A few interesting International Border Facts

International borders are the lines which divide countries. From thin, unwanted lines to tall, wide fences of barbed wire, borders come in all shapes and sizes. In this article, I’m going to tell you about some of the most interesting borders in the world.

1.  Croatia & Serbia

The Croatian-Serbian border has been disputed ever since the Yugoslavia Division of

1993. The border has always been based on the course of the Danube River, but over the years, the meandering river has changed its course. Croatia claims the original 1990s border, but Serbia claims the current border, which leads to an interesting situation where there are some pieces of land which are claimed by both Croatia and Serbia, but there are four pieces of land which are claimed by neither Croatia nor Serbia. Three of these pieces are less than 1 square kilometre in size.

The yellow areas in the image are the pieces of land claimed by both the countries and the green and grey pockets are pieces of land which are not claimed by either of the countries.

2. USA and Canada

8,000 km north-west of the mess discussed above, is the town of Derby Line, Vermont. The town is so named because of its location on the American-Canadian border. Some of the public establishments, such  as the Haskell Free Library and the Derby Line Opera House are deliberately situated on the border so that people from both countries can use the facilities easily.

3.  USA and Russia

The Diomede Islands are two islands located in the Bering Strait. Little Diomede is an American territory and hosts the village of Diomede, with a population of 146. Big Diomede belongs to Russia and is uninhabited. Despite the distance of only 4 kilometers between them, there is a time difference of twenty-three hours between the two islands. This is because the International Date line runs between the islands. The time on Little Diomede is *GMT-10, while Big Diomede is *GMT+13.

• GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time

4. Sweden and Norway

The Svinesund bridge in North Scandinavia is one of the many man-made objects that the Norwegian-Swedish border runs through. It connects the Swedish province of Strömstad and the Norwegian province of Halden.

Therefore half the bridge is in Norway whereas the other half is in Sweden! Crazy!

5.  North Korea and South Korea

The two countries of North and South Korea can be differentiated by the different amounts of light at night when seen from above. North Korea is completely dark, while South Korea is brightly lit. The dark and lit areas on the satellite image clearly shows the international border between the 2 countries.

6.  USA and Mexico

The American-Mexican border is one of the most famous in the world. It is also one of the longest, at 2,000 miles long. When seen from above in the morning, you can see that the American side is the barren desert of the Southern states, and the Mexican side is full of bustling towns and cities.

No points for guessing the American and Mexican side of the border in the picture above.

7. Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana

This is even stranger. Till now we have talked about international borders demarcating 2 countries. Now we’ll show you a border demarcating 3 countries. Mount Roraima in South America is triangular in shape, and marks a beautiful triple border between the three countries of Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana.

It is also a very popular tourist spot. A huge number of tourists come every year from all sides of the border to see this beautiful plateau and enjoy various kinds of sports.

8. Nepal and India

Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, is also known for being the highest border point in the world. The Nepal-China border runs all the way to the top and down to the bottom.

That’s all from me! See you next time for another article on international relations! If you liked this topic then you might like to read what the Smithsonian magazine provides. Read more on weird international borders.

Images courtesy Google