Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: International

  • Llivia & Ile des Faisans

    Today marks a special occasion on Twelve Mile Circle, with its first ever guest blogger, Matthias Gries from France. He has researched a couple of French geo-anomalies that fit in well with the spirit and content of this blog and has written a lively narrative to accompany it. I hope you enjoy his effort —…

  • Shortest River… or Not

    What is a river, exactly? In all seriousness, what differentiates a river from a creek, a brook, a run or some of the other watercourses mapped on Toponymia? Clearly it comes down to size and volume. But where does one draw the line between what should be called a “river” and what should not? So…

  • Amazing Australian Road Distances

    Colin, a reader from South Hedland in Western Australia, sensed my dismay with the long distance displayed on a particular Texas road sign. He offered to share some extreme examples from his homeland.(1) My sign noted that El Paso, on the other side of the state, was 857 miles (1,380 kilometres) away. That’s pretty good…

  • Enclaves within Dhekelia

    Cyprus. One island split so many different ways. There’s the de facto partitioning between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. And there’s the United Nations buffer zone created along the ceasefire line. Finally, there’s the British Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. This isn’t about any of those divisions. Rather the three, well actually four, tiny…

  • Coordinate Palindromes

    I noticed an odd query on the site earlier today. Someone was searching for “Coordinate Palindromes in Nebraska.” I know exactly how they arrived here because the search engine linked them to one of my previous articles featuring Place Name Palindromes. However, I had no familiarity with what could possibly be considered a coordinate palindrome.…

  • I Jumped the Border

    I crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico, bypassing all official border stations and every immigration or customs officer, and returned the same way. I suppose this was technically illegal although it was allowed with a wink and a nod on both sides of the boundary. After all, the nearest official crossing was more than a…

  • Long Distance Diversion

    I canceled my DSL service a few days ago and moved to one of those “bundled” broadband services with voice, television and Internet access all rolled into a single plan. All went well and I don’t have any of the horror stories one typically hears about with these types of installations. It still fascinates me…

  • Fort Blunder

    Mistakes happen. Generally though, a nation doesn’t accidentally build a fort on the wrong side of an international border. A neighboring country, even if friendly, might not appreciate that. Throw in a history of mutual mistrust and territorial incursions and things could get much worse. The United States made just such an incursion onto British…

  • Wall Found at Canada’s Oldest English Settlement

    The National Post reported recently on a “Wall unearthed from Canada’s oldest British settlement.” This was the Cupids Colony in Newfoundland, settled on the Avalon Peninsula along the shores of Conception Bay (map). Thirty nine settlers landed here in 1610 under the direction of John Guy, a Bristol merchant. An overview of the colony appears…

  • Now Malawi

    I’ve had a good month attracting new visitors from Africa. I’d pretty much stagnated with that audience lately so that’s a noteworthy accomplishment. I’ve tracked statistics for nearly two years and kept a close watch. Unfortunately I haven’t had as much success as I’ve wanted. I even lamented my poor record with African visitors in…