While history is full of conflicts waged between countries over territories large and small, there is one place on earth¹ that is specifically not wanted by countries which border it, who in fact are convinced that this place should belong to their neighbour rather than themselves.

The distinctly non-triangular Bir Tawil Triangle is an area on the border between Egypt and Sudan, unclaimed by either nation, and identified by the dotted border lines in Google Maps.

Given that this is pretty much just 2,000 km² of sand and rocks, it’s perhaps not surprising that neither country is particularly attracted to it, but what causes it to be so undesirable? The secret lies in the continuation of the dotted border lines to the east and north-east, which encompass a much larger area (almost 6,500 km²) known as the Hala’ib Triangle², though it is only vaguely more triangular in shape than Bir Tawil.

Note that the border to the west of the Bir Tawil Triangle is shown as a solid line. This is 22° latitude, the political border between Egypt and Sudan as defined in 1899. Egypt claims that this border should run all the way to the Red Sea, giving it control of the Hala’ib Triangle, while Sudan would get the smaller Bir Tawil Triangle.

Sudan, on the other hand, prefers the more complicated administrative border established in 1902 which would reverse the ownership of these two parcels of land. This boundary was originally established because tribes in the Bir Tawil area were of Egyptian origin, while those in the Hala’ib area were of Sudanese descent, including those in the town of Hala’ib, the only settlement of any size in the area.

Essentially, neither country claims the smaller Bir Tawil Triangle as it would mean losing control of the larger Hala’ib Triangle, the access it has to the Red Sea, and potential oil fields. In a no-doubt complicated and tense situation, Egypt has administered the larger area since 1990, but Sudan kept armed forces there until 2000, and continues to claim the area even after their withdrawal.

This has resulted in a border post on the 22° latitude border where it is crossed by a major road, but none where that road crosses the other border further north.

The Bir Tawil Triangle has no roads, but the high-res images show that at least some vehicles pass through, with tire tracks clearly visible in the sand – these appear to be areas where water gathers, with trees growing sporadically, so may be the ‘Water Well’ from which the area is named.

More information at Strange Maps.

Continuing our exploration of the work of Santiago Calatrava, we visit some of his more notable buildings, beginning with an in-depth look at the magnificent Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències – the City of Arts and Sciences in his home town of Valencia.

With construction ongoing since 1996, the complex consists of five main areas, of which one (L’Oceanogràfic aquarium) was designed by a different architect.

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia contains 4 performance halls for music, theatre and opera in a building that many would consider designed for inter-galactic travel.

Resembling an immense eye to represent visual arts, L’Hemisfèric houses an IMAX theatre, planetarium and Laserium.

Rising behind is the skeletal form of El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, a hands-on science museum.

Bordering the decorative pools is L’Umbracle, a landscaped park and sculpture gallery under a network of white arches.

Calatrava’s contributions also include a bridge and central plaza, both of which are currently under construction. However, apartment buildings that were supposed to have been developed in the area have been put on hold for financial reasons.

The forms seen above are reflected in two important buildings on the Atlantic island of Tenerife. The Auditorio de Tenerife on the waterfront of Santa Cruz features a 1600-seat main hall with a pipe organ and a smaller chamber hall, all contained within one of the most amazingly-shaped buildings ever seen.

Also in Santa Cruz, the Tenerife International Centre for Trade Fairs and Congresses features 40,000 square metres of exhibition and meeting space. Thanks to this week’s Street View update, we can also now see it from ground-level.

Another waterfront building can be found by Lake Michigan in the form of the Milwaukee Art Museum which was the first of Calatrava’s projects to be completed in the US. The museum’s main feature is a movable sunshade which can retract in poor weather and at night; it also has a signature cable-stayed bridge.

As with his bridges, not all of Calatrava’s buildings have been popular. The visually stunning Gare do Oriente train station in Lisbon has been criticised for cutting off the city centre from the river, and for not protecting waiting passengers from the elements.

Thanks to the many people who suggested the CAC … paco, Eduardo R. de Lima, Stolz, Arrianus, Carlos Urena, javier, Simone, antonio waller, Sebas Font, Trompie, Michael Zacherl, Pablo, andysamp, Ximet, Andros and Martin.

Santiago Calatrava is a renowned Spanish architect whose work we’ve admired in the past on Google Sightseeing. We’re going to take a more in-depth look at his innovative work in two areas, beginning today with bridges.

One of Calatrava’s earliest bridge commissions helped cement his international reputation for civic engineering, the Bac de Roda bridge in Barcelona. Like the vast majority of his work, the structure is entirely white.

Part of the city’s pre-Olympic development, the bridge incorporates steel cables, a method used in many of Calatrava’s subsequent designs, including the Puente del Alamillo in Seville, which features a 142m tall mast.

Similar in design to the previously featured Sundial Bridge, the Puente del Alamillo was part of Seville’s preparations for Expo ‘92.

In Buenos Aires the 100m long Puente de la Mujer uses the same technique, but the mast is angled forward rather than backwards. In this case, the mast also supports a section of bridge that pivots through 90 degrees to allow boat traffic to pass, coming to rest at the stabilising pylon visible in the river to the south.

While Calvatara’s bridges are generally well received and establish themselves as symbols of the communities where they are built, there have been some exceptions. In Bilbao, the Zubizuri has met with opposition on several fronts.

The Zubizuri’s deck includes glass bricks which apparently break easily and become very slippery in the rain, additionally, the placement of the bridge on the river edge (rather than the elevated city street) made it somewhat impractical to actually use, so the city had to build a connecting walkway – the curved structure to the left of the bridge. Calatrava actually felt this was detrimental to his creation, and amazingly, won €30,000 through his legal action.

Furthermore, Calatrava’s Ponte della Costituzione in Venice – shown as under construction on Google Maps, but actually completed a year ago – has also met with controversy for being too expensive, inaccessible to anyone unable to traverse its many steps, and for being too close to one of the city’s classic bridges across the Grand Canal.

Named for one of Dublin’s most famous writers¹, the James Joyce bridge has had a better reception from locals, perhaps because the design mirrors many of the other arched bridges across the Liffey. However like the Zubizuri, the James Joyce has a glass block walkway² – though it’s possible that the frosted finish to the glass makes it safer to traverse in Irish weather!

Another of Calatrava’s bridges, named for another writer – Samuel Beckett – is under construction further east. It will be a swing bridge very similar to Puente de la Mujer.

Finally, the spectacular Chords Bridge in Jerusalem is one of Calatrava’s more notable recent bridge designs, but unfortunately it’s not yet visible on Google Maps.

The second part of this examination of Calatrava’s work looks at some of his most famous and notable buildings.

Thanks to Redder Zooming.

The Millennium Dome was an exhibition centre built in London to celebrate the first year of the new millennium¹. It has since been converted into the O2 entertainment complex.

Whatever the name, we’re very impressed with the shadows cast by the twelve 100m tall pylons, which are intended to represent a clock face, a nod to the Greenwich Meridian which runs nearby.

The pylons anchor cables which support gleaming white plastic-coated fibreglass panels. At 365m across (representing the number of days in the year), this is the largest dome of its type in the world. It reaches a height of 50m, and encloses an area of more than 80,000 square metres. Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond fell down the outside of The Dome during the opening sequence of The World Is Not Enough.

The uniformity of The Dome is interrupted by one flaw – a large hole had to be left in the structure to accommodate a ventilation shaft from the Blackwall Tunnel which runs below the site.

The Millennium Experience opened on January 1, 2000. It was conceived as a showcase of British excellence – a blend of art, performance and exploration in 14 zones funded by a top-notch collection of sponsors eager to attach their brand to the promise of the new millennium.

However, the reality² was that, despite the project running considerably over budget, visitors often found the queues unbearable and the exhibits confusing. This resulted in a media backlash, though it is claimed that visitor feedback was generally positive (even if the total number of visitors was half what was originally hoped).

After closing at the end of 2000, the contents of The Dome were auctioned off³, and the facility sat idle other than for occasional special events.

Approaching The Dome on Millennium Way

A development company purchased the site and sold naming rights to O2 in 2005. The interior was gutted and two years construction saw the creation of a fully enclosed entertainment ‘district’, dominated by a 20,000+ seat arena⁴, but also featuring cinemas, clubs, restaurants and exhibition spaces.

The O2 Arena has presented many of the world’s best known musical acts as well as sporting events and other spectacles. Prince played 21 shows shortly after the arena opened, and before his death earlier this year, Michael Jackson had scheduled (and sold out) 50 shows over 9 months.

The Dome from the north bank of the River Thames.

The Arena will host several events during the 2012 Olympics, though it will be renamed the North Greenwich Arena due to licensing and sponsorship restrictions.

Thanks to last week’s launch of Google Street View in Canada, our Canadian correspondent Ian has been able to prepare a grand tour of Canada’s Railway Hotels, in 2 parts.

Continuing our journey from east to west, looking at Canada’s grand railway hotels, we start in Toronto and the Royal York Hotel.

The largest Fairmount hotel in Canada, the Royal York is directly across the street from Union Station, still the departure point for trains which head across the country to Vancouver¹.

When it opened in 1929 the hotel was the tallest building in the British Empire, and it is typically where members of the Royal Family stay when visiting the city.

Hopping across the still-lacking-in-Street-View-imagery provinces, we head to Alberta and the Palliser Hotel in Calgary, located right next to the Calgary Tower.

Opened by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1914, the Palliser is now home to the CPR Pavilion, an exhibition showing the historical links between hotel and railway, including some vintage train cars². Once the tallest building in the city, the hotel is now dwarfed by skyscrapers that have sprung up in this oil-rich city.

Following the Street View car west we get to the Rocky Mountains, and two hotels that can perhaps be considered the grandest of the grand hotels. CPR President William Van Horne declared “If we can’t export the scenery, we’ll import the tourists”, and those tourists still flock to these hotels in huge numbers every year.

The Banff Springs Hotel opened in 1888 and was rebuilt 40 years later after a fire, though it took another 40 years after that for it to be made suitable for winter use.

The Banff Springs takes its name from the natural hot springs which rise in another part of the town – the hotel’s current spa is only ‘reminiscent’ of the natural springs!

Named a National Historic Site in 1992 (and located in the UNESCO World Heritage Banff National Park), the hotel is now a major ‘resort’ with a world-renowned golf course, huge conference centre, on-site staff housing and multiple accommodation wings for guests.

About 60km to the north-west is Chateau Lake Louise, which has also developed into resort status.

At the edge of a stunning glacier-blue lake, surrounded by soaring mountain peaks – this has to be one of the most scenic hotel locations in the world³, though it is amusing to see trail-ragged hikers wandering through the opulent surroundings after a long day’s walk. And despite its size, this hotel did not open year-round until the 1970s. Winter activities now include skiing and skating on the lake, as well as horse-drawn sleigh rides.

Finally to Vancouver, end (or beginning, depending on your direction of travel) of the cross-country train journey, and the Hotel Vancouver.

A joint construction by Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, the hotel is a short distance from the current VIA Rail station. It opened in 1939 with a visit from the King and Queen.

Similar to the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, the Hotel Vancouver housed the local CBC studios for a number of years.

We hope to conclude this series with the hotels in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Victoria – when Street View makes it to those cities.