Talk:Bir Tawil

{{WikiProject Africa|class=Stub|importance=low|Sudan=yes|Sudan-importance=low}}

Name

Can anyone confirm that this is what gives Bir Tawil its name? --AndreasBWagner (talk) 20:15, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I think so. Or the well gets its name from the region - but I think that's less likely. Bazonka (talk) 17:45, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

"Kingdom of Nikoku"

Over the past month, several editors have added claims, both here and at Terra nullius, that the territory of Bir Tawil has been claimed by the apparently fictitious "Kingdom of Nikoku", so I thought I'd make a few notes in one place here, should it come up again in future. Here is my reversion of one of those claims. The IP making the claim that time, User:84.173.74.158 from Germany, later offered http://newterritorialclaims.tk/ as a source - a wiki making implausible claims about Nikoku, including its being an island nation in the sea of Japan and having a larger navy than the UK. That page (it was the only one in the wiki) has since been deleted, but the history showed it was partly edited by an IP in the same German 84.173.x.x range (It's a pity I didn't keep a copy, and it's not in the wayback machine). The discussion at the time is at User talk:84.173.74.158. The only other source that IP offered, on my Talk page, was a German language article here, written by this author.

More recently, User:Preacheronline0001 has added the same claim, and provided a Google Maps hit on "Kingdom of Nikoku" - if you search, there are several hits, and again there's a German connection. There appear to be no Google Maps hits on "Nikoku" alone. The http://nikoku.net/ domain quoted by Google Maps gives a Japanese-language error message. Discussion is at User talk:Preacheronline0001#May 2010. It's all looking like a hoax originated in Germany (Preacheronline0001 was using google.de, so I'm guessing is in Germany and would be more likely to have happened upon the hoax if it did indeed originate there).

Anyway, hopefully it's useful to collect the info here for future reference. If anyone else wants to add claims about the Kingdom of Nikoku, please be sure to find reliable sources to attest to its actual existence first. -- Boing! said Zebedee 11:19, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Unsourced "Kingdom of Nikoku" claims have been added a couple of times since the above (and removed), the most recent being from a Russian IP, on July 22. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 09:52, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Reference to Nikoku has been added recently. Hopefully I could solve your interest in that case. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.26.165.84 (talk) 10:05, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

(Version my comments from IP talk page:) A single local edition of a newspaper (even a serious quality one) is rarely considered to be a reliable reference, especially if it is not supported by other national newspapers, you cannot provide any online links to the story, and it is a story that has already been shown to look like a hoax - even the best newspapers can fall victims to hoaxes. As this is so recent, any genuine territorial claim by any genuine country would be sure to be sourceable online somewhere. If you think the "Kingdom of Nikoku" actually exists, please do try to find it and tell us where it is - I've already explained my attempts to find it, above, and all I could find were obvious hoaxes". Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 11:14, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Alt text

The alt text of the map says that "Bir Tawil is located in Egypt," yet the entire reason that it's significant is that it's not claimed by anyone. What should it be instead? 146.115.21.210 (talk) 01:42, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

You are absolutely right, but it took me a bit to find out what happened: if an alt text isn't specified for the map, the "infobox settlement" provides its own, picking up the name of the map. I provided another text to override this. Beyond My Ken (talk) 05:42, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Inhabitants

How many inhabitants live in Bir Tawil? Zero? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.247.66.213 (talk) 20:32, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

I don't think there are any permanent inhabitants. Bazonka (talk) 20:40, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

I may be mistaken, but I believe that the tribes who live there are esssentially nomadic. But even if there are permanent inhabitants, how would we know? Since neither Egypt nor the Sudan claims the territory, there's no reason (from their perspective) to spend money on a census. Beyond My Ken (talk) 21:33, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Egypt "adminsters" the territory?

The claim that "egypt still administers the territory" - can it be sourced? Given the remoteness of the area (no roads, I gather), I doubt it has seen a government official (from either country) for a long, long time. To quote a source from one of the links: "I have been unable to ascertain whether either country exerts any practical control over Bir Tawil, leaving open the exciting possibility that it is indeed the only officially ungoverned territory on Earth." Does anyone feel like making enquiries with the relevant governments, or finding sources? Eliyohub (talk) 23:17, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Inquiries to the governments would be original research, so it'll have to come from a reliable source. The current source is the CIA World Factbook, which says that the Egyptian government has invested in the area and effectively administers it. The CIA World Factbook is considered to be a reliable source. [1] Beyond My Ken (talk) 01:01, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

"Terra Nullius?"

I'm pretty sure unclaimed territory as part of the current state of affairs in Niger/Burkina Faso. Can someone confirm?