About This Quiz
Borders mean different things to different nations. For decades, the USA believed in "manifest destiny," pushing its western border until it reached the Pacific. To the Romans, borders were trophies, trade routes and the abstract ideas of what it meant to be called a Roman. Perhaps no time best illustrated the importance of borders and their meaning than the Cold War, when the communist East and the capitalist/democratic West pressed hard on their borders, causing anxiety up and down the fringe of the Iron Curtain.
A country's borders, in combination with its geography, determines how well it can trade, how well defended it is, what natural resources are available and the size of the population it is capable of supporting. As a result, nations guard their borders, seeing every move of their neighbors as a potential threat. Border crossings can be friendly affairs where commuters travel every day, or they can be militarized death traps through which none shall pass. Border crossings happen by accident, and sometimes they happen deliberately, to trade spies or to trade favors between monarchs. Some borders are disputed, while others have been set in stone for centuries, sometimes literally. Do you think you know the world's many border crossings? It's time to find out how worldly you are!
Separating Zimbabwe from Zambia, Victoria Falls is a sight to behold. One of the largest waterfalls in the world (there are many measures for this) the best views are said to be on the Zimbabwean side of the falls.
The Demilitarized Zone or DMZ that separates North and South Korea has a lot of military hardware around it for such a name. Either way, thec is the main border, and it once it was the only border crossing between the Koreas.
Derby Line is one of the colloquial names used for a border crossing between the U.S. and Canada. It is located (on the American side) at Derby Line, Vermont, and on the Canadian side, Stanstead, Quebec. There is even a library on the border, which really gives new meaning to the sayings about how books can transport the reader.
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The 21st busiest airport in the world, John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major intake point for international travelers coming from the east of North America. A massive airport with many terminals, JFK currently has 54 passenger airlines operating regularly in its main terminals.
The Little St. Bernard Pass is a mountain pass in the Alps and a border crossing from Switzerland into northern Italy. Many people do not think of Swiss mountains as the sort of thing one would see in northern Italy, but the people living around Lake Como would beg to differ.
The Rio Grande more or less forms the southernmost border of the United States, but rivers have a way of wiggling around. When an 1897 flood of the river ended, the river was in a different place, but the border was the same. This meant now there was an island off he border of the river, that was in Mexico, necessitating this crossing until 1967.
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Thanks to a quirk of the 49th parallel, there's a little bit of America attached to Canada on the north side of Boundary Bay in Washington State. One has to leave the U.S. to get to this bit of America, and to get from that bit of America to Canada involves passing through the Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington.
The Wagah-Attari border crossing at Grand Trunk Road is the scene of a daily international dance-off between soldiers from Pakistan and soldiers from India. Conducted at sunset, it's a way for the two sides of a serious international conflict to engage with each other in a way that isn't by fighting.
The Reschen Pass is a breathtaking Alpine border crossing and mountain pass between Austria and Italy. Think of it as the scenery from "The Sound of Music" with the cuisine of "Roman Holiday."
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Located in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, Bangunan Sultan Iskandar - or BSI for short - was completed in 2008, and at nearly 2.5 million square feet, it dominates immigration in the region, at least by road. It is the second busiest land border checkpoint in the world.
Before joining the European Union and opening the border, the southern (Greek) part of Cyprus and the northern (Turkish) part of Cyprus had very high tensions around their border, and the United Nations had to step in to keep the peace. Now, with the open border, commerce and tourism win the day!
The Trans-Mongolian Railway is a scenic but strange way to travel from China to Mongolia. Slicing through a remote and desolate landscape, the journey includes something called "the changing of the bogies," in which the trains are lifted off their trucks (the wheels) and placed on new ones because the train tracks in Mongolia are completely different from what they are in China.
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The Diomede Islands aren't in one country. One, in Alaska, is American, while the other is Russian. Yes, one can be seen from the other. In addition to the border between the two, the International Date Line runs between them.
After World War II, Germany was a divided country, and Berlin was a divided city. The border crossing in Berlin, famous for many a spy transfer, was Checkpoint C, also known as Checkpoint Charlie.
Singapore is 277 miles in area. Changi Airport, which services Singapore is 5 square miles in area. That means the airport is just about one fifty-fifth the size of the entire country. This is impressive, given that it's one of the busiest airports in the world.
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The Malpasse-Jimani border crossing between Haiti and the Dominican Republic is the busiest of the three border crossings opened to those who are not from either nation. The other two border crossings are Ouanaminthe-Dajabon and Belladere-Comendador. Due to deforestation in Haiti, the border is often visible in satellite photos.
For centuries, the British worried about the possibility of the French building a tunnel under the English Channel, fearing that it could be used for an invasion. In the late 20th century, this tunnel, nicknamed the Chunnel, was built in cooperation between the U.K. and the French governments.
The Zabaykalsk-Manzhouli border crossing between Russia and China is the result of conflicts between Russia and China almost a century ago, and it was the site of an overlooked event in WWII. It was here that a group of Jewish refugees escaping the Nazis were allowed entry into China.
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The second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger travel and the seventh-busiest overall, Heathrow Airport is the busiest transit hub in Europe. Though the border has changed due to Brexit, the fact that this is a major international crossing remains, as anyone who has to wait on line at immigration and customs will attest.
Russia and Ukraine were once both elements of the USSR. In that time, the USSR designated the Crimean Peninsula as part of Ukraine, as a gift from Russia, returning what it had once taken. In recent years, Vladimir V. Putin of Russia's regime illegally annexed the peninsula, rendering this border crossing a relic of a past to which the nations may never return.
Vaalimaa is one of the two major border crossings between Finland and Russia. The Finns have a long history of being invaded by Russia, going back centuries. They even have a special word to refer to the type of stoic bravery they have had to develop in order to face the Russian armies: "Sisu."
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Dubai International Airport may have opened in 1960, but it has come a long way since then, rising to become the busiest airport by international passenger traffic in the world. It manages this with only three terminals, one of which is for cargo only.
Located in southeastern Canada, Toronto Pearson International Airport is among the busiest airports in the world, and it is the busiest airport in Canada. Serving both passengers and cargo, this airport has only three terminals.
Øresundsbroen, AKA Øresund Bridge, is a border crossing between Denmark and Sweden. The largest bridge to combine trains and motor vehicles, it connects Malmö, Sweden, to Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Belgium and the Netherlands have been shaped by wars and deals struck by various European aristocrats over the centuries. One result of this is the combined border towns of Baarle-Hertog, where bits of the Netherlands are dotted throughout the Belgian parts of the city and vice versa.
The South Pole seems like an odd place for a border to exist at all, but one does. Seven nations, in fact, share a single spot as a border at the South Pole. Those nations, in alphabetical order, are Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.
The border crossing at Hidalgo, Texas, has been around a long time. Before it ran over the McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge (built in 1926), it consisted of a rickety old ferry.
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If one wants to get to the resort town of Eilat, Israel, from Egypt, one must pass through the Taba border crossing. Located on the southern tip of Israel, Eilat is a fun little resort town where one can lounge on the beach or go scuba diving, but there are no real historical sites worth mentioning.
Col des Montets is an Alpine mountain pass connecting the picturesque village of Chamonix in France to Martigny in Switzerland. Once in the Swiss Alps, it is possible to get on a cable car which will take you to the top of an Alp in Italy.
When everyone gawked at the line of climbers waiting to summit Mount Everest, it was more than just a bunch of people checking off an item on their bucket lists. Everest is a border crossing between Nepal and China.
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Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport is an iconic airport, as France was one of the places where aviation was born. Named for the former French president, Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport is second only to Heathrow in terms of busy European airports.
Northwest Angle is one of the tiny bits of America isolated in Canada. The two ways to get there from the rest of Minnesota are to take a boat there, or to drive out of the U.S. into Canada, and back into the the U.S.
The Hua Hum Pass is high in the Andes mountains, where one can go from Chile to Argentina, or vice versa. Not for the faint of heart, literally, this means going to a very high altitude, meaning altitude sickness is possible. In addition to driving, one must load one's vehicle onto a car ferry to cross Pirehueico Lake.
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Gongbei Port is the busiest land border checkpoint in the world, where China meets Macao. Less glamorous than an airport, it still has plenty of shopping, if you're stuck there waiting for a bus to show up.
Schiphol Airport is the major airport serving the Dutch city of Amsterdam. Located in Holland, it is, of course, visible from far away by air because the nation is flat. If one is on the ground, its location is still apparent because of the approaching and departing aircraft.
The White Cliffs of Dover tower over the Port of Dover, and have done so for thousands of years, though the location of the Port of Dover hasn't always been a port. It was the Romans who turned Dover into a port, and it has remained one to this very day.
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The Splügen Pass is one of the most beautiful mountain passes in Europe, leading from Switzerland to Italy on a route once prized by the Romans. Marked by a severe switchback, this pass was considered dangerous until the more recent roads were built.
When it comes to passengers, PortMiami is the largest in the world. Located in Miami, this port on the Gulf of Mexico handles cargo and massive cruise ships.
Serving passengers traveling to the largest city in Turkey, Istanbul Airport is the replacement for Istanbul Atatürk Airport, which is now more focused on cargo. Opened in 2018, Istanbul Airport was built separately from Istanbul Atatürk Airport because there was no more room for runways at the latter airport.
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It's no surprise that major international airports are border crossings, but not all international airports are major. Focused on private flights and "general aviation," Amiens-Glisy Aerodrome was a major target of allied bombing in WWII, as it was used by the Germans at the time.