35 Interesting Facts about Borders

The Nazis dressed up political prisoners in Polish military uniforms, faked an attack on the German border, and shot the prisoners to justify the invasion of Poland the very next day.

27. North Korea built a fake village with empty buildings lit by automatic timers in an effort to lure South Koreans to defect across the border.

28. Ontario has a massive "border wall" of edible rabies vaccine baits to prevent rabid animals from entering from the US. The recent outbreak of rabies came from a raccoon from southeastern New York who came via truck or train.

29. Russia opened a 575-meter highway tunnel near its Siberian border with China to divert automobile traffic away from the migratory route of the near-extinct Amur leopard.

30. There is a BnB called The Smuggler's Inn directly on the US-Canadian border. The main attraction is watching smugglers cross the border with night vision binoculars.

In 1938, the Muslim King Zog of Albania opened Albania's borders to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. King Zog reputedly survived 55 assassination attempts.

32. NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) has had to intercept 12-18 Russian bombers annually at the Canadian border since 2007.

33. There are unmanned US-Canada border crossings (Angle Inlet). You talk officers using a videophone and hold your passport up for the camera.

34. There is a library (Haskell Free Library and Opera House) that was built on the US/Canadian border. Exiting the library through the opposite entrance requires one to report to the country's customs thereafter.

35. The border between India and Bangladesh is so complicated, there is a "3rd order enclave": a piece of India within Bangladesh, within India, within Bangladesh.