DEHRADUN: Suyash Dixit , a 24-year-old businessman from Indore, has proclaimed himself "king" of a 2,000 sq km area between Egypt and Sudan, which is the largest unclaimed habitable territory in the world. What is more, his online petition to the United Nations seeking recognition of his claim has found 800 supporters, and counting.Dixit, CEO of a tech firm, was travelling to Cairo for a software developers' conference at the beginning of November when he read about Bir Tawil , a large stretch of territory between the two countries. Because of a complicated colonial-era border demarcation history, the swathe, which has no permanent residents, is both arid and remote. It has therefore not been claimed by either country since 1902. This has led to several adventurers and explorers staking ownership of it, although international recognition for such claims has not been forthcoming."While in Cairo, I decided to travel to the place. I took a connecting flight from Cairo to Abu Simbel on November 4 after the conference, and travelled in a rented car for six hours through the desert to reach Bir Tawil. There is no road, but it was not a difficult trip, although I was afraid of being abducted by terrorists. There, I realized nobody was bothered about it, so I decided to claim it for myself. I planted sunflower seeds there, which is a traditional way to claim ownership of land," Dixit, who returned home on November 9, told TOI on Tuesday.Dixit has even designed a flag for the 'Kingdom of Dixit', and planted it at Bir Tawil. "After returning, I wrote an online petition to the UN informing them about my claim, and requesting recognition, although I am not very optimistic that they will reply. However, in just a day's time, I have received support from more than 800 people for my claim, so it might just happen," he said.As far as his family is concerned, Dixit said while his brother supported his idea, his parents were "furious" at first after he told them of his claim. "However, it did not last long as I made my father the president of the kingdom. Now everybody in my family is following the petition's progress and coverage of it online. I will try to secure more support on social media platforms," he added. ||||| An Indian adventurer has declared himself the ruler of an unclaimed strip of land in North Africa and is encouraging interested parties to apply for citizenship. 
 
 Suyash Dixit travelled hundreds of miles to Bir Tawil, an 800 square mile piece of uninhabited land between Egypt and Sudan that neither country has claimed. 
 
 Bir Tawil is the only place on Earth where humans can live and survive that is not a part of any state or country, with the boundary quirk occurring as a result of a border drawn up by the British in 1899. 
 
 The new "ruler" faced a perilous journey after spending two nights planning his trip into the desert and convincing a local driver to take him to the remote outpost. 
 
 “The route that I took is under Egyptian military control and is an area of terrorists so military have 'shoot at sight' orders,” he explained. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Jeremiah Heaton and his 7-year-old daughter, Emily, show the flag in Abingdon, Va., that their family designed as they try to claim a piece of land in the Eastern African region of Bir Tawil. (David Crigger/AP) 
 
 When Jeremiah Heaton trekked across the desert and planted a flag in an 800-square-mile patch of land between Egypt and Sudan in June, he staked a claim to the area, calling it his “Kingdom of North Sudan.” He said he wanted the barren, craggy swath so his 7-year-old daughter Emily could be a princess, and he vowed to start an agricultural center there. 
 
 Although Heaton, of Abingdon, Va., intends to reach out to the Egyptian and Sudanese governments for their official recognition of his kingdom, it turns out that his chances of success in taking over the area known as Bir Tawil aren’t so good. 
 
 Experts say that simply planting a flag in the sand isn’t how countries are born these days, even if land sits apparently unclaimed. Heaton is not a state, nor is he acting on behalf of any nation. And he is not occupying the land, instead living more than 6,600 miles away in southwestern Virginia. He would also need Sudan and Egypt to recognize his kingdom. 
 
 Gamal Malik Ahmed Goraish, counselor at the Sudanese Embassy in the District, said that although no country currently occupies the Bir Tawil trapezoid, “there is no land between Egypt and Sudan that doesn’t have any owner.” Goraish added that Sudan and Egypt are negotiating over official ownership of the area, which appears on maps as a desolate spot about halfway between where the Nile crosses into Sudan and Egypt’s border along the Red Sea. 
 
 Goraish said that “there is no third party” allowed in the discussions. Officials at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. 
 
 Jeremiah Heaton, of Virginia, plants his flag in what he is calling the Kingdom of Northern Sudan, an area of unclaimed desert between the borders of Egypt and Sudan, on June 16, 2014. (Jeremiah Heaton) 
 
 Heaton is not the first person to try to claim Bir Tawil, and his bid probably will be unsuccessful, according to international officials and experts. 
 
 “Under international law, only states can assert sovereignty over territory,” said Anthony Arend, co-founder of the Institute for International Law and Politics at Georgetown University. 
 
 Arend said that for a state to claim no-man’s-land, or terra nullius, it must also demonstrate that it has occupied the space, not that it just physically stepped foot there. Under the most basic definition, Arend said, members of the occupying nation must have lived on the land for several years. 
 
 Asking the United Nations for official recognition wouldn’t necessarily help, according to Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general. Dujarric said it is not the role of the United Nations to define borders and that “membership in the U.N. is separate from recognition as a country.” 
 
 “The recognition of a country is something that’s done bilaterally” among neighboring countries, Dujarric said. 
 
 Arend said an alternative for Heaton and others wishing to start a nation on Bir Tawil soil would be the principle of self-determination. In such a case, a people — a group with a common ethnicity, language, or governing structure, as examples — can occupy the land for years, unchallenged, and claim it as their own. An example of this would be secession from an established country, Arend said. 
 
 Heaton argues that the idea of limiting land claims to existing states is a colonialist approach to international law. and he insists his claim to Bir Tawil is legitimate. 
 
 Emily Heaton, 7, smiles as she talks about her father's birthday present to her. (David Crigger/AP) 
 
 “This is no-man’s-land, and I have claimed it,” Heaton said. 
 
 He said that to occupy the land he would first need to enact his long-term goal for the kingdom: Turning the patch of desert into an agricultural production center that will tackle food security issues in the region. 
 
 Scientists from Germany, Australia and India have contacted Heaton, hoping to assist with the farm project, he said. Although one of the main reasons Heaton claimed the area is that he hoped to fulfill his daughter’s wish to become a princess, his family also has wanted to transform the land into a needed agricultural resource. 
 
 Once he finalizes his vision for the desert, he intends to meet with Sudanese and Egyptian officials, thinking they will agree that his plans will benefit the region. 
 
 “There is no way they can’t see it in a positive light,” Heaton said. 
 
 Even so, Heaton recognized that it would be best to formalize his plans before approaching government officials. 
 
 “I think it’s too early for them to weigh in negatively,” Heaton said. 
 
 Heaton is not alone in dreaming about Bir Tawil. Others have taken to the Internet before him to claim the land, including Kareem Hamdy, 34. 
 
 Hamdy, a second-year student at Saint James Medical School in the Caribbean, said he initially claimed Bir Tawil in 2010, distributing news releases of his claim to various Web sites. 
 
 Hamdy’s “United Arab Republic” project was meant to be a mental exercise in creating a micro-nation for displaced people, Hamdy said. Since then, seven others have joined him in developing the project with current conversations revolving around establishing a digital economy. 
 
 “I’m trying to build a legitimate project to be recognized by the international community,” said Hamdy, who is Egyptian. 
 
 Although the odds might be against them and the international community is unlikely to endorse their plans, Heaton and Hamdy separately say they are committed. 
 
 “Starting a nation from scratch doesn’t happen overnight,” Heaton said.
– All hail Suyash Dixit, first king of the Kingdom of Dixit. The Times of India reports 24-year-old Dixit, CEO of an Indian tech firm, was traveling to Egypt for a software developers' conference earlier this month when he read about Bir Tawil. The 800-square-mile Bir Tawil is located between Egypt and Sudan but has been claimed by neither country and is uninhabited. As the Telegraph puts it, Bir Tawil is "the only place on Earth where humans can live and survive that is not part of any state or country." Dixit decided to do something about that. In a Facebook post, he says he drove six hours and braved the Egyptian military, which has "'shoot at sight' orders" due to terrorists in the area, to establish his new kingdom. Dixit brought a flag of his own design and planted sunflower seeds in Bir Tawil. “Following the early civilization ethics and rules, if you want to claim a land then you need to grow crops on it," he says. "I have added a seed and poured some water on it today. It is mine." While Dixit insists it's "no joke, I own a country now" and hundreds of people have signed his petition to the UN seeking recognition, the Kingdom of Dixit is likely to remain unofficial. In 2014, a legal expert at Georgetown University told the Washington Post that "under international law, only states can assert sovereignty over territory." That was the same year a father from Virginia tried to claim Bir Tawil for himself and make his daughter princess of the "Kingdom of North Sudan." (This famous person became the first citizen of the "Trash Isles.")