The Men in No Man’s Land: A Journey Into Bir Tawil

The Men in No Man’s Land: A Journey Into Bir Tawil

An ancient Bedouin tribe. A secret gold mine. A hapless group of idiots. What could go wrong? Population: zero. According to the experts, the world’s last remaining terra nullius is completely unpopulated. So when a group of tourists decide to visit this empty desert wasteland nothing could have prepared them for what—or who—they would find. Nestled in the Eastern Desert between Egypt and Sudan, Bir Tawil is the product of a border dispute that goes back over a century, though in this dispute, neither side claims it. According to all available research, the territory is unpopulated. On a recent expedition, a group of adventure-seekers finds this to be far from the case. The Ababda people are a tribe of Bedouins who have populated the Eastern Desert for two thousand years, and Bir Tawil has always been their nomadic land. Today, they harvest gold there. They currently face two threats to their sovereignty: claimants with an old-fashioned view of international law, and multinational mining companies. What will they do when a group of tourists discovers their secret? The Men of No Man’s Land is the true story of an epic road trip that doesn’t quite go according to plan.