Standing back from a world map, the outline of land against water starts to look less tidy than it first appears. Some countries are stretched across hundreds or even thousands of fragments, scattered like broken glass across vast stretches of ocean. Others sit almost entirely on a single mass of rock but still qualify as island nations in their own right. There are places where the distance between communities is measured in ferry hours rather than roads, and others where a capital city is closer to another continent than to its own outer edges. WorldAtlas reports that these countries do not sit comfortably in one shape. They drift, in a sense, across water that has long shaped how people live inside them.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
