Borderlines.
Geography, history and geopolitics.
Award Winning Travel Writing
Borderlines is where ‘Prisoners of Geography’ meets travel blogging. This is Travel Tramp’s geopolitical column.
Learn how geography, politics and history shape the world around, as we answer deep travel questions from the road.
What makes a country a country? What’s the difference between a micronation and a microstate? Why did Transnistria declare independence from Moldova?
You can find answers to all these questions and more as I build a database of the world’s cartographic curiosities and geopolitical oddities.
Latest Border Stories
Did Adam’s Bridge Connect Sri Lanka to India? Everything You Need to Know.
This is the story of Adam's Bridge (Rama Setu), the legendary sand bridge once said to have connected India to Sri Lanka. If you've followed my work for any length of time at all, then you'll know how much I love exploring geopolitical and geographical oddities. When...
Why is Ceuta Spanish? Everything You Need to Know.
Why is Ceuta Spanish and not Moroccan? Here's everything you need to know about Spain's African exclave. “You see the Spanish flag at the top of the citadel?" asked local tour guide Toni, who was born and raised in the Spanish exclave, as we stood outside the gates of...
Why Pheasant Island Changes Nationalities Every Six Months
Discover the curious story of Pheasant Island, a 200-metre-long island in the middle of the Bidasoa River between France and Spain, which changes nationalities every six months. On a quiet stretch of the Bidasoa River between the Basque towns of Irun and Hendaye lies...
Jordan’s Forgotten Panhandle (A Cartographical Curiosity in the Eastern Desert)
Discover the unusual story of Jordan's 'panhandle', a cartographical curiosity in the far eastern desert borderlands between Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The empty highway led northeast from Azraq. Leaving behind the sparse palms and military compounds of this desert...
Winston’s Hiccup: How a Cartographical Mishap Defined the Saudi-Jordanian border
I travelled deep into Jordan's eastern deserts in search of Winston's Hiccup, a cartographical anomaly supposedly drawn by drunken statesmen which defined the Middle East's modern borders. The road was long. The tarmac was scorching hot. And the basalt deserts were...
The King’s Highway: Driving the World’s Oldest Road
Discover the King’s Highway, an ancient trade route which could be the world’s oldest continuously used road. Here's what happened when I road tripped its surviving fragments in modern-day Jordan! The King’s Highway is one of the oldest continuously used roads in the...
The Hejaz Railway: A Plan to Unite the Middle East by Train
Discover the story of the Hejaz Railway, an audacious Ottoman-era plan to unite the Middle East, and how it could soon be resurrected. The Hejaz Railway was the most ambitious engineering project the Ottoman Empire ever embarked on. Intended to link...
Amman: A Culinary Tour Through Political History
Discover the complex history of Amman, as I embark on a foodie tour of the Jordanian capital with Omar from 3J Expeditions. Welcome to Amman, Jordan, a city where history, identity, politics and cuisine intertwine like no other city I've visited in the world. I...
Bir Tawil: The World’s Last Terra Nullius?
Discover the curious case of Bir Tawil, a trapezoid of land in the Nubian Desert between Egypt and Sudan that could be the world's last 'Terra Nullius'. The Egyptian-Sudanese border is a geopolitical anomaly, filled with territorial disputes, shifting allegiances, and...
The Unusual Case of Puntland: A Somalian Breakaway State
Discover the unusual case of Puntland, a Somalian breakaway territory that hit the headlines thanks to none other than Donald Trump (who else?). The world is filled with contested borders, breakaway states and geopolitical oddities. For those of you intrigued by...
richard@travel-tramp.com