• Contested territories
  • Claimed by no one
  • Borders with Egypt and Sudan
  • Area 2,060 km²

Bir Tawil is a quadrangle shaped area squeezed between Egypt and Sudan. While the name means ‘tall water well’ it has a desert climate. This territory is one of very few places in the world that is left unclaimed. It got this terra nullius status after the British drew new borders in 1899, which they later redrew after taking tribal settlements into consideration. Egypt recognises the original border which places the Hala'ib Triangle within Egypt and the Bir Tawil area within Sudan, but Sudan recognizes the 1902 border, which does exactly the opposite. The result is that both states claim the Hala’ib Triangle and neither claim Bir Tawil. The area has been spoken about by several as a new micronation, but none of the efforts gained any real foothold.