iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

11/ That's it for our look at the oddities of Greece 🇬🇷, what did we miss? If you enjoyed this #geoweirdness thread please share it (so critical here in the fediverse) and have a look at the many others linked over on our blog: blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

Screenshot of the OpenCage blog page listing all of our geothreads. Enjoy!

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

10/ Finally, Greece 🇬🇷 is also the site of what is generally recognized as Europe's southernmost inhabited point. The small island of Gavdos, south of Crete, is closer to Libya than to Athens

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

10/ Finally, Greece 🇬🇷 is also the site of what is generally recognized as Europe's southernmost inhabited point. The small island of Gavdos, south of Crete, is closer to Libya than to Athens

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

9/ Similarly territorial waters is a huge point of contention betweenthe two nations.

6 nautical miles (nmi): Current territorial waters recognized by Greece and Turkey

By w:en:User:Future Perfect at Sunrise - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1608110

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

9/ Similarly territorial waters is a huge point of contention betweenthe two nations.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8/ Another point of stress in the Greek 🇬🇷 relationship with Turkey 🇹🇷 (both of whom are members of NATO) is airspace.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8/ Another point of stress in the Greek 🇬🇷 relationship with Turkey 🇹🇷 (both of whom are members of NATO) is airspace.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

7/ Outside of those 13 regions, Greece 🇬🇷 also has one autonomous area: the Monastic community of Mount Athos, self-governing monastic republic inside the country's own borders. The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs manages relations between Athos and the Government of Greece.

Map showing the location of the "Autonomous Monastic State of the Holy Mountain"

Table of the Greek ISO 3166-2 codes, Mount Athos has it's own code, numeric instead of a letter like the Greek regions

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

6/ Greece 🇬🇷 is divided into 13 administrative regions, three of which include some of "Greek Macedonia": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_(Gr…

Geographical and political division of Macedonia, Greek Macedonia, and North Macedonia

By Future Perfect at Sunrise - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6540769

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

5/ The Dodecanese islands were Italian 🇮🇹 until 1947, and the treaty that transferred them to Greece required them to stay demilitarised.

Location of Dodecanese in Greece

By Pitichinaccio - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3260045

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

4/ Some Greek 🇬🇷islands sit directly next to Turkey 🇹🇷 Kastellorizo, Greece's easternmost island, is just 2km from Turkey coast, The nearest Greek island, Rhodes, is 125km away. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kastellorizo

Map showing the location of Kastellorizo, on the coast of Turkey

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

3/ For 2,500 years, people dreamed of cutting the Peloponnese off from the mainland, mainly to save ships from the dangerous 700km sail around the whole peninsula. There was a failed attempt to send 6,000 slaves to dig with spades in AD 67

Peloponnese (blue) within Greece

By SilentResident,Philly boy92 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37889649

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

2/ Greece 🇬🇷 covers about 132,000 square kilometres, smaller than the US 🇺🇸 state of Alabama, and has a population of roughly 10.4 million.

Map of some of Greece's many, many islands

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This week in #geoweirdness we head back to Europe to examine the geographic oddities of Greece 🇬🇷 (officially the Hellenic Republic) 1/

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

We've rolled out improved geocoding of IATA (airport ✈️) codes. blog.opencagedata.com/post/improved…

Screenshot of the OpenCage geocoding API demo page with a search for EWR

000

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

12/ That's it for our look at the #geoweirdness of Nigeria 🇳🇬, what did we miss? If you enjoyed this thread please share it (so critical here in the fediverse) and have a look at the many others linked over on our blog: blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads If you likes this you might enjoy:

Screenshot from the OpenCage blog listing all our #geoweirdness threads

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

11/ We close by addressing (pun intended) a long-running point of confusion: In the same way that Australia 🇦🇺 is an entirely different country than Austria 🇦🇹 (yes, it's true, trust us), so too Nigeria 🇳🇬 is a separate nation than Niger 🇳🇪 (though the two do share a border).

Map showing both Nigeria and Niger - separate countries.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

10/ Also on the coast, the fast-growing megalopolis Lagos is fighting the ocean by building new land.

Map showing the newly reclaimed land in the context of the State of Lagos

By Jamie Tubers - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47078257

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

10/ Also on the coast, the fast-growing megalopolis Lagos is fighting the ocean by building new land.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

9/ Speaking of oil, Nigeria 🇳🇬 has more gas flares than any country except Russia 🇷🇺, and around ten percent of the world's flares sit in the Niger Delta alone.

Sat image showing the light of cities and gas flares on the Nigerian coast

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

9/ Speaking of oil, Nigeria 🇳🇬 has more gas flares than any country except Russia 🇷🇺, and around ten percent of the world's flares sit in the Niger Delta alone.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

8/ The oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula sat at the centre of a 🇳🇬 Nigeria / 🇨🇲Cameroon border dispute for decades, nearly triggering war multiple times. The ICJ ruled in Cameroon's favour in 2002, but Nigeria didn't actually hand over administration until 2008, under a 🇺🇳 UN-brokered agreement.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

7/ The 🇹🇩 Chad / 🇳🇬 Nigeria border used to run entirely through open water in Lake Chad.

Map showing the site of Lake Chad - Chad / Nigeria border

zoomed in map of the Chad Nigeria border

Historic map of the Chad NIgeria border

By US DOS - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1nPDqvXyX_0C&pg=PA11-IA24&dq=International+Boundary+Study+No.+90+%E2%80%93+Chad+Nigeria+Boundary&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjo-4_Gn5_nAhUSE8AKHXf6C9kQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q&f=true, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94219799

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

4/ The use of English is a reminder that Nigeria 🇳🇬 was a British 🇬🇧colony en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Nige… Nigeria became independent on 1 October 1960 in 1961 the territory of Southern Cameroons split off from Nigeria to join Cameroon 🇨🇲

Flag and government ensign of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria

By Fry1989 eh? - This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74752528

Territory (colored red) within Cameroon claimed by separatists, corresponding to the country's Northwest Region and Southwest Region

By Mikrobølgeovn - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70045669

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

3/ Those 250 ethnic groups speak over 500 languages. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_… The official language is English, but most commonly spoken as lingua franca across the country is "Naija" the English-based creole language, used as a second language by over 100 million people

Language map of Nigeria

By Hel-hama - Own work based on: Nigeria linguistic 1979.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25241065

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

2/ First let's cover the basics about Nigeria 🇳🇬 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria Nigeria is home to over ~235 million people, making it the most populous country in Africa. And it is growing rapidly

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🎉 Today is the big day! In a few short hours 🇳🇬 Nigeria's new digital postcode system goes live! See: postcode.gov.ng Which is reason enough for us to make the African nation the subject of this week's #geoweirdness thread! 1/

screenshot of the NIPost website with countdown to the launch of digital postcodes

110

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

🚨 It's time for #fridaygeotrivia 🚨 The Sept 2026 question: Name country pairs that share a maritime border but no land border, separated by less than 50 km of water at their closest point, ie countries that can see each other. For example Singapore 🇸🇬 and Indonesia 🇮🇩. As always:

Map showing Singapore across the water from Indonesia

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Some more pics of our team offsite last week in London / at the Prime Meridian. blog.opencagedata.com/post/back-to-…

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Today we‘re off the keyboard on a team expedition down the Thames in London 🇬🇧to visit the Prime Meridian in Greenwich before Geomob London this evening

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

8/ That wraps up our look at the geographic oddities of the South Atlantic 🌊 What did we miss? If you enjoyed this #geoweirdness thread please share it (so critical here in the fediverse) and have a look at the many others linked over on our blog: blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

Screenshot of the OpenCage blog page listing all the #geoweirdness threads

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

7/ Zoom out from the islands and the whole region gets odd. Above the South Atlantic, Earth's magnetic field 🧭 is unusually weak, in a region called the South Atlantic Anomaly. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Atlanti…

Magnetic field intensity at Earth's surface in 2014 (top) and 2025 (bottom), as measured by ESA's SWARM spacecraft. The SAA has strengthened and expanded since 2014.

By C.C. Finlay, C. Kloss, N. Gillet - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031920125001414, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=176694303

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

6/ Moving on to the Falkland Islands 🇫🇰, along with South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 🇬🇸, have been disputed between the UK 🇬🇧 and Argentina 🇦🇷 since the early 19th century.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

5/ Far, far to the south we find the uninhabited Norwegian territory of Bouvet Island 🇧🇻 (ISO code BV).

Map showing location of Bouvet Island in the far South Atlantic

Country dropdown builder site that includes "Bouvet Island"

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

4/ St Helena 🇸🇭 (UK postcode STHL 1ZZ), the third piece of the territory, has its own engineering saga. Its airport took decades to build. With no deep water port, contractors built a temporary jetty and a 14km haul road just to move equipment to the runway site.

Map showing location of St. Helena in the South Atlantic

sat image with Haul Road, built to enable airport construction, highlighted

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

3/ One of Tristan 🇹🇦's two fellow territories, Ascension Island 🇦🇨, used to be a barren volcanic rock. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Isl…

Map showing location of Ascension Island in South Atlantic

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

2/ First stop: Tristan da Cunha 🇹🇦 is the most remote permanently inhabited settlement on Earth, a six day boat ride from Cape Town, South Africa 🇿🇦 with no airport at all. Its roughly 250 residents share just seven family surnames. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cu…

Map showing location of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This summer the Falkland Islands 🇫🇰 have been back in the news, so it's fitting that this week in #geoweirdness we take a closer look at the South Atlantic 🌊 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Ocea… 1/

Argentine players at the world cup holding a banner that reads "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" (The Malvinas are Argentinian)

Map showing the Atlantic ocean, with North Atlantic and South Atlantic labeled

200

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

As the years have passed, we've created lots of helpful content about geocoding generally and our service specifically on our site: FAQs, Tutorials, Guides, etc.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

2/ Answers will be posted in this thread. Rules and details of prizes can always be found over on the blog: blog.opencagedata.com/post/geotrivi… #fridaygeotrivia

000

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

🚨 The game begins! 🚨 This month's #fridaygeotrivia question: Name countries where at least one permanent major river (300+ km) flows through the country or along its borders, but no major river rises within it.

100

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Potential geocoding customers often ask "how is your coverage in country X". The crowd-sourced nature of #OpenStreetMap can make this challenging to answer. So we now publish a "coverage report". Details on the blog: blog.opencagedata.com/post/geocodin…

screenshot of the OpenCage geocoding API coverage report

000

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

In today's episode of why geocoding is hard ... #maketheinsanitystop

Trump posts "The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America ...."

010

OpenCage @opencagedata.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

13/ That wraps up our look at the 'stans. What did we miss? If you enjoyed the thread please share it (so critical here in the fediverse) and have a look at the many others linked over on our blog: blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads If you likes this you might enjoy

100