World's Shortest International Border Is Just 85 Metres Long

The world has been filled with international borders separating the lands from one another since the early days of humankind. Amongst these international frontiers are some borders with unique characteristics, including the world’s shortest national border. As per the Oddity Central, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera is a small rock in northern Africa conquered by Spain in 1564. It is called the world’s shortest international border. It measures just 85 meters in length.

Spain shares this shortest stretch of border linking a rock about 19,000 square meters in size with the African nation of Morocco. Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera has been a part of the Spanish territory since 1564 when Admiral Pedro de Estopiñán conquered it. Morocco has repeatedly laid claim to it but Spain has never agreed to return the land and has troops stationed there to enforce Spanish rule. Spain shares approximately 2000 kilometres of land borders with Portugal and France. However, it has much smaller borders with countries like Andorra and the United Kingdom (Gibraltar).

Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera is one of the so-called “places of sovereignty” that Spain has in North Africa. The other sovereignty places are the Ceuta, Melilla, the Peñón de Alhucemas, the Chafarinas Islands, and the Isla de Perejil. Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera’s legal status is that of non-autonomous territories under Spanish administration. An interesting fact related to this barren rock is that it was an island until 1934 when an earthquake created a small isthmus and converted the island into a peninsula. An isthmus is a narrow strip of land that joins two larger land masses and divides two bodies of water. This land border was then officially recognised as the shortest in the world.

Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera is currently only inhabited by Spanish troops in charge of surveillance and security. Soldiers are rotated monthly and live in modest facilities, without basic facilities like running water or electricity. They are dependent on Spanish Navy ships that deliver supplies constantly. In 2012, the island was invaded by a group of seven people but the invasion only lasted a few minutes.