--- title: Man Plants Flag on Unclaimed African Land So Daughter Can Be Princess description: When six-year-old Emily asked her father if she could be a real princess, Jeremiah Heaton took his daughter's wish quite literally. canonical: https://time.com/2982905/jeremiah-heaton-bir-tawil-north-sudan/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-14T20:37:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:11:40.155Z og:title: Man Plants Flag on Unclaimed African Land So Daughter Can Be Princess og:description: But the little girl's quest to become princess of a chunk of African desert is an uphill legal battle. og:url: https://time.com/2982905/jeremiah-heaton-bir-tawil-north-sudan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a32b3864dad9b42/69869ba2e53aba8c5b4d3900/man-claims-african-land-daughter-princess.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Man Claims African Land So Daughter Can Be Princess og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Plants Flag on Unclaimed African Land So Daughter Can Be Princess twitter:description: But the little girl's quest to become princess of a chunk of African desert is an uphill legal battle. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a32b3864dad9b42/69869ba2e53aba8c5b4d3900/man-claims-african-land-daughter-princess.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Man Plants Flag on Unclaimed African Land So Daughter Can Be Its Princess > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=ac9e831a-9f5d-466c-83be-520852739e65&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jul 14, 2014 8:37 PM UTC  Jeremiah Heaton and his seven year-old daughter, Princess Emily, show the flag on July 2, 2014, in Abingdon, Virginia, that their family designed as they try to claim a piece of land in the Eastern African region of Bir Tawil. Jeremiah Heaton and his seven year-old daughter, Princess Emily, show the flag on July 2, 2014, in Abingdon, Virginia, that their family designed as they try to claim a piece of land in the Eastern African region of Bir Tawil. David Crigger—AP  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jul 14, 2014 8:37 PM UTC When six-year-old Emily asked her father if she could be a real princess, Virginia resident Jeremiah Heaton took his daughter’s wish quite literally. No tiaras, frilly dresses or distant Disney dreams for this little girl. Heaton gave her the real deal, or at least, is trying to — the royal title of princess, complete with land for her to rule, in an 800-square-mile patch of desert in the Middle of Nowhere, Africa. Heaton searched the Internet for _terra nullius,_ or unclaimed land, and received permission from Egyptian authorities to visit a plot of land roughly half the size of Connecticut between Egypt and Sudan. Locals call the area [Bir Tawil](http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bir-tawil-1), a land unclaimed by its neighbors after a discrepancy in borders drawn in 1899 and 1902\. But Heaton and his family call it “Kingdom of North Sudan,” ruled by King Heaton and Princess Emily after he planted a homemade blue flag on on July 16, Emily’s birthday. “I wanted to show my kids I will literally go to the ends of the earth to make their wishes and dreams come true,” Heaton told the Washington _Post._ But claiming land designated _terra nullius_ isn’t first come, first served. To obtain real political authority, Heaton must receive legal recognition from Egypt, Sudan, the United Nations or other political groups. He hopes to forge positive relationships with the neighbors of the “Kingdom of North Sudan” by turning the arid desert into an agricultural production center. Most of all, Heaton is arguing that his approach to winning land is far more civil than the bloody imperialism of history. “I founded the nation in love for my daughter,” Heaton said. \[[Washington _Post_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-man-plants-flag-claims-african-country-calling-it-kingdom-of-north-sudan/2014/07/12/abfbcef2-09fc-11e4-8a6a-19355c7e870a%5Fstory.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2982905/jeremiah-heaton-bir-tawil-north-sudan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2982905/jeremiah-heaton-bir-tawil-north-sudan/"},"headline":"Man Plants Flag on Unclaimed African Land So Daughter Can Be Its Princess","datePublished":"2014-07-14T20:37:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:11:40.155Z","description":"Virginia resident Jeremiah Heaton has claimed a slice of land between Egypt and Sudan so that his daughter gets to be a real life princess","url":"https://time.com/2982905/jeremiah-heaton-bir-tawil-north-sudan/","keywords":["Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a32b3864dad9b42/69869ba2e53aba8c5b4d3900/man-claims-african-land-daughter-princess.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a32b3864dad9b42/69869ba2e53aba8c5b4d3900/man-claims-african-land-daughter-princess.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Man Claims African Land So Daughter Can Be Princess","caption":"Man Claims African Land So Daughter Can Be Princess","creditText":"David Crigger—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2982905/jeremiah-heaton-bir-tawil-north-sudan/","name":"Man Plants Flag on Unclaimed African Land So Daughter Can Be Its Princess"}}]}] ```