After five weeks on the road, with more than 6300 miles covered over two continents, our expedition never reached its final destination. Bir Tawil, the unclaimed territory on the Egypt-Sudan border remained beyond our reach.

From the get-go, our final destination was Bir Tawil, a trapezoid-shaped piece of desert on the Egypt-Sudan border. We were so enchanted by this place, that we even incorporated the contours of Bir Tawil into the Logo of the expedition.

Political elites and security forces are often considered as the sole proprietors of no-man’s lands. The decisions (or indecisions) of politicians can catalyze their appearance and sustain their existence, often in conjunction with military and policing apparatus.

From 1945-1990, the border between Bulgaria and Greece was a Cold War frontier. For Bulgaria, this border zone was also the heartland of a newly-nationalised and strategically important sector of the economy. This was Cold War wine country. 

We’ll be joining a roundtable discussion with the Urban Conflicts research group at the Department of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Journalists reporting the so called “migrant crisis” in south-eastern Europe have, over recent months, invoked the idea of “no man’s land” to describe the precarious status of migrants and refugees as they move