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2/ The United Arab Emirates is often referred to as "The UAE", making it one of the few countries commonly referred by its initials.

Others are the US , the UK , and PNG

3/ The UAE , as the "United" part of the name implies, is a federated state, made up of seven different emirates.

The boundaries of the individual emirates are ... complex.

Here for example are maps of the Emirate of Sharjah (AE-SH) and the Emirate of Ajman (AE-AJ)

4/ The UAE has one of world's only "double" or "second-order" enclaves.

The tiny territory of Nahwa is entirely surrounded by the Omani territory of Madha, which is itself entirely surrounded by the UAE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahwa

5/ In recent decades major UAE city Dubai has grown and grown, with lots of new construction, including massive artificial islands and peninsulas along the coast.

One such project, named "The World", is in the shape of the world, making it the world's largest map
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_(archipelago)

#geoweirdness #MapsintheWild
cc: @mappery

6/ Further inland the UAE is mainly desert, the start of the "Empty Quarter" which covers southern Arabia, one of the least populated parts of the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%27_al_Khali

7/ Even though it is deserted, ownership can still be disputed.

The UAE and neighbouring Saudi Arabia disagree on the exact course of their border.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia%E2%80%93United_Arab_Emirates_border#Border_dispute

8/ The UAE has other open disputes with nearby Iran regarding who owns various islands near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The islands are occupied by Iran, but claimed by the UAE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_and_Lesser_Tunbs

9/ A bigger, longer-running, and regional dispute is about the body of water the Strait of Hormuz leads to.

Known historically as "the Persian Gulf", many Arab countries feel the name should be "the Arabian Gulf" or even just "the Gulf"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_naming_dispute

10/ Speaking of the Gulf, the UAE is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) together with .

The GCC is a regional grouping with the goal of closer economic ties like a customs union and common market (along the lines of the EU in Europe).

At one point a shared currency, to be called the Khaleeji, was envisioned, but this has stalled since the financial crisis of 2008.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaleeji_(currency)

11/ That's it for our look at the #geoweirdness of the United Arab Emirates (the UAE)

Thanks for reading and boosting. What did we overlook?

We have many more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog.

Enjoy: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

@opencage

An interesting feature of the area was the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, started in 1947.

It was made to avoid Hormuz and Suez crossing by the ships, saving a lot of time and fuel, but it had a lot of issues in the Golan Heights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Arabian_Pipeline

Documentary:

https://invidious.devianze.city/watch?v=BRTllxX9css

@kgjenkins ease up on the beer, Keith