroplane. Not surprisingly, the area is named Plano Piloto. Unfortunately, those in search for another geographic oddity would come away disappointed. It looks like on many maps there is a rare three-area quadripoint on the eastern side of the Federal District in which Brasilia and Minas Gerais touches at one point next to Goias. In truth, there is a small river boundary between the Federal District and Minas Gerais.

Odd Geographical Fact - 04/27/2001

The biggest state in USA currently is Alaska. Over the history of the country, it held territories that were bigger than Alaska before they were broken up like the Louisiana territory. The biggest territory of United States this century was also bigger than Alaska thought it was American only for a few years. During World War II, Germany was conquering most of Europe. Included within was the Kingdom of Denmark. Right before Denmark was to be taken over by Germany, Denmark decided to give Greenland to USA. Not to permanently hold it, but only for administration. The sovereignty was to remain under the Danish government in exile. The odd thing is that a similar situation also occurred during World War I, when Danish government actually chose to sell USA the Virgin Islands instead of holding on to them.

Odd Geographical Fact - 04/20/2001

Germany is considered to be a powerful country. However, there is a tiny part of Germany that were British territory even as late as the 1890s. It also later happened to become part of the British occupation zone after World War II. While most of Germany became part of one large country, the island of Helgoland, at 520 acres, was a tiny piece of England a few miles off the German coast. It was a British territory from 1807 on. oddly, it was not German either when British got their hand on it as it was Danish from 1714. Helgoland was at last traded to Germany on 1890 in exchange for Zanzibar. Though it might have been unfair in terms of the size of territory as Zanzibar was approximately thousand times bigger than Helgoland, Germany was more than happy at the trade. After World War II, it became part of the British Occupied zone and actually was used as a RAF range until 1952, when it was returned to Germany.

Odd Geographical Fact - 04/13/2001

This good Friday was one of them when it fell on the thirteenth. Contrary to popular belief, the thirteenth has nothing to do with being the date with Jesus' death. But the popular idea that Jesus died is Jerusalem is generally accepted by archaeologists. Jerusalem became an interesting geographic area during the creation of Israel. When the war in Jerusalem ended, the city was divided between Jordanian and Israeli territory. There was the Israeli enclave of Mount Scopus in Jordanian territory. However, calling it a simple enclave of Israel would be wrong. Jerusalem and the area nearby was divided into five sorts of territory. Territory on the western portion of Jerusalem was Israeli and the eastern portion was Jordanian. Some territories lying in between including the a buffer zone between Israeli area and the Old City was neutral territory. I haven't mentioned Mount Scopus yet because the northern portion of the zone was neither of the three, but a demilitarized zone under Israeli occupation. The southern portion was a demilitarized zone under Jordanian occupation. In the middle was a completely neutral zone. There were actually a few different types of tripoints in a small area. United Nations really had a handful until 1967 when Israel took over whole of Jerusalem as their own.

Odd Geographical Fact - 04/06/2001

Today is my brother's birthday and I send him my love. Family is very important to me and just because you are famous and powerful doesn't mean you lose your love of the family. Case in point is Napoleon. During his lifetime, he made his brother, Louis Bonaparte, the emperor of Netherlands. Louis' son was Napoleon III, whose grandmother was also Napoleon's first wife, though Napoleon's mother was born in a different marriage. Napoleon III was a follower of his uncle and in his devotion created an enduring geographic oddity. Napoleon Bonaparte died in Saint Helena in 1921. Saint Helena is a British island. As pointed out to me by Rolf Palmberg, Napoleon III did not want the place of his uncle's death to be in British hands. So, he urged the British to sell Longwood Farm, where Napoleon lived his last few years. Though Napoleon III lost power by then, the British did sell the farm to the French, who owns it to this day. The tiny French virtual enclave is populated by two Frenchmen. We have to remember though there is no evidence that this big show of love for the family did not convince the British to actually transfer sovereignty.

Odd Geographical Fact - 03/30/2001

The Oscar for best picture went to the movie Gladiator, a movie where most of the gladiating takes place in Rome. Ancient Rome might be more interesting for entertainment and architecture, but modern Rome is more interesting for geography. Rome is the only city in the world that surrounds a country, Vatican City. The Vatican is popularly recognized as the smallest country in the world at 108.9 acres. The odd thing is that in the international relations of quite a few countries, Vatican is not even the smallest country within Rome. There is a territory called Sovereign Military Order of Malta, named after the group that occupies it. The palace on the hill of Aventine and a small house on the street called Via Condotti is all its territory totaling approximately three acres. Originally the order of Knights that are in charge of the place was stationed in Jerusalem and then Rhodes, progressively chased out by the Muslims. They were in charge of Malta after they left Rhodes and remained there until the time of Napoleon. They tried buying land from the new nation of United States of America afterwards, but the nation refused to give up sovereignty of the land they were willing to give. Thus the group went to the only place they could call their own, their palace and embassy in Rome, over which they remain sovereign to this day. 81 countries recognize them. It is one of the delicious ironies this small place known the world over for selling coins and stamps has part of its territory in Via Condotti, Rome's main shopping area.

Odd Geographical Fact - 03/23/2001

On the Friday before the Oscars, I have a confession to make. I love movies. And one of my favorite director is Steven Spielberg. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is one of the movies he made and the climactic scene of the movie takes place in Republic Of Hatay. Seeing the name of the area, my friends started laughing about the horrible fictional name they made up for the setting of a scene. Then I had to remind them, that Hatay is a real place that determines a little bit of Middle Eastern history. After World War I, when parts of Turkey was to be divided, Syria was to be made up of seven republics. Two of them were Lebanon and Hatay, also known as Alexandretta. French early on decided the Christian minority in Lebanon should get their own nation. On the other side, Turkey wasn't happy to lose all the territory it did. It was in the process of even losing parts of coast near Izmir to Greece. When Turkey started to gain some power under Kemal Ataturk, he claimed and got Hatay. Hatay is a place that Syria wanted and still wants. The two best ports on the Syrian coast, Hatay and Beirut, both ended up in foreign countries. Thus Syria is nowhere near as powerful as it should be. Even though the movie did not say anything about what really happened, it is somewhat refreshing to know that at least some movie guys know even a little about obscure places. Now, if they could only write a screenplay of a romance in the Bangladeshi-India enclaves.

Odd Geographical Fact - 03/16/2001

On tomorrow's St Patrick's Day celebration, we need to give a special thanks to the city of Shannon in Ireland. Shannon was the first city ever to have a duty-free airport. Thus the airport duty-free shops you see in every airport with supposedly lesser price was actually an Irish idea. Thus none of us should be surprised that those shops sell so much alcohol. Shannon is also important for being the first stop in every airplane that stops in Ireland. When airplanes first started trans-atlantic flights, many planes needed to refuel as soon as they finished crossing the Atlantic. And many times, the first place they saw on land was Shannon in Ireland. When planes began to have greater range, the need to stop at Shannon disappeared. So, the city urged Ireland to make a law urging all planes to stop at Shannon. Even now many planes stop at the city if they are stopping in the British Isles and they have to stop if they go on to Dublin or other Irish airports.

Odd Geographical Fact - 03/09/2001

Until 1997, Hong Kong was a small British territory on the coast of China. There was a small enclave within Hong Kong though which was not British, but technically Chinese. In 1898, after the British found Hong Kong island and Kowloon peninsula too small, they asked for the New Territories. Almost all of the New Territories were given to the British except for a tiny 6 acre area surrounded by the territories that was supposed to be the Chinese headquarters. This area had a thick wall and thus came to be called the Walled City. Though the area was never quite administered by China, British administrators also refused to administer it due to the fear of China's recriminations. So, the area became a haven for the triad and smugglers. Japan, when taking control of Hong Kong during World War II, demolished the wall and took control. The situation went back to as before when British came back after the war. The place still was called Walled City even though there was no wall. The situation only ended after the 1984 treaty handing over all of Hong Kong to China in 1997. At that time, China gave effective control over sanitation and other utilities to British and later the city to be razed and a park created.

Odd Geographical Fact - 03/02/2001

The atomic bomb changed the course of human history. World War II may have ended due to an atomic bomb and the cold war may not have continued for as long as the atomic bomb. But how many of us know that a tiny piece of history, the creation of one of the smallest counties in the western United States, was due to the atomic bomb. Project Manhattan was a top secret project that started the first fission reaction, a reaction that breaks up an atom, in Chicago. For obvious reasons in safety and transportation, the scientists couldn't stay there to produce the bomb that was thought to be needed during the war. They moved to Los Alamos, a city near the border area of Sandoval and Santa Fe counties. As the research projects were going on, the team needed help and permission at the county level. It was a problem when employees in a secret project had to explain things to the government and populace of a large county who might not understand the concerns. What could have been done to solve this? It was decided to create a new county, the county of Los Alamos, just for the scientists and government employees, a county that still remains. It incidentally also happened to create one of the few fragmented counties in the United States when parts of Sandoval got separated by the new county to get stuck between Los Alamos and Santa Fe counties.

Odd Geographical Fact - 02/23/2001

What happens if the country your island is in is becoming independent, but your own island does not want to get in the trouble of running your own government? Well, one ingenious thing you could do is to declare independence from that just-independent country. Anguilla tried that. When St Christopher and Nevis decided to become independent from United Kingdom, Anguilla was supposed to be included. That idea did not please Anguillans as the other two islands are at somewhat at a distance. So, Anguilla decided to declare independence from St Christophers and Nevis. To stop a conflict between Anguilla and the other islands, United Kingdom decided to step in and that is when Anguilla asked to stay a colony and they remain so this day. Of course, it is not a fool-proof plan. Barbuda tried it too when Antigua and Barbuda became independent, but that time United Kingdom did the smart thing. They just left the Antiguans alone and Barbuda, to their dismay, remained entwined with Antigua.

Odd Geographical Fact - 02/16/2001

Pakistan became an independent country in 1947. The country isn't very old. Still, in the meantime they lost international boundaries with two countries, if not more. The case that is not de facto is the case of Junagadh. From 1947 to 1965, Pakistan claimed Junagadh state, a part of Gujarat. It was a princely state that decided to join Pakistan but which was forcibly taken by India. The disputed boundaries quite possibly touched Ghoglia, a territory of Portugal on the coast. Pakistan also lost boundaries with Burma when it managed to lose Bangladesh as the latter became an independent country. The third country Pakistan lost boundaries with was Oman. The coastal territory of Gwadar with all its 307 square miles belonged to Oman since 1784 even though it is on Pakistani coast. The town with its port and the surrounding area was Omani. In 1958, Pakistan got tired of the presence and bought Gwadar from Oman, the only time out of cases where Pakistan's boundaries with a country was not taken away by force.

Odd Geographical Fact - 02/09/2001

On Valentine's day many people's thought turns to love. And one of the classic loves in history was between Percy Shelley and Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley is most famous for writing "Frankenstein," which is also a love story along with its gothic overtones. Most of us don't know that if not for a volcano in Indonesia, this classic story would not have been written. The story was written as a dare on a cold damp day. The Shelleys and two of their friends decided to write a gothic story as a friendly wager as they were stuck at home due to the inclement weather on the year 1816. Only one of them finished their story. The odd thing was that they were actually resting in the summer months in Vienna and the Shelleys' did not expect such weather. The reason for the winter-like conditions in the summer which forced the Shelleys' to stay home was the explosion of volcano Tambora Sumbawa in 1815, an explosion that spread the most ash among all historic volcanic explosion. The blocked sunlight caused snowfall in June in New England and caused a classic to be written.

Odd Geographical Fact - 02/02/2001

While there are a few bodies of water way above sea level, like Aral Sea and way below sea level, like Dead Sea, that gets called seas, even if they are lakes. Lake Maracaibo is just the opposite. It is a salty sea level body of water that is connected to the Gulf of Venezuela and the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow strait, but gets called a lake. Both sides of the strait is controlled by the Venezuelan province of Zulia along with most of the coastline. But getting access to the lake is important to some other provinces. The result is if you walk clockwise along the lake, you will go through the coastilnes of Zulia, Trujillo, Zulia, Merida and Zulia respectively. The corridors of both Trujillo and Merida to lake Maracaibo is quite small. They cause Zulia to be broken up in three pieces. The three pieces are probably connected however when you take territorial waters into account.

Odd Geographical Fact - 01/26/2001

If you walked the streets of Pondicherry, an administrative division of India, you will probably see quite a few French citizens. You will see French citizens who have never been to or seen France. How did that happen? Well, Pondicherry was a French colony until 1954. When the French left Pondicherry, they offered the citizens of Pondicherry a choice of whether they wanted to become an Indian citizen or stay a French citizen. Though most became Indian citizens, quite a few chose to stay French. They became French even though they have never seen France and it didn't even necessiate their moving to France. A person born into a household of French citizen is also a French citizen. They are eligible for French social security and such French luxuries from the government even though they live a few thousand miles from France. They get to vote in French elections. The biggest advantage though is societal. The best Indian women or men in Pondicherry choose the French as spouses as that is the only way to become French citizens if not being born into it.

Odd Geographical Fact - 01/19/2001

This is probably an urban legend, but it is a geographic oddity nonetheless, culled from Lonely Planet. We know one of the few islands separated by an international border is St Martin, the smallest island that is separated by a boundary that is not a continuation of another. The French and Dutch colonists who inhabited the island decided to divide the island. Their ingenious way of dividing it was to let a French and Dutch colonists start from a certain point and walk in opposite directions. The boundary was to go from that point to the meeting point of the two persons on the other side of the island. It turned out that Frenchmen was faster and thus the French part of the island is bigger. It is said that the Frenchman quenched his thirst with French Wine while the Dutchman did the same with potent Rum, and that's why he was slower. So, what's the lesson? If you want to get completely drunk, have Dutch Rum, otherwise you should go for French Wine. And the best thing to do is not to drink at all. Just think if the French had Perrier, then they may have had the whole island except a tint beachhead by the Dutch.

Odd Geographical Fact - 01/12/2001

Most of us know that the first state of the United States is Delaware. We also know that the 50th state to join the country was Hawaii. When you are ranking states by date of statehood, you unfortunately get into a little bit of trouble. The reason is that nobody knows exactly which state is 39th and which state is the 40th. In November of 1889, a few territories became states. Including among them are North Dakota and South Dakota, which became states on November 2, 1889. The last piece of becoming a state is when the president signs a document proclaiming statehood for the territory. In one sitting, President Benjamin Harrison signed both of the documents making Dakotas into a state. Unfortunately for historians, he was a secretive kind. He never did mention to anybody which document he signed earlier and which later. And when he died, he left us an unsolved and unsolvable mystery about which state is actually the 39th one and which is 40th. As a sidenote, most books choose North Dakota as the 39th state as it is alphabetically earlier.

Odd Geographical Fact - 01/05/2001

The smallest countries in the world has some odd resources for much of their earnings. Nauru got rich by the phosphate it has, San Marino has stamps and Monaco has stamps, casinos and citizenshuip. What resource does Tuvalu have to earn money? Well, it has its name. At least its domain name. In 1994, Tuvalu was given its own domain name - .tv. Now some Americans, who else, saw ways to make a profit. They contacted Tuvalu and its prime minister, Honorable Ionatana Ionatana, and struck a deal for $50 million over ten years. If that doesn't seem like much, consider that the $5 million a year Tuvalu gets is approximately half the GNP of the country from just a few years ago. DotTV, the company that sells the right to .tv, got Emmys to go for it last year and seems to actually have lucked upon a great idea. So if you ever thought about starting a country, you may want to think about that name. You never know if it could get you $50 million or not.

Odd Geographical Fact - 12/29/2000

A dawn of a new year is here. We will wake up in three days to 2001. There is generally a new year's celebration following another in an hour in the world because of time zones. In a few areas, there is also time zones that follows half hour increments from Greenwich Mean Time. They are mostly in Asia and oceania with the only exception being Newfoundland. It is very rare for a time zone not to follow an hour or half hour. The places are Chatham Islands, which is 12:45 ahead of Mean Time and Nepal, which is 5:40 ahead of mean time. So, if you were leaving near the Nepal-India border, you can celebrate a new year's day in Nepal and before your wet new year's kiss gets dry, you can celebrate a new year in Nepal after just ten minutes. Then again, the farthest time difference of zones touching each other is nearby too. You can celebrate a new year in China near the China-Afghanistan border and after taking a shower, relax and do whatever else you can for three and a half hours, cross the border and celebrate a new year.

Odd Geographical Fact - 12/22/2000

Christmas is coming. However, I have to skip on a Christmas fact as two days after Christmas is Eid, the biggest holiday in Islam, the religion I belong to. The religion originated in Arabia. Our prophet conquered the whole peninsula during his life, but right after his death many tribes decide to not follow Islam anymore. The muslims reconquered the peninsula with the last significant battle being fought on Dibba. That town may not have been a geographic oddity then, but it is one now. Dibba is one of the few towns in the world that belong to three rulers. The three rulers are in two countries, Oman and the very loosely United Emirates. The northern portion of the town is Dibba Bayah and it belongs to Omani coastal fragment in Musandam Peninsula. The southern portion is Dibba Muhallab, which belongs to the Emirate of Fujairah. And in the middle between Oman and Fujairah is Dibba Hisn, a tiny enclave of Sharjah. My referencing of three kings from south of the holy land - now that's a pure coincidence.

Odd Geographical Fact - 12/15/2000

We all know the northernmost point of the United States changed when Alaska was admitted to the country in 1959. Oddly enough, it was not the only time this century America had a new northernmost point. The previous point was actually in the water and the reason for the movement was somewhat surreal. The Lake of the Woods contains the northernmost point in the United States. In 1783, the boundary was made to go directly west from the northwesternmost point of the lake to Mississipi. However, Mississipi does not flow that far north. The boundary had to be changed and it was changed in 1818 to go from the same point southward to 49th parallel and then westward on the said parallel. Unfortunately, the median line in Lake of the Woods goes southwest first directly south of the northwestern point and this median line intersects the straight north-south line five other times. Not only was the northwesternmost point in the lake not on the boundary, but that point necessiated creation of two aquatic enclaves and the northern enclave contained the northernmost point in United States. In 1912, southernmost of the intersecting points were surveyed to eliminate the enclaves and in 1925, when a treaty was ratified, America moved just slightly southward.

Odd Geographical Fact - 12/08/2000

My friend and I was supposed to go to Australia to celebrate the new year, but will not because of a luck of funds. On my itinerary was a side trip to walk the whole boundary length of one of the states if possible even if my friend chose not to. No, I am not nuts. I was going to choose Tasmania. The maritime border of Tasmania with Victoria is at 39 degrees and 12 minutes southern latitude. An island straddling this line is the appropriately named Boundary Islet. According to the AUSLIG website, at approximately 85 meters or 280 feet, this small islet in the Bass Straight provides what is the smallest land boundary among Australian States. So, my supposed trip walking the total boundary length of a state was not going to take five days, but five minutes. And only if I was walking slowly.

Odd Geographical Fact - 12/01/2000

Europeans has seen Arabs alternately with eyes of fear, contempt or hatred over a considerable time through the middle ages even until early this century. In this holy month of Ramadan, it is refreshing to say that one of the most recognizable landmark in Europe is named after an Arab soldier. In 711, the Arabs chose to conquer Spain. The Arab leader who landed on Gibraltar to start conquering Spain was named Tariq Ibn Ziyad. The impressive rock the Arabs saw was named Jebel el Tariq or Jebel Tariq by the Arabs in honor of him. It literally means Tariq's Hill. Europeans later on shortened this name, pretty badly I might say. And that shortened name of Jebel Tariq is Gibraltar, A hill and a peninsula that still fascinates us all.

Odd Geographical Fact - 11/24/2000

We all know one of the biggest holidays in America is Thanksgiving, or Turkey Day. It commemorates the pilgrims who came to Plymouth in 1620 and celebrated the winter by having a feast. A lot of us make a mistake of thinking the pilgrims came from England. Well, they were English, but they already emigrated and was living in Leyden, Holland. So why do we commemorate Englishmen coming from Netherlands in America with a bird that is named for an Middle Eastern country? Good question, as there is no hard proof that they had turkey that first feast with Indians, meaning Native Americans. And if you thought my globetrotting explanation was over, let me mention just how the bird got the name Turkey. There is a bird called Guinea fowl, whose origin is in muslim Eastern Africa, even though Guinea the country is in Western Africa. Europeans thought the bird came from muslim Arabia and the only country they knew there was Turkey, so the name stuck. The name was transfered to a similar-looking bird coming from Mexico and Central America in the 1600s. I am sorry that I didn't get Australia and Antarctica in the discussion. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Odd Geographical Fact - 11/17/2000

What is the point of having a boundary if you can't administer what is on your side? I think that is a good question which we need to ask the Sudanese government. When you look at a map of the world, the Sudanese boundaries with Egypt and Kenya seems so nice and straight. During colonial times, when British either had a protectorate or a colony in the three countries, they produced the straight lines of sovereignty. But don't be fooled. Upon carefully looking at both Sudan-Egypt and Sudan-Kenya boundaries, you see that the administrative boundaries differ from the sovereign one, producing zigzags in both boundaries. Sudan, Kenya and Egypt are the only countries I have been able to find where a country administers territory on the other side of a boundary line where they technically have no sovereignty.

Odd Geographical Fact - 11/10/2000

Is it just me, or is this election causing everybody to go around the bend. Truthfully though, I am not going around the bend. Not because I am not going insane, which I am, but because I have never had the chance to visit Telegraph Island. What am I talking about? Well, a little story from Lonely Planet... The Musandam peninsula in Oman has a wonderful fjord landscape. Telegraph Island is at the land end of fjord Khor ash Sham. The fjord along the inside is all cliff and there were no settlements. The peace and quiet at the remote bend of a remote peninsula was incredible. Not even much of a tidal sound as the fjords blunted it. The British soldiers who worked in the island used to go insane on a much higher rate than normal. Thus the British soldiers started to say that anybody who went insane went "around the bend." The expression stayed and spread. So if somebody says you went around the bend, you have my permission to insult them back, but please do so honoring the memory of the courageous British soldiers.

Odd Geographical Fact - 11/03/2000

It seems geographical uniqueness and human fame does not go hand in hand. Can you name any Americans who was born in a geographic oddity? Well, in honor of election day on Nov 7th, I nominate Jimmy Carter, whose hometown of Plains in Georgia is a perfect circle. The diameter of this circle is exactly a mile. Oddly enough, Georgia and South Carolina has quite a few towns with circular boundaries, but it is not seen almost anywhere else in the United States. A sizable percentage of the town is now in Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. Oddly enough, there are no national park sites for the two Republican presidents preceding and succeeding him. Please vote Republican in the coming election, so we get more Presidential national historic sites and be spared something like Bill Clinton Impeachment National Historic Site. Besides, Texas is more geographically interesting than Tennessee.

Odd Geographical Fact - 10/27/2000

Where are some of the smallest boundaries in the world? Vatican City-Italy is quite small. Monaco-France too. North Korea-Russia isn't long either. Zimbabwe-Zambia (if those does happen to be the ones that have the boundaries in the convoluted area) border could be less than a mile. Now, what about Spain-Morocco? Yep, Spain-Morocco! Ok, I am fudging the situation just a tad. Ceuta and Mellila has about 20 miles total in land boundaries with Morocco. However, both Mellila and Ceuta contains a neutral territory next to it which prevents it from connecting true Moroccan territory. Same for Gibraltar and Spain, by the way. The only place where Morocco and Spain truly has a land border is in Penon de Velez de La Gomera. Looking at a 1:5,000 aerial photo of the area, it seems like the sand spit through which the border runs is approximately 200 feet in width. The small boundary does make sense when you find out that the small part of Spain there is only about 7 acres in area. There didn't always use to be land there either. A highway in Morocco necessiated dumping debris in the sea which produced the sand spit and creating one of the tiniest boundaries in the world.

Odd Geographical Fact - 10/20/2000

In the middle of United Arab Emirates (UAE), there is a small piece of Omani territory. This enclave is called Madha. The boundaries between the Emirates that constitute UAE is very ill-defined and confusing. Because of the boundary uncertainty, Madha is often not shown on maps. However, there is a possible enclave within that is not shown on any maps you are likely to see. My friend, Brendan Whyte, was doing research on Indian enclaves in India when he met an Indian person who worked on an UAE atlas. This person has drawn a map of Madha enclave which has a tiny UAE enclave within the Omani territory of Madha. The only other mention I have seen is in Gideon's Encyclopedia of International Boundaries, where the name of the smaller enclave is given as Nahwa. Neither Mr Whyte nor I have been able to find the enclave on any other map. This could be due to the fact that the enclave on the map is too tiny to show up on any map with accuracy.

 

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