One frontier curiosity that doesn't often feature in the media is Märket
Reef, a rocky island that lies astride the border between Sweden and
Finland. It is the subject of an article in this month's issue of hidden
europe magazine (http://www.hiddeneurope.co.uk). The article looks at the
history of Märket, examines the redrawing of the border across the island
in 1985 (where a straight line was replaced by a complicated series of
doglegs), and explains the peculiar appeal that Märket exerts over the DX
radio community (for whom the island has the status of an 'entity'). The
article appears on pp. 26-29 of the November 2006 issue (hidden europe
11). Elsewhere in the same issue, there are, as part of a long feature on
Abkhazia, some interesting observations on the quasi-border on the Inguri
river that separates secessionist Abkhazia from Georgia. A few weeks back,
in their e-news, hidden europe reported from the old Petsamo Highway on
the Finno-Russian border. The full text of that short piece can be found
online at the magazine's e-news archive at
http://www.hiddeneurope.co.uk/barticles.php?tPath=1.
Chris Hughes
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