Unit 2 · Neighbors & Borders
The world's strangest geographic oddities
Lesotho is completely enclosed by South Africa — a country inside a country. San Marino and Vatican City are both inside Italy. These are called 'enclaves.' Lesotho is also the only country entirely above 1,000m elevation.
The Gambia is basically the Gambia River with a thin strip of land on each side, completely surrounded by Senegal (except for a tiny Atlantic coastline). It's one of Africa's smallest countries and exists purely because the British controlled the river while France controlled everything else.
Kaliningrad is a chunk of Russia stuck between Lithuania and Poland — completely separated from mainland Russia. After WWII, this German city (Königsberg) was given to the USSR. Now Russians need to cross EU countries to drive there from Moscow.
The town of Baarle sits on the Belgium-Netherlands border. But it's not a clean split — there are 22 Belgian enclaves inside the Netherlands, and 7 Dutch counter-enclaves inside those! Some houses are in both countries. Your front door decides your nationality.
Big Diomede (Russia) and Little Diomede (USA) are only 3.8 km apart in the Bering Strait, but the International Date Line runs between them. Big Diomede is 21 hours ahead. You can literally see tomorrow from yesterday.
Between Egypt and Sudan lies Bir Tawil — a patch of desert that NEITHER country claims. It's one of the only unclaimed territories on Earth. The reason? A quirk of two different border agreements from 1899 and 1902. Both countries prefer a different treaty that gives them a much bigger (and more valuable) area.
Answer all ten, then see your stars. You can retake it as many times as you like.
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