A Map Geeks Tour of the World

The 8.9 mile gap between the European and African continent known as the Straight of Gibraltar is home to multiple strange territories and borders. On the European side, there is 2.6 square mile British Overseas territory named Gibraltar. This means that Britain shares small land border with Spain. On the African side of the straight is the Spanish city of Ceuta, separated completely from the rest of Spain. This city is an autonomous community within Spain, essentially having similar rights as the independent regions that make up Spain. little more than 100 miles down the African coast is Melilla, another Spanish exclave in northern Africa. All this means that Spain shares significant land borders with Morocco, and that in effect only one country separates British soil from African soil. Two other European countries also have strange border relations. Conventional wisdom would say that the Netherlands and France do not share land border. Belgium stands between the two countries, however, on the other side of the world, the two countries do share border. The Caribbean island of Saint Martin is split between French collectivity, Saint Martin, and Dutch constituent country, Sint Maarten, meaning that you can walk from France to the Netherlands without crossing through another country. Also part of France is French Guiana. French Guiana has the exact same political power as any other French department and region despite being on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It has comparable relationship as Hawaii to the United States—geographically separated but politically integrated. This means that France shares land border with both Brazil and Suriname. There are two daily flights from French Guiana to Paris which make for one of the longest domestic flights in the world. These flights take off in France and land in France, but take 9 hours and cross 4,401 miles. Despite this, this is not the longest domestic flight in the world. The longest is also within France and goes from Paris to the French overseas department of Réunion, located in the Indian Ocean. The flight is 5,809 miles long and takes just over 11 hours. And over to North America, it’s impossible to walk or drive from New York to LA without crossing over water. The Saint Lawrence river connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, then the Chicago River connects to the Des Plaines River which connects to the Illinois River which connects to the Mississippi River which flows out into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s also impossible to go from the South to the North of the US without crossing water. Theres one creek in the Teton wilderness of Wyoming that divides at place called the Parting of the Waters. One side flows 3,488 miles to the Atlantic while the other 1,353 to the Pacific. This means that this is one of the few natural waterways connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific. Near those great lakes that make up part of the water split is Middle Island, Canada, the southernmost point in Canada. majority of US states—27—actually lie fully or partially north of this point. The closest point in Europe to the US is the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, only 2539 miles away from Hamill, Maine. The island of Ireland is politically divided between the autonomous country of the Republic of Ireland and the section of Great Britain, called Northern Ireland. Although, despite the name, the northernmost part of the island of Ireland is not in Northern Ireland; it’s Malin Head, part of the Republic of Ireland. Now to finish it off we’ll head up to Norway. Norway's land stretches over Sweden and Finland to actually shares border with Russia. On the other side of Eurasia, Russia also shares tiny 11 mile border with North Korea. This means that only one country separates the Nordic social democracy in Norway from the communist dictatorship of North Korea.