#geoweirdness

· 2mo ago

🚨 Some breaking #geoweirdness border dispute news 🚨 Last night at midnight local time the last frontier fence in western Europe - between Gibraltar 🇬🇮🇬🇧 and Spain 🇪🇸 - was removed! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/15/spain-gibraltar-celebrate-deal-signed-border-controls-uk-territory

Spain and Gibraltar celebrate as border fence falls after signing of ‘historic deal’

the Guardian

Spain and Gibraltar celebrate as border fence falls after signing of ‘historic deal’

Treaty came into effect at midnight, eliminating border controls on land frontier with British overseas territory

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 3mo ago

Let's close out the week with a #geoweirdness thread. This time we head back to Europe to consider the geographic oddities of the Czech Republic 🇨🇿 1/

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 3mo ago

Replying to

2/ First up, it's not clear what the English name of this country is. In 2016 the Czech government officially endorsed the short name "Czechia" in English, and most international organizations now follow this lead. Still, linguistic habits die hard, many still use the name "Czech Republic" There is an excellent wikipedia article that goes deep on the naming saga, and also mentioneds the short-lived suggestions of "Czechomoravia" and "Czechlands". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Czech_Republic #geoweirdness

en.wikipedia.org

Name of the Czech Republic - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 3mo ago

Replying to

3/ Czechia 🇨🇿 re-emerged as an independent state along with Slovakia 🇸🇰 in 1992 when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was peacefully split in two following the collapse of the Iron Curtain, and was just one of many changes in Eastern Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_Czechoslovakia It is one of the few peaceful splits of a country in history and stands in stark contrast to the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. #geoweirdness

en.wikipedia.org

Dissolution of Czechoslovakia - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 3mo ago

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4/ Historically Czechia 🇨🇿 was sometimes referred to as Bohemia, but in fact Bohemia is just one of three regions of the country. The other large region is Moravia, and there is a smaller Czech Silesia region. Bohemia is the drainage basin of the Elbe river (flowing to the North Sea), Moravia the Danube (Black Sea), the Czech Silesia the Oder (Baltic). https://waterwaymap.org/#map=6.94/50.101/14.778 #geoweirdness

waterwaymap.org

WaterwayMap.org | OSM River Basins

A unique, topological, view on rivers & waterways in OpenStreetMap, showing how they are connected. Find mistakes and make better maps.

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 3mo ago

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5/ Czechia 🇨🇿 is a landlocked country, so it may surprise you to know the country has an official port territory in Hamburg, Germany 🇩🇪 Following WWI Czechoslovakia got a 99-year lease on a lot called Moldauhafen giving it sea access via the Elbe rivers. The Czech Republic inherited the rights. The lease expires in 2028. There's currently a negotiation to swap the now-derelict, bridge-blocked plots for a more usable site near a real deepwater terminal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldauhafen #geoweirdness

en.wikipedia.org

Moldauhafen - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 5mo ago

The world's attention remains fixed on the US 🇺🇸 / Israel 🇮🇱 / Iran 🇮🇷 conflict generally and the Strait of Hormuz, the entry to the Persian Gulf, specifically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_hormuz While the conflict hopefully de-escalates we thought for this week's #geoweirdness thread we would feature the list of strategic maritime "choke points". 1/

en.wikipedia.org

Strait of Hormuz - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 5mo ago

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2/ Not far from the Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea we find the Bab-el-Mandeb passage between Yemen 🇾🇪 on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti 🇩🇯and Eritrea 🇪🇷 in the Horn of Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bab-el-Mandeb Nearby is Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia 🇸🇴 in 1991 and operates as its own country, but is recognized by only one UN member: Israel 🇮🇱 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somaliland #geoweirdness

en.wikipedia.org

Bab al-Mandab Strait - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 5mo ago

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3/ At the northern end of the Red Sea we have the Suez Canal, passing through Egypt 🇪🇬. The Canal's critical importance to global logistics and the route from Europe to Asia came into focus a few years ago when it was blocked by a container ship that ran aground. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Suez_Canal_obstruction Our #geoweirdness thread about Egypt: https://en.osm.town/@opencage/115729051480488048

en.wikipedia.org

2021 Suez Canal obstruction - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 5mo ago

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4/ Heading north we find the 🇹🇷 Turkish straits (the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles) linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_straits The strategic location of Istanbul (previously Constantinople) connecting Asia and Europe has been clear for millennia, but the on-going Russia 🇷🇺 / Ukraine 🇺🇦 war has brought renewed focus to this critical waterway. Our #geoweirdness thread about Turkey https://en.osm.town/@opencage/110326676703792569

en.wikipedia.org

Turkish Straits - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 5mo ago

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5/ At the other end of the Mediterranean is the Strait of Gibraltar, connecting the Med with the Atlantic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Gibraltar Since 1704 Britain 🇬🇧 has controlled Gibraltar 🇬🇮 though this is contested by Spain 🇪🇸. Meanwhile Spain has the "autonomous city" of Ceuta bordering Morocco 🇲🇦 on the southern side of the Strait. As we covered in our Morocco #geoweirdness thread, nearby Tangier was it's own "international zone" until 1956. https://en.osm.town/@opencage/112457113480438896

en.wikipedia.org

Strait of Gibraltar - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 5mo ago

Replying to

In the Americas the most important maritime choke point is the Panama Canal, which passes through Panama 🇵🇦 and connects the Caribbean (Atlantic) with the Pacific. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal Until 1979 the Canal Zone was a territory of the United States 🇺🇸 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Zone #geoweirdness

en.wikipedia.org

Panama Canal - Wikipedia

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OpenCage 👉🌍 @opencage@en.osm.town

· 5mo ago

Replying to

9/ That's it for our overview of ⛴️ maritime choke points. What did we overlook? We have more threads about the #geoweirdness of specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc linked on our blog: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

blog.opencagedata.com

OpenCage Geothreads

On a regular basis we post threads on social media about geospatial topics - sometimes about aspects of our service, sometimes about geoweirdness.

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