Cartographic Orphan: The Absurd Geopolitics of Bir Tawil

How is it legally and geographically possible that an 800-square-mile wedge of land sitting right between Egypt and Sudan is claimed by absolutely no sovereign nation on Earth? The bizarre anomaly of Bir Tawil is the last true "e;terra nullius"e; outside of Antarctica, born from the absurd arrogance of British colonial mapmaking. In 1899, the British Empire drew a straight, geometric border betw...