Enclave and... Exclave Trivia Quiz

Answer: Spain

Llívia is a Spanish exclave entirely surrounded by French lands. This tiny town is separated from the Spanish province of Girona (which is part of Catalonia) by only 1.6 kilometers at the narrowest point. It has been settled for over two thousand years and was once the capital of the region.

In 1695 with the Treaty of the Pyrenees, a loophole saw that Llívia was not transferred to French sovereignty and it remains Spanish to this day.

Answer: Sokh

The Soviet Union managed to muddle the borders in their satellite territories and the result of this, when the fall of the communist regime occurred, was to create irregular borders between the new republics. Uzbekistan happened to have six exclaves generated in the Batken region, two in Tajikistan and four more in Kyrgyzstan. The largest of the four exclaves, Sokh, is large enough to encompass all the other three, combined.

Jani-Ayil is a small exclave that is about one kilometer from the Uzbek border. Chon-Qora is another small exclave to the north of Sokh comprising of two villages. Shakhimardan is a slightly larger exclave where the local population is actually largely Uzbek. However, in the Sokh region, the ethnicity is 99% Tajik (by 1993 census estimates). Nevertheless, it belongs to Uzbekistan.

Answer: About 700 meters

With the Swiss village of Dörflingen separating Büsingen am Hochrhein from Germany, there is only 680 meters separating the town from the rest of the country. It was part of the Austrian Empire for a long time and was used as a political bargaining chip with the Swiss, but never transferred.

In the Napoleonic Wars the village transferred to Germany. After the First World War, the village wanted to become Swiss, but, since the Swiss could not offer anything in return, it remained German. While politically it is a part of Germany, economically it is a part of Switzerland giving it a very strange status.

Answer: Bangladesh

Dahagram-Angarpota was supposed to be a part of Pakistan when India and Pakistan reached an agreement in 1954. However, due to legal delays, this never occurred. Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 and the region became a part of their new country. It is so close to the Bangladeshi border that you could probably throw a Frisbee from Dahagram-Angarpota and have it land still in Bangladeshi territory - about 200 meters! The area is connected to Bangladesh by the Tin Bigha Corridor which is leased to them for 23 hours a day. In the other hour, the Indian army enters the corridor in order to fly the Indian national flag.

The border between India and Bangladesh used to be so complicated that it even contained a 3rd level enclave (an enclave within an enclave within an enclave). This was resolved on July 31st, 2015 and these enclaves were all assigned to the containing country, all except for Dahagram-Angarpota.

Answer: They are both islands

Chizumulu and Likoma Island are both part of Malawi, however, well within the territorial waters of Mozambique. Both are inhabited islands with Likoma Island being the larger and more populated of the two. They are located within Lake Malawi and were assigned to Malawi due to the presence of British nationals on the island when borders were drawn up (Mozambique fell under the Portuguese sphere of influence).

An interesting bit of information: Likoma Island is the subject of study by several groups of researchers to model the spread of HIV in sociocentric societies like the rest of Africa.

Answer: Zero

The villages of Sankovo and Medvezhye were owned by Russian farmers. When the border between Belarus and Russia was moved east, these farmers opted to stay administered by Russia and the exclave was created. The region of Sankovo-Medvezhye also sits about 200 kilometers, as the crow flies, from Chernobyl, Ukraine.

In 1986, this was part of the region rendered uninhabitable by the nuclear plant disaster and, at the turn of the century, or millennium, there was nobody living there. In fact, in 2020, the region was still too dangerous for inhabitants to return.

Answer: Treaty of Maastricht

While the 1839 Treaty of London established the independence of Belgium, the Treaty of Maastricht, signed four years later in 1843, established the border. The land was divided into, get this, 5732 different land parcels and each was traced back to 12th century ownership documents to establish to which country they belonged.

This nonsensical way of border demarcation resulted in some houses being divided between the two countries. An interesting result of this is that, due to different Belgian and Dutch laws which regulate when restaurants have to close, some dining establishments had to move their tables to the Belgian side since Dutch restaurants had to close earlier.

Answer: Yes

Of course there exist exclaves to the east of the Great Lakes. Since it's a water boundary, there are some interesting features when it comes to the border.

To the west it is mostly a land border. When the 49th parallel was agreed upon as the land border between Canada and the United States, a few parcels of land between the US state of Minnesota and the Canadian province of Manitoba got caught in the middle, for example, Elm Point. Also, since the 49th parallel agreement started in Manitoba, on the Ontario side of the border there's a small parcel of land called the Northwest Angle which is the northernmost point of the contiguous 48 states.

Also, there exists a small peninsula was cut off belonging to North Dakota and accessible only from Manitoba. Likewise, a tiny sliver of land again between North Dakota and Manitoba sitting on the 49th parallel meant that there are cabins which are on the Canadian side, but the beach and docks belonging to these cabins are actually on the American side.

Note: I said "practical" enclaves because, although these territories are separated by land, they're accessible by water without having to go through the other country.

Answer: It is an enclave within an enclave

Nahwa, UAE, is an exclave that sits within the Omani territory of Madha. Madha is an exclave that sits entirely within the UAE. This makes Nahwa what is known as a counter-enclave, basically, an enclave within an enclave. There are some examples of this, but it is quite rare.

The situation came to be in the late 1930s or early 1940s when the leaders of four clans in the peninsula had to choose allegiance and some decided to side with Oman creating the exclave of Madha. Nahwa stayed with the sheikh that was part of the Emirates. The border was finalized in 1969, but, since the region is largely uninhabited, there was never a real conflict about it.

Answer: United Kingdom

The United Kingdom maintains two overseas territories on Cyprus, a southern one named Akrotiri (after the ancient Minoan city destroyed by a volcano, that may or may not have been the basis for Plato's Atlantis) and an eastern one called Dhekelia. Within Dhekelia there are four exclaves of Cyprus, three entirely enclaved within this territory, and a fourth one that also borders the Mediterranean Sea. Two of these exclaves actually are separated by a mere 21 meters.

The Sovereign Base Areas maintained by the British are part of their peacekeeping presence gathering signals intelligence in the Middle East. Their presence was accepted by Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey in 1960 and the British have maintained a presence there since.