Atlas of Geographical Curiosities

A country that does not really exist, an island which is Spanish for six months of the year and French for the other six, a hotel room whose bedroom is in France and whose bathroom is in Switzerland, one of the very few territories on earth not claimed by any country, the only place in the world where in a 20-minute walk around the town you can cross an international border at least 30 times at 30 different points, a Norwegian territory whose natural resources any country can exploit, a railway in Germany that belongs to Belgium, a surprising Italian exclave in the heart of Switzerland, the world s only private organisation with country status, a semi independent theocratic state where women and female animals are banned, a means of crossing Russia from Finland or Estonia without a visa, a London hotel room that became part of Yugoslavia for a day so that Crown Prince Alexander could be born in his own country, a city consisting of a 14-storey skyscraper, the longest street in the world, an American peninsula only accessible via Canada and an Austrian valley only accessible from Germany … The world is full of little-known geographical anomalies, sometimes the source of diplomatic friction but always of wonderment.