For thousands and thousands of years, mankind has had countless territorial disputes, so it is hard to believe that there is an area today that is not claimed by anyone.
A small plot of land, a little over 2000 square kilometers, called Bir Tawil, is not wanted by anyone, no one wants to call it their land.
Although it is located between Sudan and Egypt, neither country wants to make any effort to be officially annexed. This region is arid, rocky, devoid of natural resources, and uninhabited. Because it has no utility, it is of no interest to anyone.
In the vicinity of this area, there is another region, called the Hala’ib Triangle. Unlike Bir Tawil, the Triangle has access to the Red Sea, so it is contested by both Egypt and Sudan.
In 1899, the United Kingdom drew a straight line over the 22nd parallel, annexing Bir Tawil to Sudan, and the Hala’ib Triangle returned to Egypt. But the agreement lasted only 3 years, until a new demarcation line was drawn based on the cultural identity of the nomads in the area, who then inhabited the region, reversing the ownership of these regions.
In 1956, the dispute erupted again and intensified in the 1990s, when it was believed that Hala’ib would house oil depots.
As a result, the two countries are fighting for the valuable resource on the seashore, and have forgotten about Bir Tawil. If you ask a Sudanese to whom Bir Tawil belongs, he will tell you that to Egypt, and if you ask an Egyptian the same thing, he will say that to Sudan.
Jeremiah Heaton, of American descent, wanted to give his daughter a gift, a kingdom, because she wanted to be a real princess. So the American hoisted a flag in Bir Tawil to create his own kingdom.
It was not the only such initiative. Suyash Dixit, an Indian businessman, came with a flag in 2017 and said the territory is his. Before them, two Russians also claimed that the territory belonged to them.
Despite these events, no one was left to administer Bir Tawil, so the area does not currently belong to anyone.
