Unruly places
Subtitle: lost spaces, secret cities, and other inscrutable geographies
By: Alastair Bonnett
Edition: First U.S. edition.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 270
ISBN-13: 9780544101579
Subjects: Miscellanea; Geography
Description: "The real-life answers to Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Unruly Places explores the most extraordinary, off-grid, offbeat places on the planet. Alastair Bonnett's tour of the planet's most unlikely micro-nations, moving villages, secret cities, and no man's lands shows us the modern world from surprising new vantage points, bound to inspire urban explorers, off-the-beaten-trail wanderers, and armchair travelers. He connects what we see on maps to what's happening in the world by looking at the places that are hardest to pin down: inaccessible zones, improvised settlements, multiple cities sharing the same space. Consider Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and making his wife a princess. Or Baarle, a patchwork city of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where crossing the street can involve traversing national borders. Or Sandy Island, which appeared on maps well into 2012 despite the fact it never existed. Illustrated with original maps and drawings, Unruly Places gives readers a new way of understanding the places we occupy."--
Notes: "First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Aurum Press"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 254-255) and index.
Table of contents: title: Lost spaces. Sandy Island ; Leningrad ; Arne ; Old Mecca ; New Moore ; Time Landscape ; The Aralqum Desert; title: Hidden geographies. The Labyrinth ; Zheleznogorsk ; The underground cities of Cappadocia ; Fox den ; North Cemetery, Manila ; North Sentinel Island; title: No man's lands. Between border posts (Guinea and Senegal) ; Bir Tawil ; Nahuaterique ; Twayil Abu Jarwal ; Traffic island; title: Dead cities. Wittenoom ; Kangbashi ; Kijong-dong ; Ağdam ; Pripyat ; The Archaeological Park of Sicilian Incompletion; title: Spaces of exception. Camp Zeist ; Geneva Freeport ; Bright Light, 4 Mures Street, Bucharest ; International airspace ; Gutterspace ; Bountiful ; Mount Athos ; Ranch of Sprouts : Brotas Quilombo ; FARC-controlled Colombia ; Hobyo; title: Enclaves and breakaway nations. Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog ; Chitmahals ; Sealand ; United Kingdom of Lunda Tchokwe ; Gagauzia; title: Floating islands. Pumice and trash islands ; Nipterk P-32 Spray Ice Island ; The floating Maldives ; The World; title: Ephemeral places. Hog's Back lay-by ; LAX parking lot ; Nowhere ; Stacey's lane; title: Conclusion: Sympathy for a place-loving species.