Quadripoint
Encyclopedia
A quadripoint is a point on the Earth that touches the border
of four distinct territories. The term has never been in common use—it may not have been used before 1964, by the Geographer of the United States. The word does not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary
or Merriam-Webster Online
dictionary, but it does appear in the Encyclopædia Britannica
, and the World Factbook
articles on Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, dating back to 1990.
An early instance of four political divisions meeting at a point is in England (attested in the Domesday Book, 1086, and mentioned since 969 if not 772); it combined until 1931 the English shires/counties of Gloucester, Oxford, Warwick and Worcester. But another ancient four county point between Warwick, Derby, Leicester and Stafford could be slightly older, as it is associated with a Mercian stone in No Man's Heath, Warwickshire.
The earliest known quadripoint involving modern nation states existed from 1817 to 1821 where the present Alabama-Mississippi state line crossed the 31st parallel border between Spain and the United States. During that period, the part of West Florida between the Pearl and Perdido rivers (which Spain still owned but the United States forcibly occupied and annexed in 1810 after belatedly claiming it as part of the Louisiana Territory purchased from France in 1803) was subdivided and allocated partly to the State of Mississippi and partly to the Territory (and later State) of Alabama. There resulted, at the intersection of demarcated boundaries, an international quadripoint of four territories, which in the United States were named (clockwise) Baldwin and Mobile Counties of Alabama and Jackson and Greene Counties of Mississippi, though Mobile and Jackson Counties were actually still in Spain.
Between 1830 and 1920 there was a quadripoint at the convergence of Belgium
, Prussia
/Germany
, the Netherlands
, and Moresnet
. 50.75°N 6.02°E Moresnet was never truly a country but rather only a neutral territory or condominium of the Netherlands and Prussia (originally), and of Belgium and Germany (ultimately). Subsequent political changes have restored its quadripartition along municipal lines (Kelmis, Plombieres within Belgium) since 1976 (though it has also enjoyed fivefold partition along municipal lines at times).
, Botswana
, Zambia
, and Zimbabwe
come together at the confluence of the Cuando
(also called Chobe) and Zambezi
rivers (approximately 17°47′30"S 25°15′48"E). Ever since the boundaries in the area were defined around the turn of the 20th-century there was uncertainty about whether they met to form a single quadripoint in the Zambezi River, or whether they met in two tripoint
s in the river, close but not quite touching. If there was a quadripoint, then Botswana and Zambia would not share a border, except at a single point.
There have been a few international incidents revolving round that particular quadripoint. In 1970, South Africa
informed Botswana that there was no common border between Botswana and Zambia, claiming that a quadripoint existed. As a result, South Africa claimed, the Kazungula Ferry
, which links Botswana and Zambia at the quadripoint, was illegal. Botswana firmly rejected both claims. There was actually a confrontation and shots were fired at the ferry; some years later, the Rhodesian Army attacked and sank the ferry, maintaining that it was serving military purposes.
The question of whether a quadripoint exists there, remains unresolved. Ian Brownlie
, who studied the case, determined that the possibility of a quadripoint, although unlikely, cannot be definitively ruled out. To resolve the issue all four states, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe would have to conduct precise boundary surveys.
However a true four-country point did formerly exist in Africa -- indeed (if we exclude Kazungula) the only quadricountry quadripoint which the world has definitely known -- for a period of 8 months during 1960 and 1961, at the location, in southern Lake Chad
, of the present Cameroon
-Chad
-Nigeria
tripoint, where the latter three countries were then also joined by a territory called Northern Cameroons which still belonged, under United Nations mandate, to the United Kingdom, until it was finally annexed to Nigeria.
Among the international quadripoints (examples below) a few general types can be distinguished. In the absence of four-country points, three-country quadripoints are perhaps most significant. These combine two divisions of one country with (one each of) two other countries. But there also exist merely binational quadripoints -- of several varieties. Some of these combine two subdivisions of two countries, others three subdivisions of one country with (one of) another; while still others occur at points where international boundaries appear to touch or cross themselves -- with or without subdivision -- or where an international boundary appears to bifurcate around disputed territories.
Also below, by country, some quadripoints composed only of primary subdivisions.
provinces of La Pampa
, Río Negro
, Mendoza
and Neuquén
may meet at 37°34′00"S 68°14′00"W. Rio Negro has disputed this since a 1966 resurvey cast the exact boundary convergence into some doubt.
state, Cooch Behar district
) and Bangladesh (Rangpur Division, Lalmonirhat District
). A well documented instance occurs in Mekhliganj subdivision and a less definite one in Mathabhanga
subdivision (of Cooch Behar), both involving Patgram
subdivision (of Lalmonirhat). Additional political subdivision does not appear to result in either case. Its (or their) international stature has been intermittent since Mughal times and is presently owing to the Radcliffe Award of 1947.
(North Brabant, Netherlands) and Baarle-Hertog
(Antwerp, Belgium). The peculiar situation has existed at least cadastrally
since about 1198, but its current international distinction dates only from 1830. (Tho there are believed and often said to be several such locations in Baarle, there is in fact only one, at the corner indicated H2 on the map at right.)
of Nunavut
might have resulted in the creation of a quadripoint between the provinces of Saskatchewan
and Manitoba
and the territories of Nunavut and Northwest Territories
(NWT). Nunavut was officially separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999, though the boundaries had been defined in 1993 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement
. Both documents define Nunavut's boundary as including the intersection of 60°00'N latitude with 102°00'W longitude, being the intersection of the Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan borders. However, the northernmost point of the Manitoba–Saskatchewan border as surveyed is slightly off from 60° north 102° west, therefore the laws are not perfectly clear about whether the Nunavut–NWT boundary, which has not been surveyed, is to meet the others in a quadripoint or not.
(center of downstream navigation channel) of the Danube a trinational quadripoint, where the Hungarian counties of Baranya and Bacs-Kiskun meet the Croatian county of Osjecko-Baranjska and the Serbian (Vojvodina) District of West Baka in practical fact (though Croatia continues to claim its former Yugoslav cadastral territory east of the Danube, leaving the quadripoint technically unsettled).
(specifically the Russian exclave Kaliningrad Oblast
); to the northeast Lithuania
; and to the southwest and southeast two Voivodships (provinces) of Poland
: Warmian-Masurian Voivodship and Podlaskie Voivodeship
. http://maps.msn.se/map.aspx?C=54.36435,22.79228&L=EUR&S=800,740&A=49 The quadripoint exists thanks to the way the border between Poland and Russian SFSR
was defined in 1945 by the Potsdam Agreement
. The new border between Poland and the USSR bisected Germany's former province of East Prussia
; the northern part became Kaliningrad Oblast, and most of the southern part is now Warmia-Masuria.
there is only one precise quadripoint at 24°33′00"N 100°48′00"W. The "Mojonera de los cuatro estados" ("Four State Boundary Stone") was built to mark the point where Coahuila
, Nuevo Leon
, San Luis Potosi
and Zacatecas
states
effectively meet.
), no true quadripoint remains in the United Kingdom.
But quite apart from the few shire/county quadripoints that have actually existed in England (see History, above), mistaken claims of an extant one are sometimes made about a place near Stamford
where Rutland
, Lincolnshire
, Cambridgeshire
and Northamptonshire
seem to meet at a point. (52°38′25"N 0°29′40"W) However, the location actually consists of two tripoints around 66 ft (20 metres) apart.
The Four Corners Monument
is the only point in the United States of America where four states meet: Colorado
, Utah
, New Mexico
, and Arizona
meet at right angle
s. The United States first acquired the area now called Four Corners from Mexico
after the Mexican American War in 1848. In 1863 Congress created Arizona Territory
from the western part of New Mexico Territory
. The boundary was defined as a line running due south from the southwest corner of Colorado Territory
, which had been created in 1861. By defining one boundary as starting at the corner of another Congress ensured the eventual creation of four states meeting at a point, regardless of the inevitable errors of boundary surveying. The monument is centered at 36°59′56.31532"N 109°02′42.62019"W.
Obviously in all such inconclusive cases, more research is needed, even if not always possible. (Countries not mentioned are believed on best available evidence not to have any quadripoints of their primary subdivisions.)
and Bir Tawil
(about midway between the River Nile and the Red Sea) where the long established but undemarcated international border along the 22nd parallel, as claimed by Egypt, is intersected by a similarly well established administrative boundary preferred and claimed by Sudan as the true international border. A practically identical situation occurs on the boundaries of the Ilemi Triangle
, where Sudan enjoys a second void quadripoint, in this case shared with Kenya. Another occurrence -- actually a chain of three such quadripoints linked to two separate unclaimed areas in a far busier location, indeed in coastal waters whose national sovereignty would otherwise have been zealously guarded -- is likewise inferrable where the southern end of the Alaska sector of the Canadian border aberrates into two crisscrossing versions or claim lines. These conflicting lines produce, besides two areas of overlapping claims, two small triangles of void or virtual high seas -- one having two pendant quadripoints and the other a third, all identifiable at fairly precise geocoordinates -- as they lurch through the narrows of Dixon Entrance toward their still indefinite boundary termination in the true high seas of the Pacific.Yet another quadripoint of this type exists on the disputed Thai Cambodian boundary a short distance northeast of Preah Vihear temple. And finally, combining the only other two (of the seven) unclaimed or void areas on Earth, is a seventh dispute-pendant quadripoint, at the South Pole. Being at once a simple bilateral quadripoint and a far more complicated intersection of claim limits (an elevenfold 6-country point), the South Pole example combines two parcels of virgin unclaimed land with two parcels of Antarctic Treaty regulated territory (which have been variously claimed, disputed, recognized, ignored, disowned, reclaimed, etc., as national sovereign territory by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, Great Britain and New Zealand, if not also Norway). But whatever the ultimate disposition of disputed national sovereignty, the intersection and quadripoint of two undisputedly pristine and two highly disputable territories endures.The void areas meet the polar quadripoint between the 90th and 150th meridian west longitude (Marie Byrd Land) and, again, between the 20th meridian west and 45th meridian east (this latter sector, of indefinite extent, owing to the Norwegian exclusion of the South Pole from Queen Maud Land), while sovereign or treaty regulated areas converge at the polar quadripoint in the two intervals between the void areas.
Border
Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...
of four distinct territories. The term has never been in common use—it may not have been used before 1964, by the Geographer of the United States. The word does not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
or Merriam-Webster Online
Merriam-Webster
Merriam–Webster, which was originally the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language .Merriam-Webster Inc. has been a...
dictionary, but it does appear in the Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
, and the World Factbook
The World Factbook
The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official paper copy version is available from the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office...
articles on Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, dating back to 1990.
History
The earliest known quadripoint involving modern nation states existed from 1817 to 1821 where the present Alabama-Mississippi state line crossed the 31st parallel border between Spain and the United States. During that period, the part of West Florida between the Pearl and Perdido rivers (which Spain still owned but the United States forcibly occupied and annexed in 1810 after belatedly claiming it as part of the Louisiana Territory purchased from France in 1803) was subdivided and allocated partly to the State of Mississippi and partly to the Territory (and later State) of Alabama. There resulted, at the intersection of demarcated boundaries, an international quadripoint of four territories, which in the United States were named (clockwise) Baldwin and Mobile Counties of Alabama and Jackson and Greene Counties of Mississippi, though Mobile and Jackson Counties were actually still in Spain.
Between 1830 and 1920 there was a quadripoint at the convergence of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
/Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and Moresnet
Moresnet
Neutral Moresnet was a tiny Belgian-Prussian condominium that existed from 1816 to 1920 between present-day Belgium and Germany. Prior to Belgian independence in 1830, the territory was a Dutch-Prussian condominium...
. 50.75°N 6.02°E Moresnet was never truly a country but rather only a neutral territory or condominium of the Netherlands and Prussia (originally), and of Belgium and Germany (ultimately). Subsequent political changes have restored its quadripartition along municipal lines (Kelmis, Plombieres within Belgium) since 1976 (though it has also enjoyed fivefold partition along municipal lines at times).
Four-country quadripoints
Many sources claim that a quadripoint exists in Africa, where the borders of NamibiaNamibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, and Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
come together at the confluence of the Cuando
Cuando River
The Cuando River is a river in south-central Africa flowing through Angola and Namibia's Caprivi Strip, into the Linyanti Swamp on the northern border of Botswana...
(also called Chobe) and Zambezi
Zambezi
The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is , slightly less than half that of the Nile...
rivers (approximately 17°47′30"S 25°15′48"E). Ever since the boundaries in the area were defined around the turn of the 20th-century there was uncertainty about whether they met to form a single quadripoint in the Zambezi River, or whether they met in two tripoint
Tripoint
A tripoint, or trijunction , is a geographical point at which the borders of three countries or subnational entities meet....
s in the river, close but not quite touching. If there was a quadripoint, then Botswana and Zambia would not share a border, except at a single point.
There have been a few international incidents revolving round that particular quadripoint. In 1970, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
informed Botswana that there was no common border between Botswana and Zambia, claiming that a quadripoint existed. As a result, South Africa claimed, the Kazungula Ferry
Kazungula Ferry
The Kazungula Ferry is a pontoon ferry across the 400-metre-wide Zambezi River between Botswana and Zambia. It is one of the largest ferries in south-central Africa, having a capacity of 70 tonnes...
, which links Botswana and Zambia at the quadripoint, was illegal. Botswana firmly rejected both claims. There was actually a confrontation and shots were fired at the ferry; some years later, the Rhodesian Army attacked and sank the ferry, maintaining that it was serving military purposes.
The question of whether a quadripoint exists there, remains unresolved. Ian Brownlie
Ian Brownlie
Sir Ian Brownlie, CBE, QC, FBA was a British practising barrister, specialising in international law. After an education at Hertford College, Oxford, he was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1958 and was a tenant at Blackstone Chambers from 1983 until his death on 3 January 2010.During his...
, who studied the case, determined that the possibility of a quadripoint, although unlikely, cannot be definitively ruled out. To resolve the issue all four states, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe would have to conduct precise boundary surveys.
However a true four-country point did formerly exist in Africa -- indeed (if we exclude Kazungula) the only quadricountry quadripoint which the world has definitely known -- for a period of 8 months during 1960 and 1961, at the location, in southern Lake Chad
Lake Chad
Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...
, of the present Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
-Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
-Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
tripoint, where the latter three countries were then also joined by a territory called Northern Cameroons which still belonged, under United Nations mandate, to the United Kingdom, until it was finally annexed to Nigeria.
Quadripoints within and between nations
Quadripoints can exist at the meeting of political subdivisions of any type(s) or level(s). The most common are in the United States and Canada, where the grid-based Public Land Survey System (PLSS) and Dominion Land Surveys (DLS), respectively, resulted in a large number of quadripoints at the corners of survey units such as DLS townships, PLSS townships, sections, and various other gridded subdivisions. The borders of U.S. counties and towns are often defined by survey townships. There are dozens of quadripoints between U.S. counties, hundreds between U.S. municipalities, and indeed thousands (of usually bilateral ones) on the edges of checkerboard-patterned Indian reservations and other federally reserved territories. But of all the quadripoints that exist, the most noted are about 10 international instances, and about 10 others of primary national subdivisions (such as provinces or states).Among the international quadripoints (examples below) a few general types can be distinguished. In the absence of four-country points, three-country quadripoints are perhaps most significant. These combine two divisions of one country with (one each of) two other countries. But there also exist merely binational quadripoints -- of several varieties. Some of these combine two subdivisions of two countries, others three subdivisions of one country with (one of) another; while still others occur at points where international boundaries appear to touch or cross themselves -- with or without subdivision -- or where an international boundary appears to bifurcate around disputed territories.
Also below, by country, some quadripoints composed only of primary subdivisions.
Argentina
The ArgentineArgentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
provinces of La Pampa
La Pampa Province
La Pampa is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza.-History:...
, Río Negro
Río Negro Province
Río Negro is a province of Argentina, located at the northern edge of Patagonia. Neighboring provinces are from the south clockwise Chubut, Neuquén, Mendoza, La Pampa and Buenos Aires. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean.Its capital is Viedma...
, Mendoza
Mendoza Province
The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...
and Neuquén
Neuquén Province
Neuquén is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west...
may meet at 37°34′00"S 68°14′00"W. Rio Negro has disputed this since a 1966 resurvey cast the exact boundary convergence into some doubt.
Austria/Germany
On the summit of Sorgschrofen peak, the international boundary touches (or crosses) itself at marker number 110, where two Austrian (Tyrolean: Reutte) and two German (Bavarian: Oberallgäu, Ostallgäu) municipalities meet at a quadripoint established politically in 1844, cadastrally 1342 or earlier: (in clockwise order) Jungholz AT, Pfronten DE, Schattwald AT and Bad Hindelang DE.Bangladesh/India
The international boundary touches (or crosses) itself at one (or possibly two) locations shared by India (West BengalWest Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
state, Cooch Behar district
Cooch Behar District
Cooch Behar district is a district of the state of West Bengal, India, as well as the district's namesake town. During the British Raj, the town of Cooch Behar was the seat of a princely state of Koch Bihar, ruled by the Koch dynasty....
) and Bangladesh (Rangpur Division, Lalmonirhat District
Lalmonirhat District
The district of Lalmonirhat consists 3038 mosques, 512 temples, 43 Buddhist temples and 12 churches.-Tourism:There are a number of tourist attractions and archaeological sites in Lalmonirhat...
). A well documented instance occurs in Mekhliganj subdivision and a less definite one in Mathabhanga
Mathabhanga
Mathabhanga is a city and a municipality in Koch Bihar district in the Indian state of West Bengal.-Geography:Mathabhanga is located at . It has an average elevation of .-Demographics:...
subdivision (of Cooch Behar), both involving Patgram
Patgram
Patgram is a thana of Lalmonirhat District situated at the north side border of Bangladesh. It is bounded by Cooch Behar district and Hatibandha...
subdivision (of Lalmonirhat). Additional political subdivision does not appear to result in either case. Its (or their) international stature has been intermittent since Mughal times and is presently owing to the Radcliffe Award of 1947.
Belgium/Netherlands
The international boundary touches (or crosses) itself, without imparting political subdivision, within the commingled municipalities of Baarle-NassauBaarle-Nassau
Baarle-Nassau is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands, located in North Brabant province. As of 2007 its population was of 6,668.-The border with Baarle-Hertog:...
(North Brabant, Netherlands) and Baarle-Hertog
Baarle-Hertog
Baarle-Hertog is a municipality belonging to the Belgian province of Antwerp, but for the biggest part located in the Netherlands province of North Brabant. The municipality only comprises the town of Baarle-Hertog proper. On January 1, 2006 Baarle-Hertog had a total population of 2,306...
(Antwerp, Belgium). The peculiar situation has existed at least cadastrally
Cadastre
A cadastre , using a cadastral survey or cadastral map, is a comprehensive register of the metes-and-bounds real property of a country...
since about 1198, but its current international distinction dates only from 1830. (Tho there are believed and often said to be several such locations in Baarle, there is in fact only one, at the corner indicated H2 on the map at right.)
Canada
The creation of the Canadian territoryProvinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
of Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
might have resulted in the creation of a quadripoint between the provinces of Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
and Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and the territories of Nunavut and Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
(NWT). Nunavut was officially separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999, though the boundaries had been defined in 1993 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement
Nunavut Land Claims Agreement
The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement is a 1993 land claims agreement between the Inuit of the Nunavut Settlement Area and the Government of Canada subject to the Constitution Act of 1982...
. Both documents define Nunavut's boundary as including the intersection of 60°00'N latitude with 102°00'W longitude, being the intersection of the Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan borders. However, the northernmost point of the Manitoba–Saskatchewan border as surveyed is slightly off from 60° north 102° west, therefore the laws are not perfectly clear about whether the Nunavut–NWT boundary, which has not been surveyed, is to meet the others in a quadripoint or not.
Canada/United States of America
Both of the only known international quadripoints in the Western Hemisphere occur on the Canadian-American border along remote mountain crests. One, which joins the Canadian provinces of Alberta (Improvement District Number 4) and British Columbia (Regional District of East Kootenay) with the Montana counties of Flathead and Glacier where the 49th parallel crosses the Continental Divide also unites an international peace park comprising national parks of both countries (Waterton Lakes and Glacier, respectively). It has been a politically important and precisely stipulated international boundary point since 1818; has been monumented since 1876 (presently by a hollow metallic obeliskoid marker numbered 272); and has maintained a quadripartite status since 1893. The other of the pair occurs in the international boundary sector known as the Highlands, on the ridge separating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence watershed from the Gulf of Maine watershed, where three minor civil divisions of the state of Maine -- namely Dennistown Plantation and Forsyth and Sandy Bay Townships, all in Somerset County -- meet Le Granit Regional County Municipality of the province of Quebec. This quadripoint, which was legally delimited in 1873 and validated in 1895, is marked (like all the corners of the minor civil divisions of Maine) by a brightly painted 8-foot wooden pole.Croatia/Hungary/Serbia
At a delimitation point determined partly following World War I and partly following World War II, and indirectly monumented by international pillars 415 and 420 on respective riverbanks, there is on the thalwegThalweg
Thalweg in geography and fluvial geomorphology signifies the deepest continuous inline within a valley or watercourse system.-Hydrology:In hydrological and fluvial landforms, the thalweg is a line drawn to join the lowest points along the entire length of a stream bed or valley in its downward...
(center of downstream navigation channel) of the Danube a trinational quadripoint, where the Hungarian counties of Baranya and Bacs-Kiskun meet the Croatian county of Osjecko-Baranjska and the Serbian (Vojvodina) District of West Baka in practical fact (though Croatia continues to claim its former Yugoslav cadastral territory east of the Danube, leaving the quadripoint technically unsettled).
Lithuania/Poland/Russia
At 54.36435°N 22.79228°E, there is a trinational quadripoint: to the northwest is RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(specifically the Russian exclave Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated on the Baltic coast. It has a population of The oblast forms the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, but it has no land connection to the rest of Russia. Since its creation it has been an exclave of the Russian SFSR and then the...
); to the northeast Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
; and to the southwest and southeast two Voivodships (provinces) of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
: Warmian-Masurian Voivodship and Podlaskie Voivodeship
Podlaskie Voivodeship
Podlaskie Voivodeship , is a voivodeship in northeastern Poland. It borders on Masovian Voivodeship to the west, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship to the northwest, Lublin Voivodeship to the south, the Belarusssian Voblasts of Grodno and Brest to the east, the Lithuanian Counties of Alytus and...
. http://maps.msn.se/map.aspx?C=54.36435,22.79228&L=EUR&S=800,740&A=49 The quadripoint exists thanks to the way the border between Poland and Russian SFSR
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
was defined in 1945 by the Potsdam Agreement
Potsdam Agreement
The Potsdam Agreement was the Allied plan of tripartite military occupation and reconstruction of Germany—referring to the German Reich with its pre-war 1937 borders including the former eastern territories—and the entire European Theatre of War territory...
. The new border between Poland and the USSR bisected Germany's former province of East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
; the northern part became Kaliningrad Oblast, and most of the southern part is now Warmia-Masuria.
Mexico
In MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
there is only one precise quadripoint at 24°33′00"N 100°48′00"W. The "Mojonera de los cuatro estados" ("Four State Boundary Stone") was built to mark the point where Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
, Nuevo Leon
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
, San Luis Potosi
San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí....
and Zacatecas
Zacatecas
Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas....
states
States of Mexico
The United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress...
effectively meet.
Norway/Sweden
On the border of Sweden and Norway, there is a binational quadripoint where two Counties of Norway, Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland, meet two Counties of Sweden, Västerbotten and Jämtland, at international boundary marker number 204. Though the marker dates from 1760, the point became a quadripoint in the 19th century and became international upon the dissolution of Sweden and Norway in 1905.Oman/Saudi Arabia/Yemen
Amid the Empty Quarter of Arabia -- as trilaterally agreed and monumented in 2006 precisely at the intersection of the 19th parallel and 52nd meridian (datum uncertain) -- Oman (governorate of Dhofar) and Saudi Arabia (emirate of Ash Sharqiyah) meet Yemen (and its governorates of Al Mahrah and Hadramawt), in a tricountry quadripoint.United Kingdom
Due to changes to the borders and numbers of administrative counties in the last century (see Administrative counties of EnglandAdministrative counties of England
Administrative counties were a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 as the areas for which county councils were elected. Some large counties were divided into several administrative...
), no true quadripoint remains in the United Kingdom.
But quite apart from the few shire/county quadripoints that have actually existed in England (see History, above), mistaken claims of an extant one are sometimes made about a place near Stamford
Stamford, Lincolnshire
Stamford is a town and civil parish within the South Kesteven district of the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately to the north of London, on the east side of the A1 road to York and Edinburgh and on the River Welland...
where Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
and Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
seem to meet at a point. (52°38′25"N 0°29′40"W) However, the location actually consists of two tripoints around 66 ft (20 metres) apart.
United States of America
Four Corners Monument
The Four Corners Monument marks the quadripoint in the Southwestern United States where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. It is the only point in the United States shared by four states, leading to this area being called the Four Corners region...
is the only point in the United States of America where four states meet: Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
meet at right angle
Right angle
In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle that bisects the angle formed by two halves of a straight line. More precisely, if a ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the adjacent angles are equal, then they are right angles...
s. The United States first acquired the area now called Four Corners from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
after the Mexican American War in 1848. In 1863 Congress created Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
from the western part of New Mexico Territory
New Mexico Territory
thumb|right|240px|Proposed boundaries for State of New Mexico, 1850The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of...
. The boundary was defined as a line running due south from the southwest corner of Colorado Territory
Colorado Territory
The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado....
, which had been created in 1861. By defining one boundary as starting at the corner of another Congress ensured the eventual creation of four states meeting at a point, regardless of the inevitable errors of boundary surveying. The monument is centered at 36°59′56.31532"N 109°02′42.62019"W.
Apparent national-level quadripoints
On best available maps, a few additional countries show every appearance of producing one or more quadripoints of their primary subdivisions. These occurrences (neither positively confirmed nor confuted by evidence) are as follows:- Andorra: Parishes of Canillo, Encamp, La Messana and Ordino (Michelin zoomable, et al., in legal controversy as of 2003).
- Bulgaria: Oblasts of Gabrovo, Lovech, Plovdiv and Stara Zagora (large-scale Soviet topo, et al., at Zelenikovets Peak).
- Dominican Republic: Provinces of Baoruco, Elias Pina, Independencia and San Juan (large-scale American topo, et al., apparently at ridge crossing peak named Gajo de los Magueyes but possibly indefinite).
- Gabon: Provinces of Moyen-Ogooue, Ngounie, Ogooue-Ivindo and Ogooue-Lolo (large-scale French topo, et al., evidently at an unnamed ridge junction summit).
- Jamaica: Parishes of Clarendon, Manchester, Saint Ann and Trelawney (American mapping, et al., and local testimony).
- Libya: Districts of Al Jfara, Bani Walid, Mizdah and Tarhuna Wa Msalata (conventional mapping and local assertion).
- Mauritania: Regions of Adrar, Brakna, Tagant and Trarza (definitive French map evidence since colonial times).
- Oman: Governorates of Ad Dakhliyah, Al Batinah, Ash Sharqiyah and Muscat (while not all maps agree).
- St. Kitts-Nevis: St. Kitts Parishes of St. Anne Sandy Point, St. John Capisterre, St. Paul Capisterre and St. Thomas Middle Island (conventional maps, at the Crater; not to be confused with 5-parish point at Nevis Peak).
- Uganda: Districts of Kyenjojo, Mbarara, Mubende and Sembabule (on most maps, and possibly other quadripoints more recent).
- Vietnam: Provinces of Bac Can, Cao Bang, Ha Giang and Tuyen Quang (on most maps, with possible companions too).
Obviously in all such inconclusive cases, more research is needed, even if not always possible. (Countries not mentioned are believed on best available evidence not to have any quadripoints of their primary subdivisions.)
Void or dispute-pendant quadripoints
A pair of conflicting territorial claims can give rise to a void or dispute-pendant quadripoint: of the territory in dispute and the adjacent undisputed territories of the claimants with a fourth territory (or void area) claimed by neither of them. An international case of such a quadripoint on dry land can be inferred, if not actually found, in a remote area of the Nubian Desert involving both the Hala'ib TriangleHala'ib Triangle
The Hala'ib Triangle is an area of land measuring located on the Red Sea's African coast...
and Bir Tawil
Bir Tawil
Bir Tawil or Bi'r Tawīl is a area along the border between Egypt and Sudan which is claimed by neither country. It is sometimes referred to as the Bir Tawil Triangle, despite the area's quadrilateral shape, with the longer side in the north of the area running along the 22° north circle of...
(about midway between the River Nile and the Red Sea) where the long established but undemarcated international border along the 22nd parallel, as claimed by Egypt, is intersected by a similarly well established administrative boundary preferred and claimed by Sudan as the true international border. A practically identical situation occurs on the boundaries of the Ilemi Triangle
Ilemi Triangle
The Ilemi Triangle is an area of disputed land in East Africa. Arbitrarily defined, it measures between 10,320 and 14,000 square kilometers . Named after Anuak chief Ilemi Akwon, the territory is claimed by South Sudan and Kenya and borders Ethiopia...
, where Sudan enjoys a second void quadripoint, in this case shared with Kenya. Another occurrence -- actually a chain of three such quadripoints linked to two separate unclaimed areas in a far busier location, indeed in coastal waters whose national sovereignty would otherwise have been zealously guarded -- is likewise inferrable where the southern end of the Alaska sector of the Canadian border aberrates into two crisscrossing versions or claim lines. These conflicting lines produce, besides two areas of overlapping claims, two small triangles of void or virtual high seas -- one having two pendant quadripoints and the other a third, all identifiable at fairly precise geocoordinates -- as they lurch through the narrows of Dixon Entrance toward their still indefinite boundary termination in the true high seas of the Pacific.Yet another quadripoint of this type exists on the disputed Thai Cambodian boundary a short distance northeast of Preah Vihear temple. And finally, combining the only other two (of the seven) unclaimed or void areas on Earth, is a seventh dispute-pendant quadripoint, at the South Pole. Being at once a simple bilateral quadripoint and a far more complicated intersection of claim limits (an elevenfold 6-country point), the South Pole example combines two parcels of virgin unclaimed land with two parcels of Antarctic Treaty regulated territory (which have been variously claimed, disputed, recognized, ignored, disowned, reclaimed, etc., as national sovereign territory by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, Great Britain and New Zealand, if not also Norway). But whatever the ultimate disposition of disputed national sovereignty, the intersection and quadripoint of two undisputedly pristine and two highly disputable territories endures.The void areas meet the polar quadripoint between the 90th and 150th meridian west longitude (Marie Byrd Land) and, again, between the 20th meridian west and 45th meridian east (this latter sector, of indefinite extent, owing to the Norwegian exclusion of the South Pole from Queen Maud Land), while sovereign or treaty regulated areas converge at the polar quadripoint in the two intervals between the void areas.