Bir Tawil is a patch of land no country wants

Nearly every scrap of habitable land on Earth belongs to some country. Bir Tawil is the rare exception: a roughly 2,060-square-kilometer wedge of desert between Egypt and Sudan that neither state will claim, on purpose.

The oddity is a leftover of colonial map-making. In 1899, Britain drew the Egypt–Sudan border as a straight line along the 22nd parallel. Three years later, in 1902, it added a separate “administrative” boundary that wiggled to match how local tribes actually used the land. The two lines disagree in two places — and create a trap.

Under the 1899 line, the resource-rich, Red Sea–fronting Hala’ib Triangle falls to Egypt and Bir Tawil to Sudan. Under the 1902 line, it flips. So Egypt insists on 1899 and Sudan insists on 1902 — because each border hands that country the valuable Triangle. The catch is that claiming the worthless, landlocked Bir Tawil would mean endorsing the other country’s preferred line, surrendering Hala’ib in the process.

To want Bir Tawil, you’d have to give up something far better. So both walk away.

The result is genuine terra nullius — “nobody’s land” — one of the only inhabitable places outside Antarctica claimed by no recognized state. It has no permanent population, no surface water, and summer temperatures past 40 °C. That hasn’t stopped a parade of hopefuls from planting flags and declaring micronations there, none of which anyone recognizes.