A tripoint, is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries meet. These can be on land (dry) or demarcated by rivers or lakes (wet). Tripoints can be easy to access or isolated, they can be marked with large monuments or not easily identifiable at all. For me tripoint visits are at the apex of being a border enthusiast. My early visits were alone, but in recent year they have been in collaboration with other members of the International Border Research Group (IBRG).

Location and number of Tripoints

You might consider the location and number as being fixed, however changes in countries, such as the creation of South Sudan or the collapse of the Soviet Union into a number of independent states increased the number of tripoints. There are also ongoing discussions about location, depending on the accuracy of descriptions in border treaties or the measurement used. Maps, treaties and field trips are the essential components of tripoint bagging.

Tripoint Statistics		DRY	BOTH	WET	visited
Number of African Tripoints	61	26	4	31	0
Number of Central and South American Tripoints	16	5		11	7
Number of Asian Tripoints	48	32	1	15	1
Number of European Tripoints	48	26	3	19	28
Global Statistics	173	89	8	76	36
Historical Tripoints	U/A				4

Click on the red text above or on the right margin to access individual tripoint visits with maps, photos and descriptions. The photos on this page link to their respective tripoints too.

Tripoint Visit Classes

The table below attempts to classify a tripoint visit into a number of classes. Could you touch the actual spot where the countries join? If so that is a Class A, a visit to a wet tripoint is almost always a Class C. Some monuments such as FINOSE the tripoint between Finland – Norway and Sweden is too large to touch the stone on the top, hence a Class B. Not everyone uses this classification and it is offered here as a bit of fun to stimulate discussion. Is a Class E visit worth counting?

Tripoint VISIT Classes
Class A	Touched
Class B	Basically there. Successful attempt to reach wet tripoint by wading, swimming or canoeing. Very close to a dry tripoint but unable to touch due to a physical barrier/obstacle.
Class C	Within 500m, visible
Class D	Distant. visible
Class E	Tripoint area visited but Tripoint not observed.
Source: Acroorca (2002) Published on Boundarypoint 12/07/2003. Edited Arnold (2024)

The above are subjective categories and have changed over time but as these are how they stand today. However as soon as I wrote this, I thought about the technical difficulty of the western tripoint between Andorra – France – Spain ADRSFRw or the stunning setting of the tripoint between Finland – Norway and Sweden FINOSE so its never easy categorising this way. What are you favourites? Please leave your comments below.

Historical Tripoints

Historical tripoints refer to points which at some time in the past were places where 3 countries meet. One such tripoint was where Czechoslovakia, the DDR and the Federal Republic of Germany met. Now this spot is still marked but is the meeting point of only 2 countries (and 2 German states). Another example is the historic Three Emperors’ Corner of Austria-Hungary, the Russian Empire, and German Empire at the confluence of the Black and White Przemsza rivers, near the towns of Mysłowice, Sosnowiec and Jaworzno in the present-day Silesian Voivodeship of Poland.

This is an area of tripoint bagging that I am now developing. Currently I have visited 4 historic tripoints,

• The meeting point between Italy, the Free State of Trieste and Slovenia (ITTSSI). Now just a point on the Italy – Slovenia border.
• The historical German tripoint is where Bavaria, Saxony, and Bohemia met CSDDDE. Later, this point became the historical tripoint between Czechoslovakia, East Germany (GDR), and West Germany (FRG) and was a key point on the “Iron Curtain,” marking the intersection where southern end of the heavily fortified Inner German Border met the equally strict Czech-West German border.
• The specific location of the DEFDPL tripoint between Germany, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig was situated near the junction of the Vistula and Nogat rivers, close to the modern Polish town of Biała Góra. 2 of the constituent parts of the tripoint, Germany in the form of East Prussia and the City State itself ceased to exist following WW2 and the area is now completely in the modern state of Poland.
• The nearby summit to Stilfser Joch (Stelvio Pass) is the Piz da las Trais Linguas (also known as Dreisprachenspitze or Cima Garibaldi) was the historical tripoint of Switzerland, the Kingdom of Italy, and Austria-Hungary before World War I. 

ISO 3166

The International Standard for country codes and codes for their subdivisions is  ISO 3166 this allocates a 2 letter designation to each country. Internal subdivisions have additional letters attached. For example Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of) is KP whereas United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the ) is GB. The site will follow apply ISO 3166 in its labelling. More details are available here. Tripoints therefore a combination of 3 sets of letters, one for each country listed in alphabetical order. Finland – Norway and Russia becomes FINORU. It takes a little time to get used to using this labelling but soon is an effective shorthand.