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This week in we again head south of the equator.

Let's look at the geographic oddities of Argentina 🇦🇷

1/n

2/ First up, maps of Argentina 🇦🇷 may look a little different than you expect.

Argentina likes to make a big deal of its Antarctic claims.

It has six permanent bases and seven summer bases, and at least 11 babies have been born in "Antártida Argentina"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentin

3/ As you can see in the map from the previous toot, Argentina claims ownership of the 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands (known is Spanish as the Malvinas).

The lead to a war between the UK 🇬🇧 and Argentina 🇦🇷 40 years ago

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland

4/ 1300km to the east of the Falklands 🇫🇰 lies the island of South Georgia (Spanish: Isla San Pedro) also claimed by Argentina 🇦🇷, and the scene of some fighting during the war

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion

Today it is the 🇬🇧 British Overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 🇬🇸. Total population about 25 people.

5/ Given the recent conflict with the UK 🇬🇧, it may surprise you to know Argentina 🇦🇷 is the only other country in the world where the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Welsh language has an official status, a remnant of immigration in the 19th century.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagoni

Unfortunately the Welsh version of OpenStreetMap covers only Wales.
openstreetmap.cymru

6/ To the west Argentina 🇦🇷 borders Chile 🇨🇱, one of the longest shared borders in the world.

One remote section of the border currently remains undefined

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentin

7/ Argentina has the world's southernmost city: Ushuaia, located in the Tierra del Fuego province

OpenCage 👉🌍

8/ Much farther north 🇦🇷 Argentina's border with 🇧🇷 Brazil runs directly though the famous Iguazu Falls, the largest waterfall system in the world

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_F

9/ Argentina 🇦🇷 has several exclaves, all islands surrounded by the waters of Uruguay 🇺🇾 or Paraguay🇵🇾

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Api

10/ Similarly, 🇦🇷 Argentina's waters entirely surround the Filomena Islands which belong to 🇺🇾 Uruguay near the delightfully named Nuevo Berlin.

11/ You may have noticed that Argentina's flag 🇦🇷 features a sun, specifically the Sun of May, just like the flag of neighbouring Uruguay 🇺🇾 - reflecting the shared history of the two nations as part of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_of_M

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_P

12/ Of course no look at Argentina 🇦🇷 and would be complete without a nod to the short story "Del rigor en la ciencia" ("On Exactitude in Science" in English) by famous Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges with its 1:1 scale map

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Exact

13/ Thanks for reading (and sharing). What did we miss?

If you liked our look at Argentina 🇦🇷, you may enjoy our threads about

🇧🇷 Brazil en.osm.town/@opencage/10985110

🇦🇶 Antarctica en.osm.town/@opencage/11013011

🇬🇧 British Overseas Territories: en.osm.town/@opencage/11028803

We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some still on twitter, but over time we are moving them to mastodon.

Enjoy: blog.opencagedata.com/geothrea

Bonus toot - just discovered a fun new 🇦🇷 Argentinian fact.

In northern Argentina there is a province named Formosa. It is an antipode of northern Taiwan 🇹🇼, which was previously known as ... Formosa.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosa_

@opencage
I can't wait see how you react when you discover the country and the US state both called .. #Georgia /s ;-)

@opencage One fun fact I like is that the southern Atlantic-coast city of Comodoro Rivadavia is known as the "Capital of the Winds". From what my friends who were deployed there for a week in July one year, that is an accurate description.