Exclaves and Enclaves of the World: The Complete Guide to Countries Inside Countries
Exclaves and Enclaves of the World: The Complete Guide to Countries Inside Countries
Imagine living in a village where crossing the street means entering another country. Where your neighbor's house is in Belgium while yours is in the Netherlands. Where drawing a straight line to your nation's capital would take you through foreign territory.
Welcome to the strange world of exclaves and enclaves — territorial oddities that defy the simple idea of countries as neat, continuous shapes on a map. These geographic anomalies exist on every inhabited continent, products of medieval treaties, colonial accidents, wars, and sometimes just bureaucratic confusion that nobody ever bothered to fix.
They're not just cartographic curiosities. Exclaves and enclaves have real consequences for the people who live in them — affecting everything from where they can shop to which emergency services respond when they call for help.
Let's explore the most fascinating territorial anomalies on Earth.
📚 First, the Definitions: What's an Exclave vs. an Enclave?
These terms are often confused, and many places are technically both. Here's the difference:
Enclave: A territory completely surrounded by another country or territory. Think of it as being "enclosed" — you can't leave without passing through the surrounding territory.
Exclave: A portion of a country that's geographically separated from the main part of that country. It's "excluded" from the contiguous territory.
The key distinction: An enclave is defined by what surrounds it; an exclave is defined by what it belongs to.
Some territories are both. Kaliningrad is a Russian exclave (separated from mainland Russia) but not an enclave (it borders the Baltic Sea and touches both Poland and Lithuania, not just one country). Vatican City is an enclave of Italy but not an exclave of anything — it's a complete, independent country.
| Term | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Enclave | Surrounded entirely by one foreign territory | Vatican City (surrounded by Italy) |
| Exclave | Part of a country separated from its main territory | Alaska (USA, separated by Canada) |
| True enclave | Both an enclave AND an exclave | Llívia (Spanish enclave in France) |
| Practical exclave | Accessible only through foreign territory | Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan, separated by Armenia) |
Got it? Good. Now let's tour the world's most remarkable examples.
🇻🇦 The Classic Enclaves: Entire Countries Inside Another
Vatican City — The World's Smallest Country
Status: Independent country, enclave within Italy
Size: 0.44 km² (121 acres)
Population: ~800
Vatican City is the most famous enclave on Earth and the world's smallest independent state by both area and population. It's entirely surrounded by Rome, Italy — you can walk across the entire country in about 20 minutes.
The Vatican became an independent enclave through the Lateran Treaty of 1929, which resolved the "Roman Question" — the dispute between the Italian government and the Catholic Church that had festered since Italy seized the Papal States in 1870. For 59 years, popes refused to recognize the Italian state and considered themselves prisoners of the Vatican.
Fun facts:
- •Vatican City has its own postal system, radio station, and even a railway station (though trains only run occasionally for cargo)
- •It has the highest crime rate per capita in the world — but only because tourists commit petty crimes in a territory with fewer than 1,000 residents
- •The Swiss Guard, in their colorful Renaissance uniforms, is the world's smallest army
San Marino — The World's Oldest Republic
Status: Independent country, enclave within Italy
Size: 61 km²
Population: ~34,000
San Marino claims to be the world's oldest surviving republic, founded in 301 AD by a Christian stonemason fleeing Roman persecution. Whether or not that founding legend is literally true, San Marino has maintained some form of independence for over 1,700 years — surviving invasions, the rise and fall of Italian city-states, Napoleon, and two World Wars.
How did such a tiny country avoid being absorbed by larger neighbors? Mostly through careful diplomacy, strategic neutrality, and the fact that conquering a mountainous microstate offered little reward for considerable effort. Napoleon reportedly found San Marino charming and left it alone, even offering to expand its territory (San Marino wisely declined, knowing a bigger footprint would mean bigger problems).
Fun facts:
- •San Marino has more vehicles than people
- •It's the only country with more annual tourists than residents by a factor of 50
- •The country has had two women serving as Captains Regent (joint heads of state) at the same time
Lesotho — The Mountain Kingdom
Status: Independent country, enclave within South Africa
Size: 30,355 km²
Population: ~2.3 million
Lesotho is the world's largest true enclave — a complete country entirely surrounded by a single other nation. It's also the only independent country on Earth that lies entirely above 1,000 meters elevation, earning it the nickname "Kingdom in the Sky."
Lesotho exists because of 19th-century colonial dynamics. The Basotho people, under King Moshoeshoe I, sought British protection to avoid being conquered by Boer settlers and the expanding Zulu kingdom. The British established Basutoland as a protectorate in 1868. When South Africa gained independence in 1910, Basutoland remained a British territory, eventually becoming independent Lesotho in 1966 — completely surrounded by the nation it had spent a century trying to stay separate from.
Fun facts:
- •Lesotho is the southernmost landlocked country in the world
- •It's one of only three countries that lies entirely within another country (the others are Vatican City and San Marino)
- •Despite being completely surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho maintains its own currency (the Loti), government, and military
🇷🇺 Famous Exclaves: Territories Separated from Their Countries
Kaliningrad (Russia)
Status: Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania
Size: 15,100 km²
Population: ~1 million
Kaliningrad is the most geopolitically significant exclave in the world. This chunk of Russia sits on the Baltic Sea, sandwiched between two NATO and EU members — completely separated from mainland Russia by hundreds of kilometers.
Until 1945, this wasn't Russian at all. It was Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia and one of Germany's most important cities. The philosopher Immanuel Kant lived his entire life there. After World War II, the Soviet Union annexed the region, expelled the German population, and renamed it after Soviet revolutionary Mikhail Kalinin.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Kaliningrad's situation got complicated. Suddenly, the territory was separated from Russia by newly independent Lithuania and Belarus — and later, when Lithuania joined the EU and NATO, Kaliningrad became a Russian military outpost entirely surrounded by the Western alliance.
Why it matters:
- •Kaliningrad hosts Russia's Baltic Fleet and is heavily militarized
- •Russian citizens traveling between Kaliningrad and mainland Russia must pass through EU territory (usually Lithuania)
- •The region has become a flashpoint in Russia-NATO tensions, particularly after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine
Alaska (United States)
Status: U.S. state separated from contiguous U.S. by Canada
Size: 1,723,337 km² (largest U.S. state)
Population: ~733,000
Technically, Alaska is a pene-exclave — it's not completely surrounded by foreign territory (it has a long Pacific and Arctic coastline) but can only be reached by land from the rest of the U.S. by traveling through Canada.
The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million — about 2 cents per acre. Critics called it "Seward's Folly" after Secretary of State William Seward, who negotiated the deal. They stopped laughing when gold was discovered in 1896.
Fun fact: The only place in the U.S. where you can walk to another country, walk through that country, and walk back into the U.S. again is at Point Roberts, Washington — a tiny pene-exclave south of Vancouver that's only accessible by land through Canada.
Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan)
Status: Azerbaijani exclave separated from Azerbaijan by Armenia
Size: 5,500 km²
Population: ~460,000
Nakhchivan is one of the world's most isolated exclaves. This autonomous region of Azerbaijan is separated from the main country by Armenian territory — and since Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in conflict for decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, the border has been sealed since the early 1990s.
Residents of Nakhchivan can only reach the rest of Azerbaijan by air or by traveling through Iran and then Georgia. The exclave has developed its own distinct identity, though it remains firmly Azerbaijani.
🇧🇪 The Mind-Bending Case: Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau
If you want to see the most complicated border situation on Earth, visit the town of Baarle on the Belgian-Dutch frontier.
What appears to be a single town is actually two municipalities in two different countries: Baarle-Hertog (Belgium) and Baarle-Nassau (Netherlands). The border doesn't just run through the town — it runs through individual buildings, shops, and even living rooms.
There are 22 Belgian enclaves within the Netherlands, and within some of those Belgian enclaves, there are 7 Dutch counter-enclaves. That means pieces of the Netherlands are surrounded by Belgium, which is surrounded by the Netherlands.
How did this happen?
The chaos dates back to medieval land swaps between the Duke of Brabant and the Lord of Breda in the 12th century. Different parcels of land ended up under different feudal control, and when modern nation-states drew their borders, nobody wanted to simplify the mess.
What it's like to live there:
- •Buildings are assigned to whichever country their front door is in. Some businesses have moved their doors to pick a preferred tax regime
- •Residents can choose which country to pay taxes in based on where they sleep
- •The town has two mayors, two sets of police, two fire departments, and two of everything else
- •Some cafés were able to stay open past Dutch closing time because their bar was on the Belgian side
- •COVID-19 created absurd situations where half a building was under one country's lockdown rules
The border is marked on the ground with white crosses and "+\" signs showing which side is which. Tourists come just to see the confusion.
🇮🇳 The Solved Problem: India-Bangladesh Enclaves
Until 2015, the India-Bangladesh border contained the most complicated enclave situation in modern history: over 160 enclaves, including the world's only third-order enclave — a piece of India, inside Bangladesh, inside India, inside Bangladesh.
Yes, really. Dahala Khagrabari was a fragment of Indian territory inside a Bangladeshi enclave inside an Indian enclave inside Bangladesh proper. Residents had to cross three international borders to reach their own country's mainland.
This cartographic nightmare originated from a legend: supposedly, the enclaves were created when the Raja of Cooch Behar and the Maharaja of Rangpur wagered villages in chess games in the 18th century. The more likely explanation involves a complex 1713 treaty that was never properly implemented.
The human cost:
For decades, residents of these enclaves lived in legal limbo:
- •They couldn't access schools, hospitals, or government services from the country surrounding them
- •They had no legal way to travel to their own country's mainland
- •Police and emergency services from their own country couldn't reach them
- •Many lived without electricity, clean water, or basic infrastructure
In 2015, India and Bangladesh finally ratified a Land Boundary Agreement that dissolved the enclaves. Residents could choose their nationality. The exchange involved 162 enclaves and affected about 50,000 people. It was one of the most significant peaceful border resolutions in modern history.
🌍 Other Notable Exclaves and Enclaves Around the World
Ceuta and Melilla (Spain)
Two Spanish cities on the coast of Morocco — the only EU territories on the African mainland. They're not technically enclaves (they have coastlines), but they're completely surrounded by Morocco on the land side. Both cities have built massive fences to control migration from Africa to Europe.
Llívia (Spain)
A Spanish town completely surrounded by France. When the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) ceded 33 villages to France, Llívia argued it was a town, not a village — and technically remained Spanish. It's been a Spanish enclave in France ever since.
Büsingen am Hochrhein (Germany)
A German town completely surrounded by Switzerland. It uses Swiss francs for daily transactions, is part of the Swiss customs area, has a Swiss postal code, and its residents even get Swiss area codes for their phones — but it's legally German territory.
Campione d'Italia (Italy)
An Italian town surrounded by Switzerland on the shores of Lake Lugano. Like Büsingen, it's in the Swiss customs zone and uses Swiss francs. Until 2020, it wasn't even part of the EU customs area despite being Italian.
Jungholz (Austria)
An Austrian village that can only be reached by road through Germany. It connects to Austria at exactly one point — a mountain summit. That single point of contact is a quadripoint where Austria touches itself (the village and the mainland) and Germany.
Nahwa (UAE) and Madha (Oman)
In the Arabian Peninsula, there's an Omani enclave (Madha) inside the UAE — and inside that Omani enclave, there's a UAE counter-enclave called Nahwa. It's the only third-order enclave in the Arab world.
📊 Exclaves and Enclaves by the Numbers
| Category | Record Holder | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest enclave country | Vatican City | 0.44 km² |
| Largest enclave country | Lesotho | 30,355 km² |
| Largest exclave | Alaska (USA) | 1.7 million km² |
| Most complex border | Baarle (BE/NL) | 30 enclaves total |
| Most isolated exclave | Kaliningrad (Russia) | 350+ km from mainland |
| Most recently dissolved | India-Bangladesh enclaves | 2015 |
| Highest elevation enclave | Lesotho | Entirely above 1,000m |
🤔 Why Do Exclaves and Enclaves Exist?
These territorial oddities persist for several reasons:
1. Medieval inheritance: Many European enclaves date back to feudal land ownership that didn't follow geographic logic. When modern states formed, they inherited these fragmented patterns.
2. Treaties and wars: After conflicts, peace treaties sometimes created strange territorial arrangements. Kaliningrad resulted from WWII; many African boundaries from colonial partitions.
3. Protection and survival: Lesotho exists because the Basotho sought protection from larger powers. San Marino survived by staying small and neutral.
4. Nobody cared enough to fix it: Some anomalies persist simply because resolving them would be more trouble than it's worth. Büsingen has been German in Switzerland since 1770 — changing that would disrupt lives for no good reason.
5. Geographic barriers: Sometimes natural features like mountains create isolated pockets that end up on the "wrong" side of a political boundary.
🎮 Test Your Enclave and Exclave Knowledge
Think you've mastered this topic? Here are some quiz questions:
- 1Which is the only country entirely surrounded by a single other nation AND has a population over 1 million? (Answer: Lesotho)
- 1How many Belgian enclaves exist within the Netherlands at Baarle? (Answer: 22)
- 1What was Kaliningrad called before 1945? (Answer: Königsberg)
- 1Which country has the world's largest exclave? (Answer: United States — Alaska)
- 1What unique record did Dahala Khagrabari hold before 2015? (Answer: World's only third-order enclave)
🗺️ Master Geography Through Interactive Games
Understanding exclaves and enclaves is a great way to level up your geography knowledge. The best way to cement this learning? Test yourself with interactive challenges.
At [Name The Countries](/), you can:
- •Challenge yourself to identify countries that contain enclaves or have exclaves
- •Race against time to locate Lesotho, San Marino, and Vatican City on a blank map
- •Track your progress as your knowledge of world geography improves
- •Compete with friends to see who knows more about territorial oddities
Whether you're a casual learner or aiming to master every country on Earth, understanding these geographic anomalies adds depth to your mental map of the world.
[Start exploring now →](/)
🔑 Key Takeaways
- •Enclaves are territories surrounded by another country; exclaves are separated from their parent country
- •Three countries are completely surrounded by a single other nation: Vatican City, San Marino (both in Italy), and Lesotho (in South Africa)
- •Kaliningrad is the most geopolitically significant exclave — Russian territory wedged between NATO members
- •The Baarle border is the most complicated on Earth, with 30 enclaves between Belgium and the Netherlands
- •The India-Bangladesh enclave mess was finally solved in 2015, ending decades of hardship for residents
- •Most exclaves and enclaves exist due to medieval treaties, colonial accidents, or wars — not rational planning
These territorial oddities remind us that maps are human creations, shaped by history, conflict, and compromise. The neat, colorful shapes in an atlas hide centuries of complexity underneath.
Want to learn more about the world's strangest borders? Check out our guide to the [Weirdest Borders in the World](/blog/weirdest-borders-in-the-world) or test your knowledge of [Countries Most People Can't Find on a Map](/blog/countries-most-people-cant-find).