Includes bibliographical references (p. 254-255) and index.

Machine generated contents note: INTRODUCTION ix -- Lost Spaces 1 -- Sandy Island 3 -- Leningrad 8 -- Arne 12 -- Old Mecca 15 -- New Moore 20 -- Time Landscape 24 -- The Aralqum Desert 28 -- Hidden Geographies 35 -- The Labyrinth 37 -- Zheleznogorsk 42 -- The Underground Cities of Cappadocia 46 -- Fox Den 51 -- North Cemetery, Manila 55 -- North Sentinel Island 59 -- No Man's Lands 67 -- Between Border Posts (Guinea and Senegal) 69 -- Bir Tawil 73 -- Nahuaterique 77 -- Twayil Abu Jarwal 82 -- Traffic Island 87 -- Dead Cities 93 -- Wittenoom 95 -- Kangbashi 100 -- Kijong-dong 104 -- Aghdam 108 -- Pripyat 114 -- The Archaeological Park of Sicilian Incompletion 119 -- Spaces of Exception 125 -- Camp Zeist 127 -- Geneva Freeport 132 -- Bright Light, 4 Mures Street, Bucharest 136 -- International Airspace 141 -- Gutterspace 144 -- Bountiful 148 -- Mount Athos 153 -- Ranch of Sprouts: Brotas Quilombo 158 -- FARC-controlled Colombia 163 -- Hobyo 168 -- Enclaves and Breakaway Nations 175 -- Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog 177 -- Chitmahals 183 -- Sealand 188 -- United Kingdom of Lunda Tchokwe 193 -- Gagauzia 198 -- Floating Islands 205 -- Pumice and Trash Islands 207 -- Nipterk P-32 Spray Ice Island 212 -- The Floating Maldives 216 -- The World 221 -- Ephemeral Places 227 -- Hog's Back Lay-By 229 -- LAX Parking Lot 234 -- Nowhere 238 -- Stacey's Lane 242 -- CONCLUSION 247 -- BIBLIOGRAPHY 252 -- ACKNOWDLEGMENTS 253 -- INDEX 254.

"The real-life answers to Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Unruly Places explores the most extraordinary, off-grid, offbeat places on the planet. Alastair Bonnett's tour of the planet's most unlikely micro-nations, moving villages, secret cities, and no man's lands shows us the modern world from surprising new vantage points, bound to inspire urban explorers, off-the-beaten-trail wanderers, and armchair travelers. He connects what we see on maps to what's happening in the world by looking at the places that are hardest to pin down: inaccessible zones, improvised settlements, multiple cities sharing the same space. Consider Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and making his wife a princess. Or Baarle, a patchwork city of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where crossing the street can involve traversing national borders. Or Sandy Island, which appeared on maps well into 2012 despite the fact it never existed. Illustrated with original maps and drawings, Unruly Places gives readers a new way of understanding the places we occupy. "-- Provided by publisher.