Transcript
Bowen Yang (0:00)
This is an iHeart podcast.
Matt Rogers (0:02)
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Aaron Manke (1:14)
welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. We all know what Egypt looks like on a map. It's a squarish country cut out of northeast Africa, easily distinguishable on a map by the Nile river delta at the north end. But if you direct your attention to the southern border, you may see something a little odd. On some maps. There's a strange bump on the bottom of the Egyptian border, indicated by a dotted line that crosses into the territory of Sudan. This territory is called Birtwill, which means tall water well in Arabic, and it exists in a fascinating legal gray area. Birtwill is the only habitable land on planet Earth not claimed by one country or another. Egypt claims it's Sudanese territory, and Sudan claims that it's part of Egypt. With neither country claiming proper ownership, it's left to become a true no man's land. It has no capital and no major cities. According to most sources, the population consists mostly of nomads and miners who pass through the land. That's people who dig in the earth, not little kids. Just to clear that up. So how does something like this happen? What causes a territory with no ruler to appear in the middle of North Africa well, unsurprisingly, Bir Tawil exists because of borders drawn in the early 20th century by the British Empire. The original border between Egypt and Sudan was drawn during the British occupation of Egypt in 1899, without consideration for the actual geography and the cultural borders of the region. Three years later, in 1902, the British administrators of Egypt amended this oversight, creating the squiggly border that ceded some land to Sudan and created two new territories in the process, the Halaib Triangle and Beer to Will. After Sudan declared independence in 1956, the debate over the border began. Both Egypt and Sudan wanted control over the Halaib Triangle because it touched the Red Sea and was thus more valuable as a piece of land. Birl, meanwhile, was mostly desert, habitable and larger in area than London or New York City, but without any specific geographical advantage. This is the limbo that Bir Tawil has existed in ever since. It is perhaps not a surprise that the liminal space has attracted attention from all sorts of interests. It's not easy to get to, but self styled adventurers are eager to visit any land with no designated government. In 2014, for example, a man from Virginia named Jeremiah Heaton took the pilgrimage in order to plant a flag there and declare it the Kingdom of North Sudan with himself as its king. This was allegedly in order to give his daughter a birthday present, the official title of princess. However sincere his reason, it was ultimately a cynical move, prompting eager press coverage and a crowdfunding campaign for his so called country. He even claimed to have sold the film rights to his story. In an interview, he described his country not as a whim, but as a daring new idea in the world of geopolitics and technology. He said that many companies had approached him about using the land for unregulated product development and but such claims have yet to manifest. Surprise, surprise. And of course, micronation enthusiasts love claiming the land for themselves, even when the land itself already has its own occupants. You see, the Internet might mislead you if you were to do a Google search for beard to will. It's described as unclaimed land, but that land is very much claimed. In 2019, the first official tour group entered the area, but in order to do so, they had to gain approval and protection and from the land's inhabitants, the Abada people. They consider the land to be their homeland, and according to members of the 2019 tour, they are quite protective of it, no matter what maps drawn by the British might say, or indeed what a man from Virginia might say the world is a far different place now than it was in 2014. Places like Bir Tawil make people in extremely regulated countries salivate with the possibility of freedom and adventure. But much like the frontiers that our ancestors once trampled across, it's dangerous to assume that a place is up for the taking just because of a long out of date treaty. If you try to become king of the hill without understanding the hill itself, you either start a war or gain a reputation for being ignorant. Neither reason, though, is worth building a whole career around, no matter how nicely that crown might fit on your head.