Landlocked!

Of all the 44(!) landlocked countries in the world, many of which are located in Africa, I am most fascinated by Lesotho which is completely landlocked by one nation! Only San Marino and Vatican City share this rare geographic feature. What it must feel like to cross the border in any direction and end up in South Africa, I wonder!

Lesotho also has the distinction of being the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) in elevation. The national language, Sesotho seems very similar to Botswana's Setswana, both of them being Bantu languages (learn more). Sesotho also seems to follow the practice of adding prefixes to a common root to form new words.