The Largest Unclaimed Land on Earth

Antarctica holds a massive region called Marie Byrd Land that belongs to no country at all. Despite being larger than Mexico, it remains the only territory of its size on the planet that no nation has officially claimed.

This vast, frozen wilderness spans over 600,000 square miles of ice. While many nations staked claims to other parts of Antarctica in the past, this specific region was somehow left out of the diplomatic scramble. It was named after the wife of a famous American explorer who mapped the area in the early twentieth century. Because of international treaties, this empty expanse remains a rare, unclaimed frontier for scientific study.