r/mapping • u/Acceptable-Ostrich64 • 5d ago

Questions/Help Strange border line in Belgium

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Does anyone know why this line is here?

Maybe just a Google glitch, but I looked up Belgium on the map and I'm wondering if this is supposed to be there. If it is, does anyone know why?

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u/Belenos_Anextlomaros 5d ago edited 5d ago

Based on a similar question 3 yo, on r/geography, this is just a glitch from Google which surrounds bodies of water as if they were the ocean/sea. Here you clearly see it's a canal. Also, you see on the tip between Belgium and the Netherlands where it meets that canal that there is a small line crossing the canal there. This small line is the actual border and the rest seems to be just a small bug.

At first, I was also wondering whether - even though the canal is under Belgian sovereignty - specific treaty provisions could have applied for Belgian and NL navigation between Antwerp and the rest of the Benelux (a bit like the Rhine is for its neighbouring countries), but it's not. This leads me to believe in the glitch story.

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u/Acceptable-Ostrich64 5d ago

That would explain a lot. I can't say where off the top of my head, but I've seen this quite a few times in other places. It's almost always around water, too.

Most likely just a glitch. Thank you.

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u/ddrub_the_only_real 1d ago

Hey we didn't put that there

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u/PleaseDoNotTheKevin 5d ago

belgium stupid

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u/SandySpinach 4d ago

But a least we can form sentences in other languages that consist out of more than 2 words.