A Peninsula Affair

On a day filled with map and crosshairs news, I thought it would be nice, rather, to touch on an old political hotbed of contention, Crimea. The Black Sea peninsula has been a valuable post for many hundreds of years.

On a weekend that truly passed by in the blink of an eye, I found myself, as I often do, engulfed by a Sunday morning History Channel special: Russia - Land of the Tsars.

History Channel does a good job incorporating maps into their documentaries. They are particularly good at using them to show advancement and retraction of empires. One scene from Sunday portrayed the Russian advancement on the Crimean peninsula, on the Black Sea in modern day Ukraine.

In addition to being a relaxing Sunday activity, the documentary got me wanting to get back in to War & Peace and reread Crime & Punishment. The desire to travel to Russia, or course, also remains.

Here's how Crimea appears on my 2000 National Geographic wall map. A map which, on what was otherwise a challenging day, served as a window of imagination and inspired creative thoughts.

Where Three Powers Meet - Image of the Week

Without careful inspection one might not realize that Russia, China and North Korea actually share a common border. In addition to the three countries coming together there is a small stretch of land where the borders run near each other in a fascinating way.

I think this area would be a great candidate for Google to update their borders, something they have begun to do in
other areas, as these border delineations could use some serious work. No sense having to involve Bill Clinton in negotiations to release a geography blogger from North Korea if we don't have to!

Below is a blow up of the area and more detail on the point where the three countries come together, at least, according to Google.

You can find this area by navigating to 42º 25' 50" N 130º 36' 58" E. Once again for your reference and my own, you can type the degree symbol on the iPad by holding the O key and waiting for a small window to pop up. Give it a try!