Bir Tawil Is a Habitable 2,000-Square-Kilometer Patch That Egypt and Sudan Both Refuse to Claim

Bir Tawil is a stretch of dry, lightly inhabited desert about the size of Luxembourg straddling the border between Egypt and Sudan. It covers roughly 2,060 square kilometers, has no permanent settlements, occasional Ababda and Bishari herders passing through, and a few unregulated small-scale gold mines. It is also the only fully habitable patch of land on Earth that no recognized government claims. The reason is geometry, not animosity.

In 1899, the British colonial administration drew a political boundary between Egypt and Sudan along the 22nd parallel of latitude. In 1902, the same administration drew a separate, more practical administrative boundary that bent north of the parallel in some places and south of it in others, mostly to follow the actual settlement and grazing patterns of local tribes. North of the parallel and east of Bir Tawil, a much larger and more valuable area called the Hala'ib Triangle — about 20,580 square kilometers, with Red Sea coastline and significant mineral resources — sits between the two lines. Egypt prefers the 1899 line, which gives it the Hala'ib Triangle. Sudan prefers the 1902 line, which also gives Sudan the Hala'ib Triangle. Each country's preferred boundary, by mathematical necessity, gives Bir Tawil to the other. Neither will accept it.

The result is one of the cleanest pieces of terra nullius on the modern political map. A small but persistent stream of would-be micronationalists has tried to plant flags. The American hobbyist Jeremiah Heaton claimed Bir Tawil in 2014 as the "Kingdom of North Sudan" so his daughter could be a princess; an Indian businessman, an Asgardian space-nation enthusiast, and a Russian crypto group have made similar attempts. None has been recognized by any government, since both adjacent governments have a strong incentive to ensure they continue to recognize nothing about the place.