What happens to terra nullius - land that no country wants?
Data Scavenger Hunt
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, your big brain, and the links below:
How big in square miles is Bir Tawil?
What two countries that don’t want Bir Tawil does it border?
Bir Tawil, a piece of land about the size of London, located in the disputed border area between Egypt and Sudan, is the last unclaimed land on earth: a tiny sliver of Africa ruled by no state, inhabited by no permanent residents and governed by no laws. How different is that from Missouri?
Sudan is the 16th biggest country in the world, covering 967,498 square miles, or 1.2% of the earth’s landmass. If Sudan was placed atop a map of the United States, Sudan would cover an area from Wisconsin to the Atlantic Ocean, going as far south as Florida. To get to Bir Tawil you must fly to the Sudanese capital Khartoum, charter a jeep, and follow the Shendi road hundreds of miles up to Abu Hamed, a settlement that dates back to the ancient kingdom of Kush. Today it serves as the region’s final permanent human outpost before the vast Nubian desert, twice the size of mainland Britain and almost completely barren, begins unfolding to the north. There are some artisanal gold miners in the desert, a few armed gangs, which often prey upon the prospectors, and a small number of military units who carry out patrols in an attempt to keep the peace. Out here, dry winds often blow in from the Arabian peninsula, whipping up sheets of dust that plunge visibility down to near-zero. After a day like this, then a night, and then another day, you will finally cross into Bir Tawil, an 800-square-mile cartographical oddity nestled within the border that separates Egypt and Sudan. Both nations have renounced any claim to it, and no other government has any jurisdiction over it. Why do you think these two nations don’t want Bir Tawil?
Imagine someone was born in Bir Tawil (don’t try it!) would they be a citizen of any nation?
What do you think would happen if oil reserves or some valuable rare earth material was discovered in Bir Tawil?
The situation in Bir Tawil is traced back to the British colonial era. The British drew a straight line in the desert to demarcate the border, ignoring tribal boundaries. Later, in 1902, they drew a new line to better reflect cultural differences, resulting in two borders: a straight one and a squiggly one. As a result, Bir Tawil remains the only territory in the world where both neighboring nations insist it’s not theirs. This has led to it being internationally recognized as terra nullius, meaning ‘land belonging to no one’. What would happen if another nation or even person claimed Bir Tawil?
In June 2014, a 38-year-old farmer from Virginia named Jeremiah Heaton claimed Bir Tawil, triumphantly planting a flag in this unwanted hellscape. Heaton’s six-year-old daughter, Emily, had once asked her father if she could ever be a real princess; after discovering the existence of Bir Tawil on the internet, his birthday present to her that year was to trek there and turn her wish into a reality. “So be it proclaimed,” Heaton wrote on his Facebook page, “that Bir Tawil shall be forever known as the Kingdom of North Sudan. The Kingdom is established as a sovereign monarchy with myself as the head of state; with Emily becoming an actual princess.” However, due to a lack of United Nations recognition and recognition from any other country, such claims are not taken seriously. In your mind, is The Kingdom of North Sudan a monarchy and a real country?
Explain whether claiming North Sudan as his own makes Heaton a hero-dad or a colonizer?
If you could claim any part of the planet earth as your own what would it be?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
Make a cool flag and claim part of the planet earth for yourself. Post a picture of it online and share a link to it on the comments section below!
Get Creative
Write a constitution for your new country!
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Jeremiah Heaton makes his claim to Bir Tawil in 2014.