60 - Madha and Nahwa
These names sound like they’re out of Arabian Nights - which is pretty close. Madha and Nahwa are the names of two territories on the Arabian peninsula which up until 15 minutes ago I had never before heard of. Together, they form a type of enclave/exclave complex which I would like to call The Omelet.
The territories are situated on the horn of the peninsula, the one pointing at Iran and prevented from touching it by the Strait of Hormuz. The tip of the horn is an enclave of Oman, the mainland of which is further to the south. On this map, that little piece of Oman on the Strait is not separately named, although several towns are (including Kumzar, on its own oil spill-shaped peninsula) and one interesting natural feature is pointed out: the Jabal al Harim, surprisingly high at 2.087 metres.
One always thinks of Arabia as flat, sandy desert - apparently not entirely correct.
Below this unnamed enclave, the territory of the United Arab Emirates fans out south and west, separating it from Oman proper - and giving the UAE sea access to the Indian Ocean in the process. On the other UAE shore, the one on the Persian Gulf, lies the glittering metropolis of Dubai, currently courting world attention with huge building projects.
On the same latitude as Dubai, but closer again to the Indian Ocean, lie Madha and Nahwa. Madha (75 sq. km) is an Omani enclave within UAE territory, while Nahwa in turn is UAE land, completely surrounded by Oman and part of the Emirate of Sharjah. This rather complex border situation was definitively demarcated only in 1969. Nahwa only consists of a few houses, while most of Madha is uninhabited, making the necessity for this particular delineatory arrangement even more mysterious.
Map found at the Wikipedia entries for Madha and Nahwa.
(Ehrm, you actually have to click the map to see the omelet-shape. As it is, the right column covers it, and I haven’t figured out a way yet to sufficiently minimise the picture. Yet being the operative word, I hope. Otherwise: the map will peep out from under that column after a few more posts)
The “unnamed” portion of Oman on the Horn is called Musandam. It’s got an entry in Wikipedia, though that doesn’t say much.
Comment by Paul Drye — January 10, 2007 @
I love this site!
I’m rather new to WordPress, and I’ve never added an image to a post, so I don’t know if this will help.
Can you reduce the size of the map by adding HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes to the IMG tag?
Comment by Paul — January 10, 2007 @
It would be simpler to crop it on the left.
Comment by Anton Sherwood — January 10, 2007 @
Nahwa only consists of a few houses, while most of Madha is uninhabited, making the necessity for this particular delineatory arrangement even more mysterious.
Hehe, the petty absurdities of international politics…
Comment by Loxias — January 10, 2007 @
Try wrapping your picture in a div as follows:
Trying to find Nahwa/Madha in Google Earth, the Madha border is there (although it seems a little too northerly), but no sign of Nahwa.
Comment by Mark Knoop — January 10, 2007 @
Of course my html didn’t make it through… try again:
<div style=”overflow:auto;”><img … /></div>
Comment by Mark Knoop — January 10, 2007 @
You should find a map online of all the Emirates and their borders - my country of residence is full of odd little enclaves with quirky histories. Wish I had the time at the moment to do so. You could also find expansionist maps of the UAE which show the Sabkha Matti enclave in the far west as part of the UAE (not Saudi Arabia), and give the UAE a larger share of the Empty Quarter, not to mention the disputed Abu Musa and Tunbs Islands…
Comment by Matthew MacLean — January 10, 2007 @
[...] A recent post that gives a typical dose of commentary and graphics and cartographical oddity is one about Madha and Nawha, belonging of Oman and the UAE, respectively. Madha is an enclave (think Lesotho. Maybe that doesn’t help) entirely surrounded by UAE, while Nawha is an enclave entirely within Madha. I’ll let Strange Maps do the rest of the talking. [...]
Pingback by I ♥ Strange Maps at Letters — January 13, 2007 @
http://geosite.jankrogh.com/oman.htm
http://geosite.jankrogh.com/nahwa.htm
Madhah apparently has quite a population, and Nahwa has about 40 houses.
Odd.
cheers
Comment by whodhellknew — February 20, 2007 @
I think what’s reffred to here is what use to be called “Muscat(sp)…I rember reading about “Muscat and Oman…of course, I’m probably wrong.
Comment by Ken — March 3, 2007 @
With, obviously, no education..
Comment by Ken — March 3, 2007 @
[...] here on Jan Krogh’s very interesting GeoSite, shows many enclaves-within-enclaves (see post #60 on this blog on Madha and Nahwa for a clearer map of what that looks like) and indicates one [...]
Pingback by 110 - Cooch Behar: The Mother of All Enclave Complexes « strange maps — May 8, 2007 @
Nahwa can be seen just south of the google Mahda border… http://www.maplandia.com/united-arab-emirates/shariqah/nahwa/
Very interesting blog strangemaps
Comment by domi — August 19, 2007 @
You wrote: “you actually have to click the map to see the omelet-shape. As it is, the right column covers it, and I haven’t figured out a way yet to sufficiently minimise the picture. Yet being the operative word, I hope. Otherwise: the map will peep out from under that column after a few more posts)”
I find sites which leave a very large blank area to serve as a top margin. They center a note in that area indicating that you need to scroll down for the content … This may work for this site.
Comment by Komowkwa — November 17, 2007 @