Borders are agreements, and agreements produce some genuinely peculiar shapes.
A border is a negotiated line, and negotiations produce oddities: territory entirely surrounded by another country, towns reachable only by driving through a neighbour, and in a few cases land that no state wants to claim at all. Many of the strangest arrangements are colonial inheritances — straight lines drawn on maps by people who had not visited the ground. Others are the residue of medieval treaties nobody has bothered to tidy up. These questions cover the most instructive examples.
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
Play it insteadAnswer: D. Lesotho
Why: It is one of only three sovereign states completely enclosed by a single other country. San Marino and Vatican City are the others.
Answer: C. An enclaved state
Why: An exclave, by contrast, is a piece of a country separated from its main body, such as Alaska relative to the rest of the United States.
Answer: B. Canada and the United States
Why: It runs for roughly 8,890 km including the Alaskan section, and much of it follows the 49th parallel rather than any natural feature.
Answer: A. San Marino
Why: San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state, dating its foundation to the fourth century.
Answer: D. China
Why: China borders fourteen states. Russia is usually given as fourteen as well, depending on which territories are counted.
Answer: C. Canada
Why: The 49th parallel cut off the tip of a peninsula, leaving a small American community accessible by road only through British Columbia.
Answer: B. Neither country claims it
Why: Each claims a different border line, and claiming Bir Tawil would mean surrendering a larger, more valuable territory elsewhere.
Answer: A. Liechtenstein
Why: Bordered only by Switzerland and Austria. Uzbekistan is the only other doubly landlocked country.
Answer: D. Canada and the United States
Why: It was agreed in 1818 as a convenient straight line, which is why the border ignores rivers, mountains and communities along its length.
Answer: C. Governed jointly by two or more states
Why: Pheasant Island in the Bidasoa river alternates between French and Spanish administration every six months under a 1659 treaty.
Borders, Enclaves and Odd Geography has 10 questions and takes about 8 minutes to finish. It is rated Hard and sits in our Geography category.
Each of the 10 correct answers adds 10 XP, up to 100 XP for a clean run. Wrong answers cost you nothing, and your full question-by-question review is shown at the end.
Yes. All 10 questions carry a written explanation of why the correct answer is right, so the quiz works as a study sheet as well as a test.
Yes, as often as you like. The questions and the answer options are reshuffled on each run, and you can use Practice Mistakes afterwards to retry only the ones you missed. No account is needed to play.
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