Bir Tawil - the land that nobody wants

BUY MUGS, T-SHIRTS, POSTERS ETC...

SEE NEW EPISODES EARLY, AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES EXTRAS...

There's a patch of land between Egypt and Sudan that no country owns. Why? Can anybody claim it for themselves? (No.)

Written and presented by
JAY FOREMAN and MARK COOPER-JONES

Edited by
JAY FOREMAN

Directed by
PAUL KENDLER

Cameras and sound by
JESS LAMB
ROBIN KAY
MATT WARD
EMMA LANGLEY

Facilities provided by
SHIFT 4

[sullivan]

"Including worryingly Google." I almost died.

[yakovgolyadkin]

"Pretty much every global hotspot can be traced back to a mustachioed British man drawing a straight line on a map and going 'there we are, learn to live with it.'"

[felixcroc]

I hope Bir Tawil somehow has a ton of gold and diamonds underneath its sands.

[barzomer]

Funny thing about the straight israel-egypt border:
it bends in two places because the british cartographer who drew it had his fingers on sticking out of the ruler when he drew the line.

[aaroncheskey]

I learnt about the situation of that piece of land whilst I was 12 in a schooltrip to Germany with my group of friends and we officialy declared it ours and called it "Ploucistan/Ploukistan" ( that literally means Peasantstan, we are Frenchies and "Plouc" is quite an unused and familiar word to mean Peasant, the right pronounciation is "Plookistan" )


Acknowledge us as the rightful Assembly of Several Prime Minister of the Republic of Ploukistan or face our wrath.

[junegray]

Is your outro literally just the guitar opening to the song maps looped 3 times?

[fmgallien]

Map Men is good. Many thanks for your satisfactory programme.

[qwertyuiop-cyen]

egypt: this is yours
sudan: no u
e: no u
s: _n o u_
e: *_N O U_*

[MrGreglego]

I cannot express how fantastic this is. It explain the past, which in turn explains the present, in an entertaining way which is understandable for everyone. It explains distant events which may have little effect on our individual little words, and makes us more aware of the world!

[doublestufpenguin]

Ending song is "Maps". Nice touch.

[bloatedblitz]

Africa: *Has various cultures*
Europe: Rectangles!

[TheGuerrCZ]

You have forget about Liberland, a "country" established on piece of land between Croatia and Serbia that both did not want.

[flamegaming]

Thanks for making this video, I had an essay question on my geography test about Bir Tawil, I got an A+, thanks Jay and Mark!

[juneguts]

I'm here from that recent park bench with Matt. I had to know what this was about. I am not disappointed.

[blitzerker]

That southern accent is surprisingly accurate.

[Mladjasmilic]

In similar way Liberland happened.
During Yugoslavia, just after WW2 there was a border established between Serbia and Croatia that followed river Danube. During the years river has moved, or has been moved, so border was not following river itself. After Yugoslavia, Serbia wanted to redraw borders to it's current state - by middle of river, while Croatia wanted to keep old borders, because that way they would have more land. That way there is a land claimed by both, and land claimed by none.

[Seltyk]

Croatia: it's not mine

Serbia: well it isn't mine either

Vít Jedlička: it's mine then

[richmondmemedepot]

I love how whenever Americans are involved you guys play banjo music

[Raprada]

Thank you, now I can't pronounce "Hala'ib" the same way again

[eleanorneath]

Mark spitting out sand in a plaited wig made me nearly spit cookie all over my laptop, thanks guys