Showing posts with label Map. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Map. Show all posts

Monday, June 15, 2026

What is the most unusual country map?

 At first glance, everything seems quite normal. Apart from Corsica, there's nothing unusual about the shape of the map of France (no offense to Corsica!):

It resembles a hexagon, doesn't it? In fact, the hexagon is considered a French symbol to such an extent that it's represented on coins. Here's a French euro coin:

If France were as simple as that, I wouldn't even mention your map in this response. But it's not. See below a real map of France:

France's longest border is not with Spain or Belgium, but with Brazil. The overseas department of French Guiana shares a 730 km border with Brazil, while mainland France's longest border is with Spain, measuring only 657 kilometers, and is even bisected by the Franco-Andorran border.

France also shares a border with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but it lies on the Caribbean island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten. France has a maritime border with Canada due to St. Pierre and Miquelon, islands located off the coast of Newfoundland.

As can be seen on the second map, there are parts of France also in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Great Britain has many overseas territories, but they are not an integral part of the United Kingdom. All the areas shaded in blue on the second map are an integral part of the French Republic, and their inhabitants are French citizens, equal in all respects to the inhabitants of Paris or Marseille. Or even Corsica.

France is definitely the country with the strangest map shape on the planet. Besides, it's actually the land where the sun never sets. Somewhere in the world, the sun is always shining in France.

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Why is Sri Lanka represented on the Indian map?

 There is actually a maritime law behind showing Sri Lanka in the Indian map. If Sri Lanka is not shown in the Indian map then it will be considered a legal offence. This is the reason why Sri Lanka is definitely shown in every Indian map.

What does the law related to this say

This law was made by the United Nations, which is called Law of the Sea. According to this, if a country's border is bordered by the sea, then the sea area up to about 200 nautical miles i.e. about 370 kilometers will be considered the sea area of that country. Sri Lanka also comes within this maritime border of India. Actually, the distance from Dhanushkodi of India to Sri Lanka is only 18 kilometers, hence due to the Law of the Sea, it has been made mandatory for India to show Sri Lanka in its map.

Why was this law made

In the year 1956, when the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was organized by the United Nations, many countries participated in this conference. During this period, there was an in-depth discussion on maritime boundaries and related treaties and agreements. However, this law was recognized in its third conference which took place between 1973 and 1982. During this period, many maritime international laws were recognized, one of which was the Law of the Sea. Under this, it was made mandatory to show the limit of 200 nautical miles from the baseline of that country on the map of any country.