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A country’s borders can take many shapes and sizes, but only three countries in the world can be considered enclave nations. An enclave is territory of one state surrounded by territory of another, and enclave nations are those that exist wholly within another country’s borders on all sides. In Europe, Italy surrounds two of these enclave nations — Vatican City, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, and San Marino, a microstate located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains. The world’s other enclave nation is Lesotho, a country completely enclosed by South Africa, and which owes at least part of its long history of independent rule to its incredibly mountainous, hard-to-conquer terrain.
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It's a factSt. Marinus founded San Marino in the fourth century CE. The country’s constitution, instituted in 1600, is also the oldest in the world, making San Marino the oldest surviving republic. Today, this landlocked enclave is a relic of a time when powerful city-states ruled Europe.
Enclaves are not to be confused with exclaves, which are a different territorial phenomenon. An exclave is a portion of one country that’s completely cut off from the rest of the same nation. One of the world’s most famous exclaves is also one of its most gorgeous: The county around the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, perched on the Adriatic Sea and filled with 16th-century charm, is separated from the rest of its mother country by a strip of land belonging to Bosnia and Herzegovina. An example of an exclave much closer to home is Alaska, which is completely surrounded on land by Canada. However, Alaska is technically considered a “pene-exclave,” because it can be reached via water without going through another nation’s territory. With Alaska being nearly one-fifth the size of the contiguous United States, the Vatican being home to one of the world’s most influential religious leaders, and Dubrovnik being a major filming location for Game of Thrones, it’s clear that enclaves and exclaves have been key players in world history — however confusing their geography.
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The Dutch town of ______ is home to nearly 30 Belgian enclaves.
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The Dutch town of Baarle-Nassau is home to nearly 30 Belgian enclaves.
Up until 2015, a piece of India was inside Bangladesh inside India inside Bangladesh.
Most enclaves are one country’s territory inside another — simple enough. But in some cases, a second-order enclave, or counter-enclave, can take shape. A good example of this is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) territory of Nahwa, which is encircled by an Oman territory called Madha, which is in turn encircled by the UAE. However, the story of the Indian territory of Dahala Khagrabari is even stranger. This small piece of India, stretching only about two acres, was inside Bangladesh’s territory, which was inside India, which was inside Bangladesh — forming the world’s only third-order enclave. Thankfully, in June 2015, after decades of confusion, India ratified a Land Boundary Agreement that officially ceded this small spit of land to Bangladesh.
Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.
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