List of enclaves and exclaves


In political geography, an enclave is a piece of land belonging to one country that is totally surrounded by another country. An exclave is a piece of land that is politically attached to a larger piece but not physically contiguous with it because they are completely separated by a surrounding foreign territory or territories. Many entities are both enclaves and exclaves.

Enclaves that are also exclaves

Each enclave listed in this section has an administrative level equivalent to that of the one other entity that entirely surrounds it. Each enclave is also a part of a main region; hence, it is an exclave of that region.

Other subnational

Enclaves that are not exclaves

Each enclave listed in this section has a legal status equivalent to the one other entity that entirely surrounds it. None of the enclaves has a separate main region of which it is a part.

National level

Some enclaves are sovereign states, completely surrounded by another one, and therefore not exclaves. Three such sovereign countries exist:
The same logic applies to many of the sub-national enclaves listed immediately following.
CountryArea Enclaved withinCoordinatesNotes
Lesotho

Other subnational

Exclaves that are not enclaves

An exclave must always be grouped with a main region of which it is a legal part. In the case of international waters, the main region consists of all international waters not in EEZs. All potential paths of travel from the exclave to its main region must cross one or more different administrative-territorial regions having the equivalent legal level. Each exclave listed in this section borders on more than one other region.

Other subnational

Semi-enclaves and semi-exclaves

Semi-enclaves and semi-exclaves are areas that, except for possessing an unsurrounded sea border, would otherwise be enclaves or exclaves. Semi-enclaves can exist as independent states that border only one other state. Vinokurov declares, "Technically, Portugal, Denmark, and Canada also border only one foreign state, but they are not enclosed in the geographical, political, or economic sense. They have vast access to international waters. At the same time, there are states that, although in possession of sea access, are still enclosed by the territories of a foreign state." Therefore, Vinokurov applies a quantitative principle: the land boundary must be longer than the coastline. Thus he classifies a state as a sovereign semi-enclave if it borders on just one state, and its land boundary is longer than its sea coastline. Vinokurov affirms that "no similar quantitative criterion is needed to define the scope of non-sovereign semi-enclaves/exclaves."

Semi-enclaves that are not semi-exclaves

National level

Subnational level

Semi-enclaves that are also semi-exclaves

National level

Other subnational

  • Poland: Międzyodrze-Wyspa Pucka, a neighborhood of Szczecin, while mostly consisting of islands on the Oder river, possesses several thin strips of land on the west bank of the river, as well as in the northern portion of Ustowskie Mokradła islands.

Semi-exclaves that are not semi-enclaves

National level

Pene-enclaves/exclaves (including inaccessible districts)

A pene-exclave is a part of the territory of one country that can be approached conveniently — in particular by wheeled traffic — only through the territory of another country. Such areas are enclaves or exclaves for practical purposes, without meeting the strict definition; hence they are also called functional enclaves or practical enclaves. Many pene-exclaves partially border their own territorial waters. A pene-enclave can also exist entirely on land, such as when intervening mountains render a territory inaccessible from other parts of a country except through alien territory. Thus, a pene-exclave has land borders with other territory but is not completely surrounded by the other's land or territorial waters. They can exhibit continuity of state territory across territorial waters but, nevertheless, a discontinuity on land, such as in the case of Point Roberts. Along rivers that change course, pene-enclaves can be observed as complexes comprising many small pene-enclaves. Attribution of a pene-enclave status to a territory can sometimes be disputed, depending on whether the territory is considered to be practically inaccessible from the mainland or not.

National level

  • Austria:
  • * The municipality of Jungholz is connected to the rest of Austria at a quadripoint at the summit of the mountain Sorgschrofen. Road access is only via German land. However, Vinokurov states, "For all purposes, a connection in a single point does not mean anything. It is just like being completely separated. One cannot pass through a single point, nor is it possible to transport goods. It is not even possible to lay a telephone line."
  • * The Kleinwalsertal, a valley part of Vorarlberg, can only be reached by road from Oberstdorf, Germany.
  • * Hinterriß and Eng are functional exclaves accessible by road only from Germany.
  • Belgium/France: Along the river Leie between Halluin and Armentières, where the river forms the border, there are 7 small pene-exclaves of Belgium on the southern side of the river and 7 small pene-exclaves of France on the northern side of the river. This is due to minor changes in the course of the river since the border was fixed in 1830.
  • Belgium/Luxembourg: An Aldi supermarket located at Schmëtt, at the northernmost point of Luxembourg, is only accessible by road from Luxembourg by briefly driving into Belgium.
  • Belgium/Netherlands: On the Dutch side of the Meuse River, between the Belgian municipality of Visé and its neighbouring Dutch municipalities of Maastricht and Eijsden-Margraten, Belgium has two pene-exclaves, Presqu'ile de L'Ilal and Presqu'ile d'Eijsden. A Dutch pene-exclave, Presqu'ile Petit-Gravier, lies on the Belgian side. The states signed a treaty in 2016 to swap these plots of land, which are the result of river straightening prior to 1980.
  • * The Zeelandic Flanders is a part of the Netherlands, but has land access only from Belgium, and through the Western Scheldt undersea tunnel built 2003.
  • Belize: Ambergris Caye is an island in Belize located south of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is separated from the rest of the country and can only be reached on land by a bridge from Mexico.
  • Bolivia: Copacabana and the surrounding promontory are separated from the rest of Bolivia by Lake Titicaca, only joining by land to Peruvian territory. Access to Bolivia is only available via ferry.
  • Cambodia: Preah Vihear, 11th-century Hindu temple, can only be reached by traveling through Thailand.
  • Canada:
  • * St. Regis, Quebec: Part of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, has a land border with St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in New York State; road access to the rest of Canada is only available through New York State.
  • * Campobello Island, New Brunswick can be reached by road only by driving through the United States, across the border bridge to Maine. Connection with the rest of Canada is by ferry.
  • * The entrance to Aroostook Valley Country Club near Fort Fairfield, Maine, is in the U.S., but most of the club's golf course and its clubhouse are in Canada. Members and their guests, as long as they remain on the club's property, are not required to clear Canadian customs. Although a shorter route to Canada exists, members coming from Canada must do a detour to report to U.S. border inspection before proceeding to the golf club.
  • * The Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border. The Canadian part of the building is a practical exclave of Canada, as most of the building is physically in Stanstead, Quebec, but the only public access to the building is via the front door on Caswell Avenue in Derby Line, Vermont, in the United States. People in Canada may not enter or exit the building except by travelling into the U.S. A special exception allows library and opera house patrons to cross the border to enter and move about in the building, but they must return to their home country to avoid being charged with illegally entering the other country.
  • * The Salmon Glacier and Granduc Mine in Premier, British Columbia can only be reached by road through Hyder, Alaska.
  • Chile: Magallanes Region of Chile, the southernmost portion of the Chilean mainland, is a practical exclave. The southernmost location that can be reached by road from the core of Chile is Villa O'Higgins in Aysén Region. Before the construction of the Carretera Austral, and its side-routes, the practical exclave included the Aysén Region and other locations such as Futaleufú.
  • Croatia:
  • * Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina: A few houses and the castle Zrinski, belonging to the municipality of Hrvatska Kostajnica, lie on the right bank of the Una river, and are connected to the municipality by a bridge. The border crosses the FK Partizan Kostajnica football club's pitch, leaving approximately 1/3 of the pitch on the Croatian territory.
  • * Croatia/Serbia: The Croatian village of Kenđija is a pene-exclave on the left bank of the Danube, and can be reached by road only through Serbia.
  • * Croatia/Hungary: The Croatian village of Križnica lies on the left bank of the river Drava, and is connected to the rest of the country by a pedestrian bridge.
  • * Croatia/Slovenia: A small portion of the Croatian village of Mali Tabor lies on the right bank of the river Sutla and can be reached only through Slovenian territory.
  • Denmark/Germany: Several farms on the border, e.g. Vilmkærgård. Between 1920 and 1927, the popular German tourist island Sylt was accessible only by boat from Højer, ceded to Denmark in 1920. A direct German route was built in 1927.
  • Estonia: Lutepää is a small village on the Värska-to-Saatse gravel road in southeast and it can only be reached by travelling through Russia.
  • Finland/Sweden: The city centre of the Finnish city of Tornio is a pene-enclave unreachable directly by land from Finnish territory, although connected to the rest of Finland by a pair of bridges. The neighbouring Swedish municipality of Haparanda has two similar pene-enclaves unreachable directly from Swedish territory. One is an islet crossed by the international border at a golf course on the line between Tornio and Haparanda.
  • France: The territorial water of Canada completely surrounds that of the French territorial collectivity of St Pierre and Miquelon except for an EEZ corridor 10.5 NM wide stretching 200 NM to the south. This corridor is wholly enclosed within the EEZ of Canada due to the EEZ of Sable Island to the southeast of Nova Scotia.
  • Germany/Switzerland:
  • * The smaller part of the German city of Konstanz, which includes the Altstadt, lies to the south of the Rhine and has no land border with Germany, being otherwise surrounded by Switzerland; it is linked to the rest of Konstanz, and by extension to the rest of Germany, by a bridge.
  • * The Swiss town of Stein am Rhein has only a bridge over the Rhine connecting it to the rest of Switzerland, which it does not border on land, and is otherwise surrounded by Germany.
  • Guatemala/Mexico: The changing course of the Río Suchiate has created pene-exclaves on both banks of the river.
  • Guyana/Venezuela: The coastal border runs in a straight, northwest–southeast line next to the beach, producing a pene-exclave of Guyana on Isla Corocoro 12 miles long and 300 feet wide at its narrowest.
  • Hong Kong: Shenzhen Bay Control Point, Hong Kong's immigration/customs control point that is surrounded by China, is located at the northern terminus of the Hong Kong–Shenzhen Western Corridor. It is contiguous with the rest of Hong Kong only by the road surface of the motorway. The Hong Kong Government must pay rent to the Shenzhen municipal government for the use of the port area, amounting to 6 million per year until 2018, when a deal was reached to slash it to 1,000 starting from 2019. The rental agreement lasts until 30 June 2047.
  • Ireland/United Kingdom: The westernmost region of County Monaghan in Ireland contains a pene-enclave jutting into County Fermanagh, United Kingdom, known as the Drummully Polyp or Salient. There are two inaccessible districts: Drumard in the 'polyp' itself, belongs to Ireland and is inaccessible directly by road from any other part of Ireland; the village of Summerhill, County Fermanagh in the United Kingdom is similarly inaccessible from the rest of the United Kingdom. The A3 and N54 road, known as the Concession Road, crosses the border here 4 times in a short distance.
  • Italy:
  • * The Livigno valley near the Swiss border was at one time accessible only from Switzerland and was exempt from Italian customs, an exemption that continues today even though road access to the rest of Italy has been established. It is therefore excluded from EU VAT area.
  • * The village of Bagni di Craveggia can only be reached by travelling through the Canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The village never became part of Switzerland, as the pastures surrounding it were owned by the people of Vigezzo Valley, rather than the people of the Swiss Onsernone Valley, at the end of which the village is situated. Consequently, the Swiss franc is commonly used.
  • * On the San Marino/Italy border, there is Italian land east of the River San Marino that does not join to any other part of 'dry' Italian territory. This area is only a few metres wide, and follows the river's course for around 500 metres, and is close to the Strada del Lavoro.
  • Lithuania: Curonian Spit's northern part in the Klaipėda District is bounded by Russia and the Baltic Sea, but has the common territorial waters of Lithuania.
  • Mexico/United States of America: Shifts in the meandering course of the lower Rio Bravo del Norte have created numerous pene-exclaves. Under the Boundary Treaty of 1970 and earlier treaties, the two nations have maintained the actual course of the river as the international boundary, but both must approve proposed changes. From 1989 to 2009, there were 128 locations where the river changed course, causing land that had been on one side of the river to then occupy the opposite bank. Until the boundary is officially changed, there are 60 small pene-exclaves of the state of Texas now lying on the southern side of the river, as well as 68 such pene-exclaves of Mexico on the northern side of the river. The last such exchange occurred in 2009, after languishing as a proposal for 20 years.
  • Malaysia: In the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, the Limbang Division is completely cut off from the rest of the state's road network. The Limbang District in the division is only accessible by road through Brunei, as it is located between Brunei's main portion and the Temburong District. The Lawas District, on the other hand, lies between Temburong and the state of Sabah. As Sabah and Sarawak have autonomy in immigration affairs, immigration checks are required when travelling into or out of the Limbang Division by road.
  • Namibia: Mpalila Island can only be reached from the rest of the country by travelling through Botswana.
  • Netherlands: Part of the province of Zeeland, namely Zeelandic Flanders is accessible by land only through the country of Belgium, although it is accessible by sea from the rest of the province of Zeeland. There is a tunnel, the Westerscheldetunnel, which also links Zeelandic Flanders to the rest of the province.
  • Norway/Sweden: Properties 79/3 and 79/4 at Trosterud in Aurskog-Høland Municipality, Norway, are only accessible by a road that follows the Norwegian-Swedish boundary. Some nearby houses in Sweden are only accessible from that road that is connected to a larger road only in Norway.
  • Portugal: An area north of Tourém is cut off from the rest of Portuguese territory by the lake Encoro de Salas, being surrounded by Spanish territory. It is accessible by a road bridge, but otherwise does not border the rest of Portugal.
  • Russia:
  • * Dubki area is bounded by Estonia and Lake Peipsi-Pihkva.
  • * The settlement of Maloje Kulisko is separated from the rest of the country by the Kuuleski River; the village is otherwise surrounded by Estonian territory, although as it is a bog island, it is not accessible from Estonia either.
  • * Vistula Spit's eastern part in the Kaliningrad Area is bounded by Poland and the Baltic Sea, but has the common territorial waters of Russia.
  • Senegal: An area of marshy land, approximately south of Tiong, Mauritania is owned by Senegal, but is inaccessible from any other part of Senegal. Coastal waters, however, are contiguous.
  • Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina: In the vicinity of Međurečje a salient belonging to Serbia is connected by a 30-metre-wide, 660-metre-long land corridor. It has road access only by passing through Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • Slovenia: A farmhouse and a few other buildings in the village of Rigonce on the left bank of the river Sotla/Sutla can only be reached through Croatia.
  • Spain: Os de Civís is inaccessible via any other part of Spanish territory, as one has to travel via Andorra.
  • Sweden: The settlements Naimakka, Keinovuopio and some few more farms located on the Swedish side of the Könkämäeno river have road access only on the Finnish side.
  • Togo: A territory in the northwestern end of Togo is only accessible through Burkina Faso.
  • Turkey:
  • * The European section of Turkey is bounded by Greece and Bulgaria. Despite that the European section and the Asian section of Turkey are not geographically conterminous and are separated by the Turkish Straits, there are three connecting bridges, one highway and one railway tunnel in Istanbul and one bridge in Çanakkale.
  • * The valley of Macahel, which includes five villages in northeastern Turkey, can only be reached by vehicle via Batumi in Georgia. In winter, as the snow shuts the paths that are completely within the borders of Turkey, the road via Batumi is the only way to travel there.
  • * Turkey has a pene-exclave west of the Maritsa River opposite Edirne, with a land boundary of 10.8 km with Greece.
  • Uganda: The extreme tip of Tanzania's Kanyiragwa peninsula is a very small pene-exclave of Uganda on the shore of Lake Victoria, created by the parallel of latitude that defines most of the border between Uganda and Tanzania.
  • United Kingdom: Northern Ireland is bounded by Ireland, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
  • United States of America/Canada:
  • * Although Alaska is itself a pene-exclave, much of the Alaska Panhandle consists of mountainous peninsulas; many communities along the coast lack road connection to other parts of Alaska directly, such as the state capital, Juneau. Three communities are connected by road to Canada with no road to any other point in Alaska: Haines via the Haines Highway; Skagway via the Klondike Highway; and Hyder to Stewart, British Columbia. The distance between Haines and Skagway is about by the Alaska Marine Highway car ferry but by road through Canada. Hyder is the only point in the U.S. that can be entered legally without reporting for border inspection; while Canada maintains a border post on the road to Stewart, the U.S. border post was closed in the 1970s. Hyder is connected to the rest of Alaska only by a seaplane service to Ketchikan, with customs inspection done on arrival in Ketchikan.
  • * Point Roberts, Washington, is bounded by British Columbia, Canada, the Strait of Georgia, and Boundary Bay. It can be reached from the rest of Washington State only via road through two border crossings.
  • * A slice of land on the edge of Lake Metigoshe lies in North Dakota's Roland Township bordering Winchester, Canada.
  • * A peninsula juts into North Dakota within the Osthus Lake in Rolette County, North Dakota, 500 meters south of Gunnville Lake and 700 meters east of Wakopa Creek, in the Wakopa Wildlife Management Area.
  • * The Northwest Angle – the northernmost part of Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota, and the northernmost part of the contiguous 48 states – is bounded by Manitoba, Canada and Lake of the Woods. Access to the rest of Minnesota is only via boat or by a pair of vehicular border crossings.
  • * Elm Point, Minnesota and two small pieces of uninhabited land just to its west are also bounded by Manitoba and Lake of the Woods.
  • * The Alburgh Tongue in Lake Champlain, location of the town of Alburgh, Vermont, is bounded by Quebec, Canada to the north. The community can be reached via road bridges from Vermont or New York.
  • * Province Point, the small end of a peninsula east of Alburgh, Vermont, is bounded by Quebec and Lake Champlain.
  • * Estcourt Station, Maine, does not have public road access to the rest of Maine. Instead, Estcourt Station's houses, store and gas station access Rue Frontiere, a street on the Canadian side of the border in Pohenegamook, Quebec.

Divided islands

Subnational pene-enclaves/exclaves (inaccessible districts)

Divided islands

Historic enclaves/exclaves

National level

  • Belgium:
  • * Belgium had a counter-enclave located near Fringshaus from 6 November 1922 until 23 April 1949, while Germany owned the connecting roads that were part of the Roetgener Wald enclave. These roads met at a traffic island north of Fringshaus, with the 2279 m2 island itself being a part of Belgium. This counter-enclave was extinguished in 1949 when Belgium annexed the German roads that intersected at the traffic island. In 1958, when Belgium returned the east–west road to Germany, this traffic island also became part of the Roetgener Wald enclave
  • China:
  • * Forbidden City – The Xinhai Revolution led to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912. In exchange for the abdication of the last Qing emperor Puyi, the Qing court and the ROC government signed an agreement for the favourable treatment of the abdicated emperor. Puyi was allowed to retain his title as emperor and was accorded the courtesies as a foreign monarch by the ROC government, and the imperial court remained at the Forbidden City. The Dragon Flag of the Qing Dynasty remained hoisted inside the Forbidden City, certain government organs such as the Imperial Household Department, Imperial Clan Court and Ministry of Justice continued to exist within the palace walls, and the emperor continued to hold court, appoint officials and grant titles of nobility. Following the Beijing coup in 1924, the warlord Feng Yuxiang unilaterally revised the agreement, abolishing Puyi's title of emperor, his right to live in the Forbidden City and other related arrangements.
  • * Unlike Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories that were added later constituted a pene-exclave of the United Kingdom from 1860/1898 until 1997. Kowloon south of Boundary Street was ceded in perpetuity, whereas the New Territories was turned over under a 99-year lease.
  • * Kowloon Walled City was a counter-enclave belonging to China on the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong from 1898 to 1993. The question of jurisdiction led to a hands-off approach by Chinese and British authorities over the years until the quality of life became intolerable. A mutual decision to demolish the 2.6 hectares of structures was announced in 1987 and completed in 1994.
  • * Kwang-Chou-Wan was a pene-exclave of France on the south coast of China from 1898, upon its lease to France by Qing China, until its return by France in 1946; its territory included the islands in the bay and land on both banks of the Maxie River, covering 1300 km2 of land.
  • * Kwantung was a pene-exclave of Russia and later Japan in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria that existed from 1898 to 1945 and included the ports of Port Arthur and Dal'niy, the latter founded in 1899. It was leased to Russia from 1898 until 1905, when Japan replaced Russia as leaseholder. After World War II, the Soviet Union occupied the territory in 1945, jointly administering it with the Chinese before turning it over to the People's Republic of China in 1955.
  • * Jinzhou walled central city remained an enclave of Chinese territory within Kwantung under the lease with Russia. This provision was substantially ignored by Japan after it replaced Russia.
  • * Jiangxi, officially the Chinese Soviet Republic, was an unrecognised proto-state within the territory of China's Jiangxi (Kiangsi) province. The state was proclaimed on 7 November 1931 by future Chinese Communist Party leaders and comprised discontiguous territories that included 18 provinces and 4 counties under CSR control within areas controlled by the Nationalist government.
  • * Macao was a pene-exclave of Portugal on the coast of the South China Sea from 1557 until 1999.
  • * Zhongshan Dao island in the Pearl River Delta was divided between China and Macao as a pair of pene-exclaves dating from ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin in 1862 through the 1999 return of Macao to China.
  • * Qingdao, with an area of 552 km2, was a pene-exclave of Germany, and later Japan, from 1898 to 1922, adjacent to Jiaozhou Bay on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula in East China. The village of Qingdao became the German colony of Tsingtau. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, the Republic of China canceled the lease with Germany. Japan then occupied the city and province until December 1922, when it reverted to Chinese rule.
  • * Shanghai was the location of British and American Concessions and the Shanghai French Concession from 1849 to 1946. Unlike the British sovereign colonies of Hong Kong Island and Wei-hai-wei, these foreign concessions always remained Chinese sovereign territory.
  • * Wei-hai-wei was a pene-exclave of the United Kingdom that bordered the Yellow Sea in eastern Shantung province of China. The city was a British colony, known also as the Weihai Garrison and sometimes as Port Edward, from 1898 to 1 October 1930, when it was returned to China. Its current name is Weihai.
  • * Wei-hai-wei walled central city was excluded from the leased territory and remained an enclave of Chinese territory within Wei-hai-wei.
  • Denmark:
  • * Altona was a Danish exclave within Germany from 1640 to 1864.
  • France:
  • *The island of Mont-Saint-Michel at the mouth of the Couesnon River prior to 1879 was a pene-exclave of Normandy, but only during low tide, when it was connected by a tidal causeway to the neighbouring coast. The raised causeway that was then built was replaced with a light bridge opened in 2014, thus making Mont-Saint-Michel an island again.
  • *Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French territorial collectivity, was completely surrounded from 1763 until 1992 by the waters of Canada, when an EEZ corridor 10.5 NM wide was created, stretching 200 NM to the south, terminating within and surrounded by Canada's EEZ.
  • Germany
  • * East Prussia, a large German semi-exclave during the Weimar Republic, was separated from Germany after World War I, when Poland regained access to the Baltic Sea. The territory of East Prussia is now divided into Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia, the Warmian-Masurian Voivodship in Poland, and Klaipėda County in Lithuania.
  • *,, surrounded by Belgian territory, was the sixth and southernmost of the Vennbahn enclaves created in 1922; it contained five households. The railway suffered severe damage during World War II and was not rebuilt. It ceased being an enclave when Belgium annexed the entirety in 1949. Hemmeres was reintegrated into West Germany on 28 August 1958, by an agreement with Belgium.
  • * Jestetten is a German town in the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg that was inaccessible except by travelling through Switzerland, until a connecting road was constructed.
  • * was two enclaves from 1949 to 1958. Unlike its present configuration, the German enclave in 1922 was smaller in area because the central portion was Belgian territory. Because the road connecting the two outer German portions was German territory until 1949, the German land formed one enclave. The intersecting north–south road from Fringshaus to Konzen was also part of the oddly shaped enclave. In 1949 Belgium annexed these roads, thus separating the enclave into two enclaves for the next nine years. In 1958 Belgium ceded the center section of territory to West Germany, in addition to returning the adjacent east–west connecting road. This created one larger enclave in its present form. Highway B258 is the only portion of land that, once having been a part of the Roetgener Wald enclave, is now not within the enclave.
  • *Selfkant: Between 1963 and 2002, the N274 road between Roermond and Heerlen, which was part of sovereign Dutch territory, passed through the German Selfkant, which had been annexed by the Netherlands in 1949. Selfkant, except for the road, was returned to Germany in 1963. Until the road was also returned to Germany in 2002, the western portion of Selfkant was an exclave of Germany.
  • * Verenahof was a German exclave within Switzerland until 1967, at which time its border became attached to Germany through a treaty implementing a land swap of a total of just under 1.06 km2 in equal shares.
  • * West Berlin, upon the division of Berlin after World War II and before the reunification of Germany in 1990, was de facto a West German exclave within East Germany. Twelve small West Berlin land areas, such as Steinstücken, were in turn separated from the main body of West Berlin, some by only a few metres. In addition, there were several small areas of East Berlin that were surrounded by West Berlin. All of Berlin was ruled "de jure" by the four Allied powers; this meant that West Berlin could not send voting members to the German Parliament and that its citizens were exempt from conscription. West Berlin exclaves were:
  • ** to East Germany
  • ** Böttcherberg to East Germany
  • ** Böttcherberg to East Germany
  • ** land connection to West Berlin established
  • ** Falkenhagener Wiese to East Germany
  • ** land connection to West Berlin established
  • ** Finkenkrug inhabited, to East Germany
  • ** Große Kuhlake to East Germany
  • ** Laßzins-Wiesen to East Germany
  • ** to East Germany
  • ** Steinstücken inhabited, land connection to West Berlin established
  • ** to East Germany
  • *East Berlin exclaves:
  • ** dis-enclaved at re-unification
  • ** Eiskeller dis-enclaved at re-unification
  • ** Eiskeller dis-enclaved at re-unification
  • ** West-Staaken – de jure part of Soviet sector but de facto administered by Spandau Borough in the British sector; seized by East Germany in 1951 and made an exclave of East Berlin's Borough of Mitte, which it remained officially until being incorporated in 1961 by the neighbouring town of Falkensee in non-Berlin East Germany.
  • Greece:
  • * Despotate of the Morea on the Peloponnesos peninsula of present-day Greece was a geographically detached province of the Byzantine Empire from 1349 to 1460; during much of that time, in addition to the Mediterranean Sea, it was surrounded by "states under Latin rule."
  • * During the occupation of Smyrna after World War I, İzmir and its region were Greek exclaves, not connected to mainland Greece by land.
  • Hungary:
  • * Between 1412 and 1772, Spiš Castle in Spišské Podhradie, has been an exclave of the Kingdom of Hungary, surrounded by the Eldership of Spisz.
  • India:
  • * Dadra and Nagar Haveli were enclaves inland from the Arabian Sea coast covering an area of 487 km2. After invasion by pro-Indian Union forces in 1954, they achieved de facto independence from Portugal. They and three Portuguese pene-exclaves, the city of Goa and the two small coastal exclaves of Daman and Diu, were the last remnants of Portuguese India, which existed from 1505 until military conquest by India on 19 December 1961..
  • * French India – Pondicherry and the other exclaves of Karaikal, Mahé and Yanaon were absorbed into India de facto in 1954 and de jure in 1962 after the Algerian War. In 1761 the British captured all of them from the French, but the Treaty of Paris returned them to France. Those possessions passed again to British control before finally being handed over to the French in 1816/1817 under the 1814 Treaty of Paris. Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahé and Yanaon came to be administered as the Union Territory of Puducherry in 1963. All four are now sub-national exclaves within India.
  • ** Pondicherry was the site of a trading center set up by the French East India Company in 1674, which eventually became the chief French settlement in India, after passing several times between Dutch, British and French control. It comprised 12 non-contiguous parts: three pene-exclaves on the Bay of Bengal and nine nearby true enclaves. Inside the main Pondicherry exclave was a small counter-enclave belonging to India straddling the Chunnambar River.
  • ** Mahé, a small town, was a pene-exclave on the Malabar Coast of the Arabian Sea from 1721. Mahé was composed of three non-contiguous parts, including Mahé town and two true enclaves: Cherukallayi and one consisting of Palloor, Chalakkara and Pandakkal.
  • ** Yanaon, a 30 km2 pene-exclave in the delta of Godavari River, nine kilometres from the Coromandel Coast and Bay of Bengal. It was a Dutch colony before France overtook it in 1723 and made it a French colony.
  • ** Karaikal was a small coastal pene-exclave on the Bay of Bengal acquired by France in 1739 from the regime of Raja Pratap Singh of Tanjore. By 1760 it included 81 villages around Karaikal town.
  • ** Chandannagar was a small true enclave established as a French colony in 1673, located on the right bank of the Hooghly River 30 kilometres north of Kolkata. Bengal was then a province of the Mughal Empire. The British returned the city to France in 1816, along with a 7.8 km2 nearby enclave. In May 1950, with French approval, India assumed de facto control, with the de jure transfer in June 1952. In 1955 it was integrated into West Bengal state.
  • ** Trincomalee was in present-day Sri Lanka located on the Indian Ocean east coast of the island. By September 1782 it was occupied by the French after the Battle of Trincomalee with the British, only to be ceded back to the British in 1783.
  • Israel:
  • * Mount Scopus was an Israeli exclave in Jordan-controlled East Jerusalem following the 1949 Armistice Agreements, until being reunited with West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War in 1967, though most of the international community does not recognize Israel's claim to the city. Similarly, Ein Gev, located on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, was a pene-exclave in Syria until Israel took over the Golan Heights territory during the Six-Day War.
  • Italy:
  • *In Italy in 1789 before the French Revolutionary Wars, the following states possessed or were true enclaves:
  • ** Lordship of Tarasp was surrounded by the Free States of the Three Leagues.
  • ** An exclave of the Republic of Geneva was surrounded by the Duchy of Savoy.
  • ** Principality of Torriglia was surrounded by the Republic of Genoa.
  • ** Republic of Senarica was surrounded by the Kingdom of Naples.
  • Latvia:
  • *The former Rauna Municipality was composed of Drusti parish and Rauna parish, which are non-contiguous. In 2021 Rauna Municipality was merged into Smiltene Municipality.
  • Lithuania:
  • * Pogiriai was a Lithuanian exclave of 1.7 km2 that was ceded to Belarus in 1996.
  • Oman:
  • * Gwadar was an Omani pene-exclave on the Arabian Sea coast of present-day Pakistan from 1784 until 1958.
  • Pakistan:
  • * East Pakistan, was a pene-exclave of Pakistan that bordered the Bay of Bengal, India and Burma. East Pakistan, with a distance of 1,600 km separating it from West Pakistan, accounted for 70% of the country's exports and was more populous than West Pakistan.
  • Panama:
  • * Colón, an exclave of Panama from 1903 to July 27, 1939, was surrounded by the U.S. Panama Canal Zone, until a treaty provision connected it to the main part of Panama via a corridor.
  • * Panama City and the tip of Paitilla Point from 1903 to February 11, 1915, were pene-enclaves surrounded by the U.S. Panama Canal Zone and the Pacific Ocean. Maps of the Canal Zone dated before 1923 clearly show these borders. Maps dated 1924 and later show a changed border that re-connected Panama City with eastern Panama.
  • * When Madden Road was ceded to the U.S. by treaty on July 27, 1939, a Vennbahn-type Panamanian enclave was created that was bounded by Madden Road, the main Canal Zone boundary, and a contour line above Rio Chagres and Rio Chilibre. Another treaty that took effect on April 11, 1955, de-enclaved it.
  • * Panama had a water enclave in Limon Bay from 1979 to December 31, 1999. It also had jurisdiction over one building within the U.S. Summit Naval Station from October 1991 until the transfer of the station to Panama on December 31, 1999.
  • Papal States:
  • * Comtat Venaissin was an exclave of Papal territory within France from 1348 to 1791. It contained an enclave of another Papal territory, the city of Avignon, and had a small exclave around the nearby town of Valréas.
  • * Pontecorvo and Benevento were exclaves of Papal territory in Southern Italy until 1860 when they were absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy
  • Poland:
  • * In the 1280s, the Duchy of Pomerania lost the town of Świdwin, together with the surrounding area, to the Margraviate of Brandenburg. It became a salient of Neumark which, together with the Bishopric of Cammin, separated the southeastern portion of the state from the rest of its territories. Since 1317, it controlled the Lands of Schlawe and Stolp, which were separated from the rest of its territory by the Bishopric of Cammin.
  • * From between 1227 and 1233, to between 1248 and 1264, the area around the town of Świecie was an exclave of the Duchy of Gdańsk.
  • *The Province of 13 Spisz Towns located within the Eldership of Spisz, the territory of Kingdom of Poland from 1412 to 1569 and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1772 consisted of salient connected to the rest of the Kingdom of Poland and 5 exclaves.
  • * Between 1772 and 1793, the city of Gdańsk, together with the surrounding area, were an exclave of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, surrounded by the territory of the Kingdom of Prussia.
  • * Westerplatte peninsula was a pene-exclave of Poland in Free City of Danzig from 1920 to 1939, ended its existence after the Battle of Westerplatte and annexation to Germany together with the Polish coast.
  • * The Enclave of Police was an enclave within Poland from 5 October 1945 to 25 September 1946 centered around the town of Police. It was a military occupation of the Soviet Union, administered as part of the Randow District, Soviet occupation zone in Germany, though legally not part of its territory.
  • Portugal:
  • * Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá was a Portuguese exclave within Dahomey/Benin from 1680 until 1961 or 1975.
  • Slovakia: Part of the settlement Sidónia was once reached by road only from Czechia. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the new state border was originally along the Vlárka River. Several houses in the central part of the village, inhabited by nine families, stand on the left bank, which fell to Slovakia. On 25 July 1997, the Czech-Slovak state border was modified and the small area on the left bank with a few houses in the centre of Sidónia became part of Czechia. The state border has also been drawn since then along the centre of the road from the Vlárský Pass.
  • Spain:
  • * Ifni was a pene-exclave of Spain on the Atlantic coast of Morocco from 1859 to 1969.
  • South Africa:
  • * Bophuthatswana was a bantustan or "black homeland" that was granted nominal independence by apartheid South Africa from 1977 until being re-absorbed in April 1994, but it remained unrecognised internationally. It consisted of a scattered patchwork of individual enclaves, six that were true enclaves within South Africa and two that bordered Botswana and South Africa.
  • Yemen:
  • * Cheikh Saïd is a rocky peninsula in present-day Yemen between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Although as late as 1970, the Petit Larousse described it as having been a "French colony from 1868 to 1936," France never claimed formal jurisdiction or sovereignty over it.
  • The southern section of the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah was a national-level exclave surrounded by other emirates of the UAE and Oman for three months after UAE independence in 1971 until it joined the UAE in 1972.
  • Between 1991 and 2003, Russia had three tiny pene-exclaves on tips of the lakeshore that bordered the Lithuanian side of Lake Vištytis. Before a new border treaty went into force on 12 August 2003, the border ran along most of the waterline of the beaches on the Lithuanian side, so anyone paddling in the water was technically crossing into Russia.
  • Schirgiswalde – In accordance with terms of the 1635 Peace Treaty of Prague, Austria transferred land to Saxony. However, because of religious affiliation with Austria, Schirgiswalde and five other towns within the transferred land remained with Austria, becoming Austrian enclaves within Saxony. 174 years later, to address problems as states began to consolidate, the 1809 Peace Treaty of Vienna mandated the transfer of these six enclaves from Austria to Saxony. However, the transfer did not occur until 1845 because of the need to correct mistakes in the names of the villages stated in the treaty and subsequent neglect. During that time, Schirgiswalde was de facto independent until economic reasons compelled the final transfer of the enclaves, thus extinguishing them.
  • Sikkim – Dopta and Chumbi were exclaves of Sikkim within Tibet until China occupied them in 1958.
  • Sweden – The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 granted certain possessions of the Holy Roman Empire to the Swedish Empire to be held as fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire:
  • Syria was a pene-exclave of the United Arab Republic from 1958 to 1961, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.
  • Transkei was a bantustan or "black homeland" that was granted nominal independence by apartheid South Africa from 1976 until being re-absorbed in April 1994, but it remained unrecognised internationally. It had two exclaves within South Africa that were true enclaves.
  • Taebong and Goryeo – The southwest coast of South Jeolla Province in Korea was an exclave of Taebong or Goryeo, between 903 and 936.
  • Turkey –
  • United Kingdom –
  • United States –
  • The Val d'Aran is a valley in the Pyrenees mountains and a comarca in northwestern Catalonia, northern Spain. Most of it comprises the only part of Catalonia that is on the northern side of the Pyrenees. The Val d'Aran had been without direct access to the south side of the mountains, until the Vielha tunnel was opened in 1948.
  • Venda was a bantustan or "black homeland" that was granted nominal independence by apartheid South Africa from 1979 until being re-absorbed in April 1994, but it remained unrecognised internationally. It was an enclave that was not an exclave, bordering only South Africa and separated narrowly from Zimbabwe by the Madimbo corridor to the north. Venda itself also had a small exclave that was a true enclave in South Africa.
  • Walvis Bay was a South African pene-exclave bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Namibia, before being incorporated with Namibia in 1994, four years after that country's independence.
  • Zadar was a 104 km2 pene-exclave of Italy, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Croatia, from 1920 to 1944 or 1947.
  • Various other historical foreign concessions
  • Innumerable medieval enclaves within Europe

Subnational historic enclaves and exclaves

Temporary enclaves or exclaves

Sometimes land is ceded temporarily to another country as a form of legal fiction.

Potential exclaves pending international resolution