There Are Still Unclaimed Lands on Earth That No Country Wants, According to Terra Nullius

Today's world is made up of nation-states with clearly defined borders. Challenge those frontiers, and by noon troops and tanks will be moving in your direction. There are a few locations on Earth that no sovereign state claims as its own, despite humanity's relatively recent fascination with maps.

They are referred to as Terra nullius, a Latin phrase that means "no one's land," and include enormous swaths of Antarctica, pockets of conflict along the Croatia-Serbia border, and Bir Tawil between Egypt and Sudan.

Bir Tawil: A Land of Nomads

Bir Tawil, a 2,060-kilometer square (795-square-mile) area of land close to the border between Egypt and Sudan, is one of the most notable instances of a Terra nullius that is unclaimed by either nation.

In the height of summer, temperatures exceeding 45°C (113°F) are not unheard of in this barren desert area. Although there isn't a single resident on this planet, nomadic tribes like the Ababda frequently pass by.

Due in great part to the boundaries established by the British Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries, this geographic oddity exists today. The UK and Egypt agreed in 1899 that "territories south of the 22nd parallel of latitude" belonged to Sudan, placing Bir Tawil under Sudanese rule, according to the US State Department.

The British created a new map of the Sudan-Egypt Boundary in 1902. As part of this plan, Because the Ababda tribe, which was headquartered close to Aswan in southern Egypt, periodically used the area, Bir Tawil was given Egyptian rule.

Sudan, on the other hand, asserts the administrative boundary of 1902, while Egypt merely wishes to adhere to the original border from 1899. In other words, Sudan thinks Bir Tawil is in Egypt whereas Egypt thinks it is in Sudan.

Sudan, on the other hand, asserts the administrative boundary of 1902, while Egypt merely wishes to adhere to the original border from 1899. In other words, Sudan thinks Bir Tawil is in Egypt whereas Egypt thinks it is in Sudan.

Although some parties have made an effort to claim the property, none have received international recognition. Jeremiah Heaton, a Virginian who lives in the US, made an attempt to establish the "Kingdom of North Sudan" in 2014 and announced himself to be its ruler. He was driven by a desire to fulfil his daughter's dream of becoming a princess. Unsurprisingly, the United Nations did not acknowledge his assertion.

The Bir Tawil could serve as an example of a novel sort of jurisdiction where the Indigenous people possess land rights, which is a less absurd theory. Bir Tawil, however, does not now belong to anyone.

Antarctica's unwelcome pie slice: Marie Byrd Land

According to international law, no nation has exclusive ownership of any territory in Antarctica. That hasn't stopped seven countries—Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK—from claiming ownership of certain regions of the continent.

The standard map illustrating these territorial disputes will depict Antarctica as being divided into slices, with Australia and Norway claiming the majority of the continent. But it's noteworthy because Marie Byrd Land, a corner that is unclaimed, is there.

It has the name of Richard E. Byrd's wife, an American naval officer who explored the area in the early 20th century.

The world's largest unclaimed region, Marie Byrd Land, covers a mammoth 1,605,792 square kilometres (620,000 square miles). It is simply so remote and impassable, even by Antarctica standards, that it has remained a Terra nullius.

Since the catastrophic dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, many plots of land have been hotly contested between the Balkan borders of Croatia and Bosnia on the eastern bank of the River Danube. The reverse issue exists on the western bank of the river, where about four lands are unclaimed by any nation.

The greatest of these sites is Gornja Siga, which spans just 7 square kilometres (2.7 square miles) of forested terrain that serves as the Danube's floodplain. Although they claim it is Serbian, Serbia makes no claims on the area, therefore technically it is under de facto Croatian authority.

While Gornja Siga has been mostly ignored by both Croatia and Bosnia, certain other parties have shown a strong desire to claim it as their own.

A few libertarians under the leadership of Czech politician Vt Jedlika erected a flag on the deserted swamp in April 2015 and declared it to be a new microstate called Liberland. The plan was to transform it into a libertarian utopia with no mandated taxes, few state rules, and Bitcoin as the official form of payment.

"The motto of Liberland is 'To live and let live' as it prides itself on personal and economic freedom for its people; this includes limited power given to the government to ensure less interference with the freedom of the people and the nation as a whole," according to the Liberland website, even register for citizenship there.

The dream has, regrettably, encountered a lot of obstacles. Croatian officials, who had previously shown little interest in Gornja Siga, apparently did not like the concept of having a wild libertarian microstate on their doorstep and had started arresting anyone who sought to enter the territory.