It seemed obvious to me that I should have written an article about the shortest international border a long time ago. Well, apparently I’d overlooked it. So let’s rectify that oversight right now.
The omission actually provided a benefit. I’d featured just about every one of these places in a previous Twelve Mile Circle articles in a different context. That allowed me to turn a new article into a collection of “greatest hits.”
I’ll start with a small number of caveats and clarifications. First, I’ll focus on truly international borders between independent and sovereign states. That eliminated very short borders between the People’s Republic of China and Macau and Hong Kong, for example. I also decided to duck controversies. So don’t expect coverage of another brief boundary, the one between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Finally I wanted to examine land borders specifically although I also accepted narrow water boundaries such as the width of a river. That seemed reasonable.
Every border examined here stretched less than 20 kilometres according to Wikipedia’s List of countries and territories by land borders
What was the shortest border? That’s not an easy question; it could be a toss-up.
Possibly the Best
The honor may go to the border between Botswana and Zambia which at most stretches 150 metres. This is the pivotal location that may come closest to being an international quadripoint when combined with Namibia and Zimbabwe (map). I featured this unusual configuration in the context of Namibia’s Caprivi Strip quite awhile ago in an article called “What Happened to the Handle?” A visitor can actually cross this tiniest of borders on the Kazungula Ferry.
The other contender exists between India an Sri Lanka. There are various claims that one of the shoals that forms Rama Setu (Adam’s Bridge) may actually fall along the boundary between the two nations (map). That would put a land border at 100-ish metres in length if it actually exists. That’s why I tend to discount the assertion though. It’s not a particularly feasible place to walk across assuming it’s even real.
Within Europe
The land border between Spain and the United Kingdom at Gibraltar (map) would probably be the most convenient option for the majority of the audience. Nonetheless, it’s considerably longer than the first two instances. It stretches about ten times farther, at 1.2 km. Gibraltar earned a previous 12MC nod because a public road crossed directly over an active runway at the local airport. Street View now provides decent coverage of said road and it’s pretty memorable.
Europe made it onto the list multiple times because of a plethora of small states. The boundary between Italy and Vatican City came next, at 3.2 km. I didn’t want to dwell too much on Vatican City because it’s a frequent outlier. I’ve used it several times previously including in National Capitals Closest Together.
So now I’ll mention a 2009 comment from the ever-loyal “Greg”. He still reads 12MC all these years later and continues to comment on articles. I was trying to generate 12MC hits from various places not yet represented at the time and Greg said,
“Matter of fact, a friend of mine was recently at the Vatican visiting a family member, and I know he visited your site while he was there, because he emailed me about your post on the Wakhan Salient, which was published at the time. Maybe his internet, however it was set up, went through a .it ISP?”
Sadly I still haven’t recorded a Vatican hit. I think the Italian-based Internet Service Provider theory has some merit.
The 4.4 km border between France and Monaco followed. I focused on Monaco in Almost Landlocked and I don’t really have anything more to add. Monaco is another one of those places that comes-up frequently in geo-oddity trivia contests.
Turkey and Azerbaijan
Then came the 9 km boundary between Turkey and Azerbaijan. Turkey has an odd dangling appendage. The confluence of Iran, Armenia and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic exclave of Azerbaijan nearly snips it off. This area of tightly packed international neighbors appeared in Fictional Geo-Marathons.
Saint Martin / Sint Maarten
Of course I can’t forget the border between France and the Netherlands. Not, not in Europe of course. Rather it happens on the Caribbean island that they share between them, Saint Martin / Sint Maarten. I explored this 10.2 km frontier extensively in person a couple of years ago. Those findings appeared in Saint Martin Borders and Boundaries.
The final two spots rounding-out the international borders of less than 20 km are:
- Morocco and Spain at 17 km. That happens via various Spanish outposts such as Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera
- North Korea and Russia at 19km.
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