> On 30 Aug 2020, at 0:16, John Wroclawski <jtw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > >> On Aug 29, 2020, at 4:57 PM, Bob Hinden <bob.hinden@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>> On Aug 29, 2020, at 1:44 PM, Khaled Omar <eng.khaled.omar@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>> Hi bob, >>> I still can't see any borders that states that Sinai is completely part of Asia. >> >> It’s like Turkey that is part of Europe and Asia. See: >> https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-are-the-transcontinental-countries-of-our-world.html >> Bob > > Hm. Not that we’re way off topic or anything, but this is surprising. > > It looks to me like the fault line between the African plate and the Arabian plate runs up the Gulf of Aquaba, rather than the Gulf of Suez. So from a geological perspective, the Sinai would certainly seem to be in Africa. Your political mileage may differ, of course.. > Europe, Asia, and Africa are all one landmass, so any borders between them are arbitrary. At least seeing the Suez canal as a border between Asia and Africa makes a water border between the continents, although they’re still only 200m apart. If you consider the Great Rift Valley as the border, you’re making all of Israel and a good chunk of Lebanon into parts of Africa, which is not the way people commonly see geography. Regardeless, the reason people want a meeting in Africa is not for the tectonic plates, but because the countries of Africa have never hosted an IETF meeting, and we tend to believe that IETF meetings are helpful for outreach. Egypt is definitely an African country even if it has a bit on the other side of the Suez canal. It’s the country that matters, not the plates. Besides, for the purposes of IETF meetings,. “Asia” is China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singamore and the like. It has never meant the Sinai, or Saudi Arabia, or Uzbekistan. Yoav
