What is the oldest human mummy?

The Chinchorro mummies are mummified remains of individuals from the South American Chinchorro culture, found in what is now northern Chile. They are the oldest examples of artificially mummified human remains, having been buried up to two thousand years before the Egyptian mummies. While the earliest mummy that has been found in Egypt dated around 3000 BC, the oldest anthropogenically modified Chinchorro mummy dates from around 5050 BC.

Chinchorro mummies

The oldest naturally mummified mummy recovered from the Atacama Desert is dated around 7020 BC.

Shell midden and bone chemistry suggest that 90% of the people's diet was seafood. Many ancient cultures of fisherfolk existed, tucked away in the arid river valleys of the Andes, but the Chinchorro made themselves unique by their dedicated preservation of the dead.

While many cultures throughout the world have sought to focus on preserving the dead elite, the Chinchorro tradition performed mummification on all members of their society, making them archaeologically significant. The decision of egalitarian preservation is proven in the mummification of the relatively less productive members of society (meaning those who could not contribute to the welfare of others; the elderly, children, infants and miscarried fetuses). It is often the case that children and babies received the most elaborate mummification treatments.

29% of known Chinchorro mummies were mummified naturally. The earliest one, the Acha man, dates to 7020 BC.

The artificial mummies of Chinchorro are believed to have first appeared around 5000 BC and reached a peak around 3000 BC. Often Chinchorro mummies were elaborately prepared by removing the internal organs and replacing them with vegetable fibers or animal hair. In some cases an embalmer would remove the skin and flesh from the dead body and replace them with clay. Radiocarbon dating reveals that the oldest discovered anthropogenically modified Chinchorro mummy was that of a child from a site in the Camarones Valley, about south of Arica in Chile and dates from around 5050 BC. The mummies continued to be made until about 1800 BC, making them contemporary with Las Vegas culture and Valdivia culture in Ecuador and the Norte Chico civilization in Peru.

Since 1914, when Max Uhle began his work in Arica, an estimated 282 mummies have been found by archaeologists. Morro-I, at the base of the Morro de Arica, revealed 96 bodies at the unstratified (i.e., there are no discernible layers of stratigraphy, hindering relative dating techniques), mostly loose sand at the slope of the hill. Fifty-four adults were found: 27 female, 20 male and 7 of indeterminate sex; 42 children were also found: 7 female, 12 male, 23 indeterminate. This sample size suggests that the Chinchorro did not favor mummifying one sex over others.

The mummies may have served as a means of assisting the soul in surviving, and to prevent the bodies from frightening the living. A more commonly accepted theory is that there was an ancestor cult of sorts, since there is evidence of both the bodies traveling with the groups and placed in positions of honor during major rituals and a delay in the final burial itself. Also, the bodies (which were always found in the extended position) were elaborately decorated and colored (even later repainted), and are thought to be reinforced and stiffened in order to be carried on reed litters and consequently displayed. However, since the society is a preceramic one, as well as slightly nomadic, it is somewhat difficult to determine through archaeological records the reasons why the Chinchorro felt the need to mummify the dead.

The representatives of the Chinchorro culture was determined by mitochondrial haplogroup A2.

Dr. Bernardo Arriaza is a Chilean physical anthropologist who contributed a lot of the knowledge about Chinchorro mummification. Starting in 1984, he published numerous studies on the subject. In 1994, Arriaza created a classification of the Chinchorro mummies that is widely used. His book ""Beyond Death: The Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile"" was published by the Smithsonian and also translated into Spanish.

While the overall manner in which the Chinchorro mummified their dead changed over the years, several traits remained constant throughout their history. In excavated mummies, archaeologists found skin and all soft tissues and organs, including the brain, removed from the corpse. After the soft tissues had been removed, sticks reinforced bones while the skin was stuffed with vegetable matter before reassembling the corpse. The mummy received a clay mask even if the mummy was already completely covered in dried clay; a process which the body was wrapped in reeds left to dry out for 30 to 40 days.

Uhle categorized the types of mummification he saw into three categories: simple treatment, complex treatment, and mud-coated mummies. He believed that these occurred chronologically, the mummification process becoming more complex as time went on. Since then, archaeologists have expanded upon this explanation and have (for the most part) agreed upon the following types of mummification: natural, black, red, mud-coated and bandage mummies. Mummification can also be described as "externally prepared" mummies, "internally prepared" mummies (Egyptian Pharos), and "reconstructed" mummies (the Chinchorro), according to Andean Archaeologists. Further, it turns out that the types of mummification used overlap with each other, and mummies of different types have been found all in the same tomb. The two most common techniques used in Chinchorro mummification were the Black mummies and the Red mummies.

Of the 282 Chinchorro mummies found thus far, 29% of them were results of the natural mummification process (7020 BC-1300 BC). In northern Chile, environmental conditions greatly favor natural mummification. The soil is very rich in nitrates which, when combined with other factors such as the aridity of the Atacama Desert, ensure organic preservation. Salts halt bacterial growth; the hot, dry conditions facilitate rapid desiccation, evaporating all bodily fluids of the corpses. Soft tissues, as a result, dry before they decay and a naturally preserved mummy is left. What must also be noted is that even though the Chinchorro people did not mummify the bodies artificially, the bodies were still buried wrapped in reeds with grave goods.

The black mummy technique (5000 to 3000 BC) involved taking the dead person's body apart, treating it, and reassembling it. The head, arms, and legs were removed from the trunk; the skin was often removed, too. The body was heat-dried, and the flesh and tissue were completely stripped from the bone by using stone tools. Evidence exists that the bones were dried by hot ashes or coal. After reassembly, the body was then covered with a white ash paste, filling the gaps with grass, ashes, soil, animal hair and more. The paste was also used to fill out the person's normal facial features. The person's skin (including facial skin with a wig attachment of short black human hair) was refitted on the body, sometimes in smaller pieces, sometimes in one almost-whole piece. Sea lion skin was sometimes used as well. Then the skin (or, in the case of children, who were often missing their skin layer, the white ash layer) was painted with black manganese giving their color.

The red mummy technique (2500 BC to 2000 BC) was a technique in which rather than disassemble the body, many incisions were made in the trunk and shoulders to remove internal organs and dry the body cavity. The head was cut from the body so that the brain could be removed, after which the skin would be pasted back on, which would often just be covered with a clay mask. The body was packed with various materials to return it to somewhat more-normal dimensions, sticks used to strengthen it, and the incisions sewn up using reed cord. The head was placed back on the body, this time with a wig made from tassels of human hair up to 60 cm long. A "hat" made out of black clay held the wig in place. Except for the wig and often the (black) face, everything was then painted with red ochre.

The final style of Chinchorro mummification was the mud-coat (3000-1300 BC). Ecologically speaking, at the time of the Chinchorro culture the region was relatively stable. It has been suggested by environmentalists that the incredible preservation of these mummies is also influenced by the pedogenic (the evolution of soil) creation of clays and gypsum, which act as cementing agents, and the latter as a natural desiccant. The malleable clay allowed for the morticians to mold and create the colorful appearances of mummies, with the added bonus of the fact that the foul smell of the desiccating mummy would be covered. Artisans no longer removed the organs of the dead; instead a thick coat of mud, sand and a binder like egg or fish glue was used to cover the bodies. Once completed the mummies were cemented into their graves. The change in style may have come from exposure to outsiders and their different cultures, or from the association of disease with the rotting corpses.

The bandage technique (guessed to be 2620-2000 BC, but there is a lack of radiocarbon dating) has only been found to be present in three infants. The technique is a mixture of black and red mummies, in that the body was taken apart and reinforced in the style of black mummies but the head was treated in the same way as red mummies are. Animal and human skin was used to wrap the body in the place of clay. Further, the bodies were found to be painted with red ocher while the heads were painted with black manganese.

At least one Chinchorro mummy bears remarkable witness to the antiquity of tattooing in the region. The remains of a male with a mustache-like dotted line tattooed above his upper lip and dating to 1880 +/- 100 BC (2563–1972 cal BC) is believed to represent the oldest direct evidence of tattooing in the Americas and the fourth-oldest such evidence in the world.

In addition to the well-known mummies of ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of America and Asia with very dry climates. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old. Before this discovery, the oldest known deliberate mummy was a child, one of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Camarones Valley, Chile, which dates around 5050 BC. The oldest known naturally mummified human corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old, found in 1936 AD at the site named Inca Cueva No. 4 in South America.

Mummy

A mummy is a deceased human or an animal whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay further if kept in cool and dry conditions. Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least 1615 AD (See the section Etymology and meaning).

Mummies of humans and other animals have been found on every continent, both as a result of natural preservation through unusual conditions, and as cultural artifacts. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats. Many of the Egyptian animal mummies are sacred ibis, and radiocarbon dating suggests the Egyptian Ibis mummies that have been analyzed were from time frame that falls between approximately 450 and 250 BC.

The English word "mummy" is derived from medieval Latin "mumia", a borrowing of the medieval Arabic word "mūmiya" (مومياء) and from a Persian word "mūm" (wax), which meant an embalmed corpse, and as well as the bituminous embalming substance, and also meant "bitumen". The Medieval English term "mummy" was defined as "medical preparation of the substance of mummies", rather than the entire corpse, with Richard Hakluyt in 1599 AD complaining that "these dead bodies are the Mummy which the Phisistians and Apothecaries doe against our willes make us to swallow". These substances were defined as mummia.

The OED defines a mummy as "the body of a human being or animal embalmed (according to the ancient Egyptian or some analogous method) as a preparation for burial", citing sources from 1615 AD onward. However, Chamber's "Cyclopædia" and the Victorian zoologist Francis Trevelyan Buckland define a mummy as follows: "A human or animal body desiccated by exposure to sun or air. Also applied to the frozen carcase of an animal imbedded in prehistoric snow".

Wasps of the genus "Aleiodes" are known as "mummy wasps" because they wrap their caterpillar prey as "mummies".

While interest in the study of mummies dates as far back as Ptolemaic Greece, most structured scientific study began at the beginning of the 20th century. Prior to this, many rediscovered mummies were sold as curiosities or for use in pseudoscientific novelties such as mummia. The first modern scientific examinations of mummies began in 1901, conducted by professors at the English-language Government School of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt. The first X-ray of a mummy came in 1903, when professors Grafton Elliot Smith and Howard Carter used the only X-ray machine in Cairo at the time to examine the mummified body of Thutmose IV. British chemist Alfred Lucas applied chemical analyses to Egyptian mummies during this same period, which returned many results about the types of substances used in embalming. Lucas also made significant contributions to the analysis of Tutankhamun in 1922.

Pathological study of mummies saw varying levels of popularity throughout the 20th century. In 1992, the First World Congress on Mummy Studies was held in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. More than 300 scientists attended the Congress to share nearly 100 years of collected data on mummies. The information presented at the meeting triggered a new surge of interest in the subject, with one of the major results being integration of biomedical and bioarchaeological information on mummies with existing databases. This was not possible prior to the Congress due to the unique and highly specialized techniques required to gather such data.

In more recent years, CT scanning has become an invaluable tool in the study of mummification by allowing researchers to digitally "unwrap" mummies without risking damage to the body. The level of detail in such scans is so intricate that small linens used in tiny areas such as the nostrils can be digitally reconstructed in 3-D. Such modelling has been utilized to perform digital autopsies on mummies to determine cause of death and lifestyle, such as in the case of Tutankhamun.

Mummies are typically divided into one of two distinct categories: anthropogenic or spontaneous. Anthropogenic mummies were deliberately created by the living for any number of reasons, the most common being for religious purposes. Spontaneous mummies, such as Ötzi, were created unintentionally due to natural conditions such as extremely dry heat or cold, or anaerobic conditions such as those found in bogs. While most individual mummies exclusively belong to one category or the other, there are examples of both types being connected to a single culture, such as those from the ancient Egyptian culture and the Andean cultures of South America.

The earliest ancient Egyptian mummies were created naturally due to the environment in which they were buried. In the era prior to 3500 BC, Egyptians buried the dead in pit graves, without regard to social status. Pit graves were often shallow. This characteristic allowed for the hot, dry sand of the desert to dehydrate the bodies, leading to natural mummification.

The natural preservation of the dead had a profound effect on ancient Egyptian religion. Deliberate mummification became an integral part of the rituals for the dead beginning as early as the 2nd dynasty (about 2800 BC). New research of an 11-year study by University of York, Macquarie University and University of Oxford suggests mummification occurred 1,500 years earlier than first thought. Egyptians saw the preservation of the body after death as an important step to living well in the afterlife. As Egypt gained more prosperity, burial practices became a status symbol for the wealthy as well. This cultural hierarchy lead to the creation of elaborate tombs, and more sophisticated methods of embalming.
By the 4th dynasty (about 2600 BC) Egyptian embalmers began to achieve "true mummification" through a process of evisceration, followed by preserving the body in various minerals and oils. Much of this early experimentation with mummification in Egypt is unknown.

The few documents that directly describe the mummification process date to the Greco-Roman period. The majority of the papyri that have survived only describe the ceremonial rituals involved in embalming, not the actual surgical processes involved. A text known as "The Ritual of Embalming" does describe some of the practical logistics of embalming, however, there are only two known copies and each is incomplete. With regards to mummification shown in images, there are apparently also very few. The tomb of Tjay designated TT23, is one of only two known which show the wrapping of a mummy (Riggs 2014).

Another text that describes the processes being used in latter periods is Herodotus' Histories. Written in Book 2 of the "Histories" is one of the most detailed descriptions of the Egyptian mummification process, including the mention of using natron in order to dehydrate corpses for preservation. However, these descriptions are short and fairly vague, leaving scholars to infer the majority of the techniques that were used by studying mummies that have been unearthed.

By utilizing current advancements in technology, scientists have been able to uncover a plethora of new information about the techniques used in mummification. A series of CT scans performed on a 2,400-year-old mummy in 2008 revealed a tool that was left inside the cranial cavity of the skull. The tool was a rod, made of an organic material, that was used to break apart the brain to allow it to drain out of the nose. This discovery helped to dispel the claim within Herodotus' works that the rod had been a hook made of iron. Earlier experimentation in 1994 by researchers Bob Brier and Ronald Wade supported these findings. While attempting to replicate Egyptian mummification, Brier and Wade discovered that removal of the brain was much easier when the brain was liquefied and allowed to drain with the help of gravity, as opposed to trying to pull the organ out piece-by-piece with a hook.

Through various methods of study over many decades, modern Egyptologists now have an accurate understanding of how mummification was achieved in ancient Egypt. The first and most important step was to halt the process of decomposition, by removing the internal organs and washing out the body with a mix of spices and palm wine. The only organ left behind was the heart, as tradition held the heart was the seat of thought and feeling and would therefore still be needed in the afterlife. After cleansing, the body was then dried out with natron inside the empty body cavity as well as outside on the skin. The internal organs were also dried and either sealed in individual jars, or wrapped to be replaced within the body. This process typically took forty days.

After dehydration, the mummy was wrapped in many layers of linen cloth. Within the layers, Egyptian priests placed small amulets to guard the decedent from evil. Once the mummy was completely wrapped, it was coated in a resin in order to keep the threat of moist air away. Resin was also applied to the coffin in order to seal it. The mummy was then sealed within its tomb, alongside the worldly goods that were believed to help aid it in the afterlife.

Aspergillus niger has been found in the mummies of ancient Egyptian tombs and can be inhaled when they are disturbed.

Mummification is one of the defining customs in ancient Egyptian society for people today. The practice of preserving the human body is believed to be a quintessential feature of Egyptian life. Yet even mummification has a history of development and was accessible to different ranks of society in different ways during different periods. There were at least three different processes of mummification according to Herodotus. They range from "the most perfect" to the method employed by the "poorer classes".

The most expensive process was to preserve the body by dehydration and protect against pests, such as insects. Almost all of the actions Herodotus described serve one of these two functions.

First, the brain was removed from the cranium through the nose; the gray matter was discarded. Modern mummy excavations have shown that instead of an iron hook inserted through the nose as Herodotus claims, a rod was used to liquefy the brain via the cranium, which then drained out the nose by gravity. The embalmers then rinsed the skull with certain drugs that mostly cleared any residue of brain tissue and also had the effect of killing bacteria. Next, the embalmers made an incision along the flank with a sharp blade fashioned from an Ethiopian stone and removed the contents of the abdomen. Herodotus does not discuss the separate preservation of these organs and their placement either in special jars or back in the cavity, a process that was part of the most expensive embalming, according to archaeological evidence.

The abdominal cavity was then rinsed with palm wine and an infusion of crushed, fragrant herbs and spices; the cavity was then filled with spices including myrrh, cassia, and, Herodotus notes, "every other sort of spice except frankincense", also to preserve the person.

The body was further dehydrated by placing it in natron, a naturally occurring salt, for seventy days. Herodotus insists that the body did not stay in the natron longer than seventy days. Any shorter time and the body is not completely dehydrated; any longer, and the body is too stiff to move into position for wrapping. The embalmers then wash the body again and wrapped it with linen bandages. The bandages were covered with a gum that modern research has shown is both waterproofing agent and an antimicrobial agent.

At this point, the body was given back to the family. These "perfect" mummies were then placed in wooden cases that were human-shaped. Richer people placed these wooden cases in stone sarcophagi that provided further protection. The family placed the sarcophagus in the tomb upright against the wall, according to Herodotus.

The second process that Herodotus describes was used by middle-class people or people who "wish to avoid expense". In this method, an oil derived from cedar trees was injected with a syringe into the abdomen. A rectal plug prevented the oil from escaping. This oil probably had the dual purpose of liquefying the internal organs but also of disinfecting the abdominal cavity. (By liquefying the organs, the family avoided the expense of canopic jars and separate preservation.) The body was then placed in natron for seventy days. At the end of this time, the body was removed and the cedar oil, now containing the liquefied organs, was drained through the rectum. With the body dehydrated, it could be returned to the family. Herodotus does not describe the process of burial of such mummies, but they were perhaps placed in a shaft tomb. Poorer people used coffins fashioned from terracotta.

The third and least-expensive method the embalmers offered was to clear the intestines with an unnamed liquid, injected as an enema. The body was then placed in natron for seventy days and returned to the family. Herodotus gives no further details.

In Christian tradition, some bodies of saints are naturally conserved and venerated.

In addition to the mummies of Egypt, there have been instances of mummies being discovered in other areas of the African continent. The bodies show a mix of anthropogenic and spontaneous mummification, with some being thousands of years old.

The mummified remains of an infant were discovered during an expedition by archaeologist Fabrizio Mori to Libya during the winter of 1958–1959 in the natural cave structure of Uan Muhuggiag. After curious deposits and cave paintings were discovered on the surfaces of the cave, expedition leaders decided to excavate. Uncovered alongside fragmented animal bone tools was the mummified body of an infant, wrapped in animal skin and wearing a necklace made of ostrich egg shell beads. Professor Tongiorgi of the University of Pisa radiocarbon-dated the infant to between 5,000–8,000 years old. A long incision located on the right abdominal wall, and the absence of internal organs, indicated that the body had been eviscerated post-mortem, possibly in an effort to preserve the remains. A bundle of herbs found within the body cavity also supported this conclusion. Further research revealed that the child had been around 30 months old at the time of death, though gender could not be determined due to poor preservation of the sex organs.

The first mummy to be discovered in South Africa was found in the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area by Dr. Johan Binneman in 1999. Nicknamed Moses, the mummy was estimated to be around 2,000 years old. After being linked to the indigenous Khoi culture of the region, the National Council of Khoi Chiefs of South Africa began to make legal demands that the mummy be returned shortly after the body was moved to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown.

The mummies of Asia are usually considered to be accidental. The decedents were buried in just the right place where the environment could act as an agent for preservation. This is particularly common in the desert areas of the Tarim Basin and Iran. Mummies have been discovered in more humid Asian climates, however these are subject to rapid decay after being removed from the grave.

Mummies from various dynasties throughout China's history have been discovered in several locations across the country. They are almost exclusively considered to be unintentional mummifications. Many areas in which mummies have been uncovered are difficult for preservation, due to their warm, moist climates. This makes the recovery of mummies a challenge, as exposure to the outside world can cause the bodies to decay in a matter of hours.

An example of a Chinese mummy that was preserved despite being buried in an environment not conducive to mummification is Xin Zhui. Also known as Lady Dai, she was discovered in the early 1970s at the Mawangdui archaeological site in Changsha. She was the wife of the marquis of Dai during the Han dynasty, who was also buried with her alongside another young man often considered to be a very close relative. However, Xin Zhui's body was the only one of the three to be mummified. Her corpse was so well-preserved that surgeons from the Hunan Provincial Medical Institute were able to perform an autopsy. The exact reason why her body was so completely preserved has yet to be determined.

Some of the more infamous mummies to be discovered in China are those termed Tarim mummies because of their discovery in the Tarim Basin. The dry desert climate of the basin proved to be an excellent agent for desiccation. For this reason, over 200 Tarim mummies, which are over 4,000 years old, were excavated from a cemetery in the present-day Xinjiang region. The mummies were found buried in upside-down boats with hundreds of 13-foot long wooden poles in the place of tombstones. DNA sequence data shows that the mummies had Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA) characteristic of western Eurasia in the area of East-Central Europe, Central Asia and Indus Valley. This has created a stir in the Turkic-speaking Uighur population of the region, who claim the area has always belonged to their culture, while it was not until the 10th century when the Uighurs are said by scholars to have moved to the region from Central Asia. American Sinologist Victor H. Mair claims that ""the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusively Caucasoid, or Europoid"" with "east Asian migrants arriving in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin around 3,000 years ago", while Mair also notes that it was not until 842 that the Uighur peoples settled in the area. Other mummified remains have been recovered from around the Tarim Basin at sites including Qäwrighul, Yanghai, Shengjindian, Shanpula (Sampul), Zaghunluq, and Qizilchoqa.

As of 2012, at least eight mummified human remains have been recovered from the Douzlakh Salt Mine at Chehr Abad in northwestern Iran. Due to their salt preservation, these bodies are collectively known as Saltmen. Carbon-14 testing conducted in 2008 dated three of the bodies to around 400 BC. Later isotopic research on the other mummies returned similar dates, however, many of these individuals were found to be from a region that is not closely associated with the mine. It was during this time that researchers determined the mine suffered a major collapse, which likely caused the death of the miners. Since there is significant archaeological data that indicates the area was not actively inhabited during this time period, current consensus holds that the accident occurred during a brief period of temporary mining activity.

In 1993, a team of Russian archaeologists led by Dr. Natalia Polosmak discovered the Siberian Ice Maiden, a Scytho-Siberian woman, on the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Mountains near the Mongolian border. The mummy was naturally frozen due to the severe climatic conditions of the Siberian steppe. Also known as Princess Ukok, the mummy was dressed in finely detailed clothing and wore an elaborate headdress and jewelry. Alongside her body were buried six decorated horses and a symbolic meal for her last journey. Her left arm and hand were tattooed with animal style figures, including a highly stylized deer.

The Ice Maiden has been a source of some recent controversy. The mummy's skin has suffered some slight decay, and the tattoos have faded since the excavation. Some residents of the Altai Republic, formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union, have requested the return of the Ice Maiden, who is currently stored in Novosibirsk in Siberia.

Another Siberian mummy, a man, was discovered much earlier in 1929. His skin was also marked with tattoos of two monsters resembling griffins, which decorated his chest, and three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a mountain goat on his left arm.

Philippine mummies are called Kabayan Mummies. They are common in Igorot culture and their heritage. The mummies are found in some areas named Kabayan, Sagada and among others. The mummies are dated between the 14th and 19th centuries.

The European continent is home to a diverse spectrum of spontaneous and anthropogenic mummies. Some of the best-preserved mummies have come from bogs located across the region. The Capuchin monks that inhabited the area left behind hundreds of intentionally-preserved bodies that have provided insight into the customs and cultures of people from various eras. One of the oldest, and most infamous, mummies (nicknamed Ötzi) was discovered on this continent. New mummies continue to be uncovered in Europe well into the 21st Century.

The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark have produced a number of bog bodies, mummies of people deposited in sphagnum bogs, apparently as a result of murder or ritual sacrifices. In such cases, the acidity of the water, low temperature and lack of oxygen combined to tan the body's skin and soft tissues. The skeleton typically disintegrates over time. Such mummies are remarkably well preserved on emerging from the bog, with skin and internal organs intact; it is even possible to determine the decedent's last meal by examining stomach contents. A famous case is that of the Haraldskær Woman, who was discovered by labourers in a bog in Jutland in 1835. She was erroneously identified as an early medieval Danish queen, and for that reason was placed in a royal sarcophagus at the Saint Nicolai Church, Vejle, where she currently remains. Another famous bog body, also from Denmark, known as the Tollund Man was discovered in 1950. The corpse was noted for its excellent preservation of the face and feet, which appeared as if the man had recently died. To this day, only the head of Tollund Man remains, due to the decomposition of the rest of his body, which was not preserved along with the head.

The mummies of the Canary Islands belong to the indigenous Guanche people and date to the time before 14th Century Spanish explorers settled in the area. All deceased people within the Guanche culture were mummified during this time, though the level of care taken with embalming and burial varied depending on individual social status. Embalming was carried out by specialized groups, organized according to gender, who were considered unclean by the rest of the community. The techniques for embalming were similar to those of the ancient Egyptians; involving evisceration, preservation, and stuffing of the evacuated bodily cavities, then wrapping of the body in animal skins. Despite the successful techniques utilized by the Guanche, very few mummies remain due to looting and desecration.

The majority of mummies recovered in the Czech Republic come from underground crypts. While there is some evidence of deliberate mummification, most sources state that desiccation occurred naturally due to unique conditions within the crypts.

The Capuchin Crypt in Brno contains three hundred years of mummified remains directly below the main altar. Beginning in the 18th Century when the crypt was opened, and continuing until the practice was discontinued in 1787, the Capuchin monks of the monastery would lay the deceased on a pillow of bricks on the ground. The unique air quality and topsoil within the crypt naturally preserved the bodies over time.

Approximately fifty mummies were discovered in an abandoned crypt beneath the Church of St. Procopius of Sázava in Vamberk in the mid-1980s. Workers digging a trench accidentally broke into the crypt, which began to fill with waste water. The mummies quickly began to deteriorate, though thirty-four were able to be rescued and stored temporarily at the District Museum of the Orlické Mountains until they could be returned to the monastery in 2000. The mummies range in age and social status at time of death, with at least two children and one priest. The majority of the Vamberk mummies date from the 18th century.

The Klatovy catacombs currently house an exhibition of Jesuit mummies, alongside some aristocrats, that were originally interred between 1674–1783. In the early 1930s, the mummies were accidentally damaged during repairs, resulting in the loss of 140 bodies. The newly updated airing system preserves the thirty-eight bodies that are currently on display.

Apart from several bog bodies, Denmark has also yielded several other mummies, such as the three Borum Eshøj mummies, the Skrydstrup Woman and the Egtved Girl, who were all found inside burial mounds, or tumuli.

In 1875, the Borum Eshøj grave mound was uncovered, which had been built around three coffins, which belonged to a middle aged man and woman as well as a man in his early twenties. Through examination, the woman was discovered to be around 50–60 years old. She was found with several artifacts made of bronze, consisting of buttons, a belt plate, and rings, showing she was of higher class. All of the hair had been removed from the skull later when farmers had dug through the casket. Her original hairstyle is unknown. The two men wore kilts, and the younger man wore a sheath which contained a bronze dagger. All three mummies were dated to 1351–1345 BC.

The Skrydstrup Woman was unearthed from a tumulus in Southern Jutland, in 1935. Carbon-14 dating showed that she had died around 1300 BC; examination also revealed that she was around 18–19 years old at the time of death, and that she had been buried in the summertime. Her hair had been drawn up in an elaborate hairstyle, which was then covered by a horse hair hairnet made by the sprang technique. She was wearing a blouse and a necklace as well as two golden earrings, showing she was of higher class.

The Egtved Girl, dated to 1370 BC, was also found inside a sealed coffin within a tumulus, in 1921. She was wearing a bodice and a skirt, including a belt and bronze bracelets. Found with the girl, at her feet, were the cremated remains of a child and, by her head, a box containing some bronze pins, a hairnet, and an awl.

In 1994, 265 mummified bodies were found in the crypt of a Dominican church in Vác, Hungary from the 1729–1838 period. The discovery proved to be scientifically important, and by 2006 an exhibition was established in the Museum of Natural History in Budapest. Unique to the Hungarian mummies are their elaborately decorated coffins, with no two being exactly alike.

The varied geography and climatology of Italy has led to many cases of spontaneous mummification. Italian mummies display the same diversity, with a conglomeration of natural and intentional mummification spread across many centuries and cultures.

The oldest natural mummy in Europe was discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian-Italian border. Nicknamed Ötzi, the mummy is a 5,300-year-old male believed to be a member of the Tamins-Carasso-Isera cultural group of South Tyrol. Despite his age, a recent DNA study conducted by Walther Parson of Innsbruck Medical University revealed Ötzi has 19 living genetic relatives.

The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo were built in the 16th century by the monks of Palermo’s Capuchin monastery. Originally intended to hold the deliberately mummified remains of dead friars, interment in the catacombs became a status symbol for the local population in the following centuries. Burials continued until the 1920s, with one of the most famous final burials being that of Rosalia Lombardo. In all, the catacombs host nearly 8000 mummies. (See: Catacombe dei Cappuccini)

The most recent discovery of mummies in Italy came in 2010, when sixty mummified human remains were found in the crypt of the Conversion of St Paul church in Roccapelago di Pievepelago, Italy. Built in the 15th century as a cannon hold and later converted in the 16th century, the crypt had been sealed once it had reached capacity, leaving the bodies to be protected and preserved. The crypt was reopened during restoration work on the church, revealing the diverse array of mummies inside. The bodies were quickly moved to a museum for further study.

The mummies of North America are often steeped in controversy, as many of these bodies have been linked to still-existing native cultures. While the mummies provide a wealth of historically-significant data, native cultures and tradition often demands the remains be returned to their original resting places. This has led to many legal actions by Native American councils, leading to most museums keeping mummified remains out of the public eye.

Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi ("Long ago person found" in the Southern Tutchone language of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations), was found in August 1999 by three First Nations hunters at the edge of a glacier in Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada. According to the Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi Project, the remains are the oldest well preserved mummy discovered in North America. (It should be noted that the Spirit Cave mummy although not well preserved, is much older.) Initial radiocarbon tests date the mummy to around 550 years-old.

In 1972, eight remarkably preserved mummies were discovered at an abandoned Inuit settlement called Qilakitsoq, in Greenland. The "Greenland Mummies" consisted of a six-month-old baby, a four-year-old boy, and six women of various ages, who died around 500 years ago. Their bodies were naturally mummified by the sub-zero temperatures and dry winds in the cave in which they were found.

Intentional mummification in pre-Columbian Mexico was practiced by the Aztec culture. These bodies are collectively known as Aztec mummies. Genuine Aztec mummies were "bundled" in a woven wrap and often had their faces covered by a ceremonial mask. Public knowledge of Aztec mummies increased due to traveling exhibits and museums in the 19th and 20th centuries, though these bodies were typically naturally desiccated remains and not actually the mummies associated with Aztec culture. (See: Aztec mummy)

Natural mummification has been known to occur in several places in Mexico, though the most famous are the mummies of Guanajuato. A collection of these mummies, most of which date to the late 19th century, have been on display at "El Museo de las Momias" in the city of Guanajuato since 1970. The museum claims to have the smallest mummy in the world on display (a mummified fetus). It was thought that minerals in the soil had the preserving effect, however it may rather be due to the warm, arid climate. Mexican mummies are also on display in the small town of Encarnación de Díaz, Jalisco.

Spirit Cave Man was discovered in 1940 during salvage work prior to guano mining activity that was scheduled to begin in the area. The mummy is a middle-aged male, found completely dressed and lying on a blanket made of animal skin. Radiocarbon tests in the 1990s dated the mummy to being nearly 9,000 years old. The remains are currently held at the Nevada State Museum. There has been some controversy within the local Native American community, who began petitioning to have the remains returned and reburied in 1995.

Mummies from the Oceania are not limited only to Australia. Discoveries of mummified remains have also been located in New Zealand, and the Torres Strait, though these mummies have been historically harder to examine and classify. Prior to the 20th Century, most literature on mummification in the region was either silent or anecdotal. However, the boom of interest generated by the scientific study of Egyptian mummification lead to more concentrated study of mummies in other cultures, including those of Oceania.

The aboriginal mummification traditions found in Australia are thought be related to those found in the Torres Strait islands, the inhabitants of which achieved a high level of sophisticated mummification techniques (See:Torres Strait). Australian mummies lack some of the technical ability of the Torres Strait mummies, however much of the ritual aspects of the mummification process are similar. Full-body mummification was achieved by these cultures, but not the level of artistic preservation as found on smaller islands. The reason for this seems to be for easier transport of bodies by more nomadic tribes.

The mummies of the Torres Strait have a considerably higher level of preservation technique as well as creativity compared to those found on Australia. The process began with removal of viscera, after which the bodies were set in a seated position on a platform and either left to dry in the sun or smoked over a fire in order to aid in desiccation. In the case of smoking, some tribes would collect the fat that drained from the body to mix with ocher to create red paint that would then be smeared back on the skin of the mummy. The mummies remained on the platforms, decorated with the clothing and jewelry they wore in life, before being buried.

Some Māori tribes from New Zealand would keep mummified heads as trophies from tribal warfare. They are also known as Mokomokai. In the 19th Century, many of the trophies were acquired by Europeans who found the tattooed skin to be a phenomenal curiosity. Westerners began to offer valuable commodities in exchange for the uniquely tattooed mummified heads. The heads were later put on display in museums, 16 of which being housed across France alone. In 2010, the Rouen City Hall of France returned one of the heads to New Zealand, despite earlier protests by the Culture Ministry of France.

There is also evidence that some Maori tribes may have practiced full-body mummification, though the practice is not thought to have been widespread. The discussion of Maori mummification has been historically controversial, with some experts in past decades claiming that such mummies have never existed. Contemporary science does now acknowledge the existence of full-body mummification in the culture. There is still controversy, however, as to the nature of the mummification process. Some bodies appear to be spontaneously created by the natural environment, while others exhibit signs of deliberate practices. General modern consensus tends to agree that there could be a mixture of both types of mummification, similar to that of the ancient Egyptian mummies.

The South American continent contains some of the oldest mummies in the world, both deliberate and accidental. The bodies were preserved by the best agent for mummification: the environment. The Pacific coastal desert in Peru and Chile is one of the driest areas in the world and the dryness facilitated mummification. Rather than developing elaborate processes such as later-dynasty ancient Egyptians, the early South Americans often left their dead in naturally dry or frozen areas, though some did perform surgical preparation when mummification was intentional. Some of the reasons for intentional mummification in South America include memorialization, immortalization, and religious offerings. A large number of mummified bodies have been found in pre-Columbian cemeteries scattered around Peru. The bodies had often been wrapped for burial in finely-woven textiles.

The Chinchorro mummies are the oldest intentionally prepared mummified bodies ever found. Beginning in 5th millennium BC and continuing for an estimated 3,500 years, all human burials within the Chinchorro culture were prepared for mummification. The bodies were carefully prepared, beginning with removal of the internal organs and skin, before being left in the hot, dry climate of the Atacama Desert, which aided in desiccation. A large number of Chinchorro mummies were also prepared by skilled artisans to be preserved in a more artistic fashion, though the purpose of this practice is widely debated.

Several naturally-preserved, unintentional mummies dating from the Incan period (1438–1532 AD) have been found in the colder regions of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. These are collectively known as "ice mummies". The first Incan ice mummy was discovered in 1954 atop El Plomo Peak in Chile, after an eruption of the nearby volcano Sabancaya melted away ice that covered the body. The Mummy of El Plomo was a male child who was presumed to be wealthy due to his well-fed bodily characteristics. He was considered to be the most well-preserved ice mummy in the world until the discovery of Mummy Juanita in 1995.

Mummy Juanita was discovered near the summit of Ampato in the Peruvian section of the Andes mountains by archaeologist Johan Reinhard. Her body had been so thoroughly frozen that it had not been desiccated; much of her skin, muscle tissue, and internal organs retained their original structure. She is believed to be a ritual sacrifice, due to the close proximity of her body to the Incan capital of Cusco, as well as the fact she was wearing highly intricate clothing to indicate her special social status. Several Incan ceremonial artifacts and temporary shelters uncovered in the surrounding area seem to support this theory.

More evidence that the Inca left sacrificial victims to die in the elements, and later be unintentionally preserved, came in 1999 with the discovery of the Llullaillaco mummies on the border of Argentina and Chile. The three mummies are children, two girls and one boy, who are thought to be sacrifices associated with the ancient ritual of "qhapaq hucha". Recent biochemical analysis of the mummies has revealed that the victims had consumed increasing quantities of alcohol and coca, possibly in the form of chicha, in the months leading up to sacrifice. The dominant theory for the drugging reasons that, alongside ritual uses, the substances probably made the children more docile. Chewed coca leaves found inside the eldest child's mouth upon her discovery in 1999 supports this theory.

Inca emperors. The bodies of Inca emperors and wives were mummified after death. In 1533, the Spanish conquistadors of the Inca Empire viewed the mummies in the Inca capital of Cuzco. The mummies were displayed, often in lifelike positions, in the palaces of the deceased emperors and had a retinue of servants to care for them. The Spanish were impressed with the quality of the mummification which involved removal of the organs, embalming, and freeze-drying.

The population revered the mummies of the Inca emperors. This reverence seemed idolatry to the Roman Catholic Spanish and in 1550 they confiscated the mummies. The mummies were taken to Lima where they were displayed in the San Andres Hospital. The mummies deteriorated in the humid climate of Lima and eventually they were either buried or destroyed by the Spanish.

An attempt to find the mummies of the Inca emperors beneath the San Andres hospital in 2001 was unsuccessful. The archaeologists found a crypt, but it was empty. Possibly the mummies had been removed when the building was repaired after an earthquake.

Monks whose bodies remain incorrupt without any traces of deliberate mummification are venerated by some Buddhists who believe they successfully were able to mortify their flesh to death. Self-mummification was practiced until the late 1800s in Japan and has been outlawed since the early 1900s.

Many Mahayana Buddhist monks were reported to know their time of death and left their last testaments and their students accordingly buried them sitting in lotus position, put into a vessel with drying agents (such as wood, paper, or lime) and surrounded by bricks, to be exhumed later, usually after three years. The preserved bodies would then be decorated with paint and adorned with gold.

Bodies purported to be those of self-mummified monks are exhibited in several Japanese shrines, and it has been claimed that the monks, prior to their death, stuck to a sparse diet made up of salt, nuts, seeds, roots, pine bark, and "urushi" tea.

In the 1830s, Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, left instructions to be followed upon his death which led to the creation of a sort of modern-day mummy. He asked that his body be displayed to illustrate how the "horror at dissection originates in ignorance"; once so displayed and lectured about, he asked that his body parts be preserved, including his skeleton (minus his skull, which despite being mis-preserved, was displayed beneath his feet until theft required it to be stored elsewhere), which were to be dressed in the clothes he usually wore and "seated in a Chair usually occupied by me when living in the attitude in which I am sitting when engaged in thought". His body, outfitted with a wax head created because of problems preparing it as Bentham requested, is on open display in the University College London.

During the early 20th century, the Russian movement of Cosmism, as represented by Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov, envisioned scientific resurrection of dead people. The idea was so popular that, after Vladimir Lenin's death, Leonid Krasin and Alexander Bogdanov suggested to cryonically preserve his body and brain in order to revive him in the future. Necessary equipment was purchased abroad, but for a variety of reasons the plan was not realized. Instead his body was embalmed and placed on permanent exhibition in the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow, where it is displayed to this day. The mausoleum itself was modeled by Alexey Shchusev on the Pyramid of Djoser and the Tomb of Cyrus.

In late 19th-century Venezuela, a German-born doctor named Gottfried Knoche conducted experiments in mummification at his laboratory in the forest near La Guaira. He developed an embalming fluid (based on an aluminum chloride compound) that mummified corpses without having to remove the internal organs. The formula for his fluid was never revealed and has not been discovered. Most of the several dozen mummies created with the fluid (including himself and his immediate family) have been lost or were severely damaged by vandals and looters.

In 1975, an esoteric organization by the name of Summum introduced "Modern Mummification", a service that utilizes modern techniques along with aspects of ancient methods of mummification. The first person to formally undergo Summum's process of modern mummification was the founder of Summum, Summum Bonum Amen Ra, who died in January 2008. Summum is currently considered to be the only "commercial mummification business" in the world.

In 2010, a team led by forensic archaeologist Stephen Buckley mummified Alan Billis using techniques based on 19 years of research of 18th-dynasty Egyptian mummification. The process was filmed for television, for the documentary "Mummifying Alan: Egypt's Last Secret". Billis made the decision to allow his body to be mummified after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2009. His body currently resides at London's Gordon Museum.

Plastination is a technique used in anatomy to conserve bodies or body parts. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most microscopic properties of the original sample.

The technique was invented by Gunther von Hagens when working at the anatomical institute of the Heidelberg University in 1978. Von Hagens has patented the technique in several countries and is heavily involved in its promotion, especially as the creator and director of the Body Worlds traveling exhibitions, exhibiting plastinated human bodies internationally. He also founded and directs the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg.

More than 40 institutions worldwide have facilities for plastination, mainly for medical research and study, and most affiliated to the International Society for Plastination.

In the Middle Ages, based on a mistranslation from the Arabic term for bitumen, it was thought that mummies possessed healing properties. As a result, it became common practice to grind Egyptian mummies into a powder to be sold and used as medicine. When actual mummies became unavailable, the sun-desiccated corpses of criminals, slaves and suicidal people were substituted by mendacious merchants. The practice developed into a wide-scale business that flourished until the late 16th century. Two centuries ago, mummies were still believed to have medicinal properties to stop bleeding, and were sold as pharmaceuticals in powdered form as in mellified man. Artists also made use of Egyptian mummies; a brownish pigment known as mummy brown, based on "mummia" (sometimes called alternatively "caput mortuum", Latin for "death's head"), which was originally obtained by grinding human and animal Egyptian mummies. It was most popular in the 17th century, but was discontinued in the early 19th century when its composition became generally known to artists who replaced the said pigment by a totally different blend -but keeping the original name, mummia or mummy brown-yielding a similar tint and based on ground minerals (oxides and fired earths) and or blends of powdered gums and oleoresins (such as myrrh and frankincense) as well as ground bitumen. These blends appeared on the market as forgeries of powdered mummy pigment but were ultimately considered as acceptable replacements, once antique mummies were no longer permitted to be destroyed. Many thousands of mummified cats were also sent from Egypt to England to be processed for use in fertilizer.

During the 19th century, following the discovery of the first tombs and artifacts in Egypt, Egyptology was a huge fad in Europe, especially in Victorian England. European aristocrats would occasionally entertain themselves by purchasing mummies, having them unwrapped, and holding observation sessions. These sessions destroyed hundreds of mummies, because the exposure to the air caused them to disintegrate.

The use of mummies as fuel for locomotives was documented by Mark Twain (likely as a joke or humor), but the truth of the story remains debatable. During the American Civil War, mummy-wrapping linens were said to have been used to manufacture paper. Evidence for the reality of these claims is still equivocal.

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The Spirit Cave mummy is the oldest human mummy found in North America. It was discovered in 1940 in Spirit Cave, east of Fallon, Nevada by the husband-and-wife archaeological team of Sydney and Georgia Wheeler.

Spirit Cave mummy

The Wheelers, working for the Nevada State Parks Commission, were surveying possible archaeological sites to prevent their loss due to guano mining. Upon entering Spirit Cave they discovered the remains of two people wrapped in tule matting. One set of remains, buried deeper than the other, had been partially mummified (the head and right shoulder). The Wheelers, with the assistance of local residents, recovered a total of sixty-seven artifacts from the cave.

These artifacts were examined at the Nevada State Museum where they were initially estimated to be between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. They were deposited at the Nevada State Museum’s storage facility in Carson City where they remained for the next fifty-four years.

Spirit Cave is at an elevation of 4,154 feet in the foothills of the Stillwater Mountains; the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge is now established in this area. The location is to the northeast of Fallon, Nevada.

In 1996 University of California, Riverside anthropologist R. Ervi Taylor examined seventeen of the Spirit Cave artifacts using mass spectrometry. The results indicated that the mummy was approximately 9,400 years old (uncalibrated Radio-Carbon Years Before-Present (RCYBP); ~11.5 Kya calibrated) — older than any previously known North American mummy.

The findings were published in the "Nevada Historical Quarterly" in 1997 and drew immediate national attention.

In March 1997, the Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony
made a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) claim of cultural affiliation with the artifacts.

In 2000, further study was unable to establish a definitive affiliation of the remains.

In September, 2006, the United States District Court for the District of Nevada ruled on a lawsuit by the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe and said that the Bureau of Land Management made an error in dismissing evidence without a full explanation. The court order remanded the matter back to the BLM for reconsideration of the evidence.

In October 2015, Eske Willerslev collected bone and tooth samples from the remains with the permission of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. DNA analysis indicated that the remains were similar to North and South American indigenous groups. On November 22, 2016, the remains were repatriated to the tribe.
Willerslev attended the 2018 burial of the remains by the tribe.

In November 2018, researchers reported that the DNA sequencing of the remains were used in research about Paleoamericans.

Wizards Beach Man's remains were also in the collection of the Nevada State Museum, and were radiocarbon dated at the same time. This turned out to be another early Holocene skeleton dating to almost exactly the same era.

Wizards Beach Man was found in 1978 at Wizards Beach on Pyramid Lake, about 100 miles (160 km) to the northeast from Spirit Cave. Radiocarbon dating has established that he lived more than 9,200 years ago.

Lovelock Cave, another important early site, is also nearby.


What states are at the Four Corners?

The Four Corners is a region of the United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area is named after the quadripoint at the intersection of approximately 37° north latitude with 109° 03' west longitude, where the boundaries of the four states meet, and are marked by the Four Corners Monument. It is the only location in the United States where four states meet. Most of the Four Corners region belongs to semi-autonomous Native American nations, the largest of which is the Navajo Nation, followed by Hopi, Ute, and Zuni tribal reserves and nations. The Four Corners region is part of a larger region known as the Colorado Plateau and is mostly rural, rugged, and arid. In addition to the monument, commonly visited areas within Four Corners include Monument Valley, Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The most populous city in the Four Corners region is Farmington, New Mexico, followed by Durango, Colorado.

Four Corners

The United States acquired the four corners region from Mexico after the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848. In 1863 Congress created Arizona Territory from the western part of New Mexico Territory. The boundary was defined as a line running due south from the southwest corner of Colorado Territory, which had been created in 1861. This was an unusual act of Congress, which almost always defined the boundaries of new territories as lines of latitude or longitude, or following rivers. By defining one boundary as starting at the corner of another Congress ensured the eventual creation of four states meeting at a point, regardless of the inevitable errors of boundary surveying. The area was first surveyed by the U.S. Government in 1868 as part of an effort to make Colorado Territory into a state, the first of the Four Corners states formed. The first marker was placed at the spot in 1912. The first Navajo tribal government was established in 1923 to regulate an increasing number of oil exploration activities on Navajo land.

The Four Corners Monument is located at.

The Four Corners is part of the high Colorado Plateau. This makes it a center for weather systems, which stabilize on the plateau then proceed eastward through Colorado and into the central states. This weather system creates snow and rain fall over the central United States.

Federally protected areas in the Four Corners area include Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Mesa Verde National Park, and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Mountain Ranges in the Four Corners include Sleeping Ute Mountains, Abajo Mountains, and the Chuska Mountains.

Six governments have jurisdictional boundaries at the Four Corners Monument: the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as the tribal governments of the Navajo Nation and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. The Four Corners Monument itself is administered by the Navajo Nation Department of Parks and Recreation. Other tribal nations within the Four Corners region include the Hopi and other Ute. The Four Corners is home to the capital of the Navajo tribal government at Window Rock, Arizona. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribal headquarters are located at Towaoc, Colorado.

The Four Corners region is mostly rural. The economic hub, largest city, and only metropolitan area in the region is Farmington, New Mexico. The populated settlement closest to the center of Four Corners is Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. Other cities in the region include Cortez and Durango in Colorado; Monticello and Blanding in Utah; Kayenta and Chinle in Arizona; and Shiprock, Aztec, and Bloomfield in New Mexico.

Air service is available via the Durango-La Plata County Airport in Durango, Colorado, Four Corners Regional Airport in Farmington, New Mexico, and Cortez Municipal Airport in Cortez, Colorado. Interstate 40 passes along the southern edge of the Four Corners region. The primary U.S. Highways that directly serve the Four Corners include U.S. Route 64, U.S. Route 160 (which serves the Four Corners Monument itself), U.S. Route 163, U.S. Route 191, U.S. Route 491 (previously U.S. Route 666), and U.S. Route 550.

The main line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, now operated by the BNSF Railway, passes along the southern edge of Four Corners. The area is home to remnants of through railroads that are now heritage railways. These include the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. The Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad, which connects a power plant with a coal mine near Kayenta, comes near the Four Corners.

Four Corners

The Four Corners Monument marks the quadripoint in the Southwestern United States where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. It is the only point in the United States shared by four states, leading to the area being named the Four Corners region. The monument also marks the boundary between two semi-autonomous Native American governments, the Navajo Nation, which maintains the monument as a tourist attraction, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Reservation.

Four Corners Monument

The origins of the state boundaries marked by the monument occurred just prior to, and during, the American Civil War, when the United States Congress acted to form governments in the area to combat the spread of slavery to the region. When the early territories were formed, their boundaries were designated along meridian and parallel lines. Beginning in the 1860s, these lines were surveyed and marked. These early surveys included some errors, but even so, the markers placed became the legal boundaries, superseding the written descriptions of geographical meridians and parallels. This includes the Four Corners Monument, which has been legally established as the corner of the four states.

The monument where "visitors can simultaneously straddle the territory of four states" is maintained as a tourist attraction by the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department. Unlike many other attractions based on what are (or were) primarily political boundaries, such as the Berlin Wall, Four Corners Monument is an example of a political boundary that is a tourist destination in its own right. The monument consists of a granite disk embedded with a smaller bronze disk around the point, surrounded by smaller, appropriately located state seals and flags representing both the states and tribal nations of the area. Circling the point, starting from north, the disk reads with two words in each state "Here meet in freedom under God four states". Around the monument, local Navajo and Ute artisans sell souvenirs and food. An admission fee is required to view and photograph the monument. The monument is a popular tourist attraction despite its remote and isolated location. As early as 1908, people traveled long distances to take pictures of family and friends at the monument in Twister-like poses, sitting on the disk, in a circle of friends or family around the disk, or for couples to kiss directly over the disk.

The monument is located on the Colorado Plateau west of U.S. Highway 160, approximately southwest of Cortez, Colorado. The monument is centered at. In addition to the four states, two semi-autonomous American Indian tribal governments have boundaries at the monument, the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Reservation, with the Ute Mountain tribal boundaries coinciding with Colorado's boundaries at the monument.

Located in the Colorado Plateau desert region of the Southwestern United States, The Four Corners Monument has a strong cold desert climate (BWk) according to the Köppen climate classification system. Winters are chilly-to-cold, but sunny, while summers are hot and dry. The record high temperature of was observed five times, on June 19, 29 and 30, 1974, July 14, 2003, and July 21, 2005. The record low temperature of was observed on January 3, 1974.

The area now called Four Corners was initially American Indian land and beginning in the 16th century it was claimed by Spain as part of New Spain. After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the area was governed by Mexico until being ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 following the United States' victory in the Mexican–American War.
The first boundary which would become part of the monument was set as part of the Compromise of 1850, which created the New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory. The border between the two territories was congressionally defined as the 37th parallel north by the 31st United States Congress. In 1861, the 36th United States Congress transferred land previously allocated to the Utah Territory, to the newly created Colorado Territory. The Colorado Territory's southern border would remain as the 37th parallel north, but a new border—between the Colorado and Utah Territories—was declared to be the 32nd meridian west from Washington. This line was derived from the reference used at the time, the Washington meridian.

In 1860, just prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War, a group of people in the southern portion of New Mexico Territory passed a resolution condemning the United States for creating such a vast territory with only a single, small government in place at Santa Fe. They claimed by doing so the U.S. had ignored the needs of the southern portion, left them without a functional system of law and order, and allowed the situation to deteriorate into a state of chaos and near anarchy. The group declared secession from the United States and announced their intent to join the Confederate States of America under the name of the Arizona Territory. The U.S. Congress responded in 1863 by creating another Arizona Territory with different, but partially overlapping boundaries. The Confederate boundaries split New Mexico along an east–west line, the 34th parallel north, allowing for a single state connection from Texas to the Colorado River. This would give the Confederacy access to California and the Pacific coast. The Union definition split New Mexico along a north–south line, the 32nd meridian west from Washington, which simply extended the boundary between Colorado and Utah southward. The Union plan eventually became reality, and this created the quadripoint at the modern Four Corners. After the split, New Mexico resembled its modern form, with only slight differences.

After the Civil War, efforts began to survey and mark the actual borders. In 1868, the General Land Office (GLO) had Ehud N. Darling survey and set markers along the border between the Colorado and New Mexico Territories (the 37th parallel north); this border has become known as the "Darling Line". In 1875, another GLO surveyor, Chandler Robbins, surveyed and marked the border between the Arizona and New Mexico Territories (the 32nd meridian west of Washington). Robbins began near the Mexico–United States border, and worked his way north marking the border every so often. Near the 37th parallel north he intersected the Darling Line, and here he erected a sandstone shaft. This sandstone shaft marked today's location of the Four Corners Monument.

In 1878, Rollin J. Reeves surveyed and marked the border between the newly created State of Colorado and the Utah Territory. Reeves located the sandstone shaft marker placed by Robbins at today's Four Corners Monument. He then began to survey and mark the border between Colorado and Utah from this point northward. In 1901, Howard B. Carpenter surveyed and marked the border between Arizona and Utah, completing the survey of borders making up the Four Corners Monument.

The results of these surveys and the markers placed were later accepted as the legal boundaries between the various states.

By 1899, the sandstone shaft marker placed by Chandler Robbins in 1875 had been disturbed and broken, so it was replaced with a new stone by two U.S. Surveyors, Hubert D. Page and James M. Lentz. In 1912, a simple concrete pad was poured around the marker. The first modern Navajo government convened in 1923 in an effort to organize and regulate an increasing amount of oil exploration activities on Navajo lands, and they would play a big role in the monument's further development.
In 1931, Everett H. Kimmell, another U.S. Surveyor, found this newer stone had broken too and he replaced it with a brass disc marker set in concrete. In 1962, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs poured an elevated concrete pad around the 1931 brass marker; this pad included the state border lines and names in tile. The monument was completely rebuilt in 1992, and the 1931 brass marker was replaced with a disc shaped aluminum-bronze plate set in granite. The monument was again rebuilt in 2010, although the disc shaped plate from 1992 remained in place.

Since the early 20th century, controversies have arisen regarding the accuracy of the monument's placement. After the initial surveys, it was found that the borders did not always follow the lines of meridian and parallel (as they had been intended to) due to the primitive surveying technology available at the time of construction. This discrepancy left the four states asking if the correct borders were the exact lines of meridian and parallel (and if new, more accurate, surveys needed to be done), or if the markers placed during the initial surveys were now the actual border. The issue was resolved when New Mexico sued Colorado in 1919, and in 1925 the Supreme Court ruled that the markers placed during the initial surveys were the actual borders, even if the markers were off in some locations (this includes the Four Corners Monument). Today's legal description of these border lines is based on the original markers, and not the written description of the borders created when the territories were formed. Because of this, the borders between these states are not perfectly straight and often zigzag. One example is the border between Colorado and Utah, where in one area the border jogs west about from where it was intended to be placed (). Because this error occurred in the original survey, which superseded the written description (being simply the 32nd meridian west of Washington), the border set out by the markers remains the border between the two states.
In 2009 this issue was again brought to the forefront due to U.S. media reports that the monument was placed west of its intended location. These reports were quickly corrected after it was discovered that sources had forgotten that when the initial surveys were conducted that the Washington meridian was used. This meridian has an offset from the modern reference, the Prime Meridian, which has been used in the United States since 1912. This offset is often missed by those not familiar with the history of U.S. surveying.

Even after the mistakes in the reports were discovered, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Geodetic Survey admitted the monument is placed east of where modern surveyors would mark the point. However, he defended the accuracy of the original survey, stating surveyors "nailed it" considering the primitive tools of the day. Pointing out the achievement given the conditions, he further stated, "Their ability to replicate that exact point — what they did was phenomenal, what they did was spot on." He concluded by stating that any claims of errors in the location of the monument are irrelevant. Once a survey commissioned to establish a boundary has been accepted by the involved parties, the survey markers are legally binding, regardless of any error that is later discovered. Similar statements were issued by the Navajo Nation, defending their work in maintaining and promoting the monument. In addition, general U.S. land principles, law, and the Supreme Court have established that the location of the monument is the legal corner of the four states.

The Four Corners Monument is the only point in the United States where four states meet: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet at right angles. The United States first acquired the area now called Four Corners from Mexico after the Mexican–American War in 1848. In 1863 Congress created Arizona Territory from the western part of New Mexico Territory. The boundary was defined as a line running due south from the southwest corner of Colorado Territory, which had been created in 1861. By defining one boundary as starting at the corner of another Congress ensured the eventual creation of four states meeting at a point, regardless of the inevitable errors of boundary surveying. The monument is centered at.

Quadripoint

A quadripoint is a point on the Earth that touches the border of four distinct territories. The term has never been in common use—it may not have been used before 1964 when it was possibly invented by the Office of the Geographer of the United States Department of State. The word does not appear in the "Oxford English Dictionary" or "Merriam-Webster Online" dictionary, but it does appear in the "Encyclopædia Britannica", as well as in the "World Factbook" articles on Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, dating as far back as 1990.

An early instance of four political divisions meeting at a point is in England (attested in the Domesday Book, 1086, and mentioned since 969 if not 772); it combined until 1931 the English shires/counties of Gloucester, Oxford, Warwick, and Worcester.

The earliest known quadripoint involving modern nation states existed from 1817 to 1821 where the present Alabama–Mississippi state line crossed the 31st parallel border between Spain and the United States. During that period, the part of West Florida between the Pearl and Perdido rivers (which Spain still owned but the United States forcibly occupied and annexed in 1810 after belatedly claiming it as part of the Louisiana Territory purchased from France in 1803) was subdivided and allocated partly to the State of Mississippi and partly to the Territory (and later State) of Alabama. There resulted, at the intersection of demarcated boundaries, an international quadripoint of four territories, which in the United States were named (clockwise) Baldwin and Mobile counties of Alabama and Jackson and Greene counties of Mississippi, though Mobile and Jackson Counties were actually still Spanish.

Between 1839 and 1920 there was a quadripoint at the convergence of Belgium, Prussia/Germany, the Netherlands, and Moresnet at Vaalserberg. Moresnet was never truly a country but rather only a neutral territory or condominium of the Netherlands and Prussia (originally), and of Belgium and Germany (ultimately). Subsequent political changes have restored its quadripartition along municipal lines (Kelmis, Plombieres within Belgium) since 1976 (though it has also enjoyed fivefold partition along municipal lines at times).

While some older sources claimed that a quadripoint existed in Africa, where the borders of Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe come together at the confluence of the Cuando (also called Chobe) and Zambezi rivers (approximately ), it is now widely believed that instead, two separate tripoints exist about apart.

There have been a few international incidents revolving round this particular quadripoint, or near-quadripoint. In 1970, South Africa (which at the time occupied Namibia) informed Botswana that there was no common border between Botswana and Zambia, claiming that a quadripoint existed. As a result, South Africa claimed, the Kazungula Ferry, which links Botswana and Zambia at the quadripoint, was illegal. Botswana firmly rejected both claims. There was actually a confrontation and shots were fired at the ferry; some years later, the Rhodesian Army attacked and sank the ferry, maintaining that it was serving military purposes. Ian Brownlie, who studied the case, wrote in 1979 that the possibility of a quadripoint could not be definitively ruled out at that time.

In August 2007 the governments of Zambia and Botswana announced a deal to construct a bridge at the site to replace a ferry. The existence of a short boundary of about between Zambia and Botswana was apparently agreed during various meetings involving heads of state and/or officials from all four states in the 2006–10 period, and is clearly shown in the African Development Fund project map. This matches the data kept by the Office of the Geographer under the US Department of State, as depicted in Google Earth.

However, a true four-country point did formerly exist in Africa (excluding Kazungula) – the only known quadricountry borderpoint (not involving condominial territories) – for a period of 8 months during 1960 and 1961, in southern Lake Chad, at the location of the present Cameroon–Chad–Nigeria tripoint. Upon the 1 October 1960 independence of Nigeria, that borderpoint became common to the latter three countries and the territory of Northern Cameroons, which was still governed under United Nations mandate by the United Kingdom, until it was finally integrated into Nigeria on 1 June 1961. This particular geographical multipoint, though notional since 1908, if not 1891, and definitely fixed and fully agreed since 1931, remains undemarcated to this day.

Quadripoints can exist at the meeting of political subdivisions of any type(s) or level(s). The most common are in the United States and Canada, where the grid-based Public Land Survey System (PLSS) and Dominion Land Surveys (DLS), respectively, resulted in a large number of quadripoints at the corners of survey units such as DLS townships, PLSS townships, sections, and various other gridded subdivisions. The borders of U.S. counties and towns are often defined by survey townships. There are dozens of quadripoints between U.S. counties, hundreds between U.S. municipalities, and indeed thousands (of usually bilateral ones) on the edges of checkerboard-patterned Indian reservations and other federally reserved territories. But of all the quadripoints that exist, the most noted are a few dozen that are situated on international borders, and about a dozen others involve primary national subdivisions (such as provinces or states).

Among the international quadripoints (examples below), a few general types can be distinguished. In the absence of four-country points, three-country quadripoints are perhaps most significant. These combine two divisions of one country with (one each of) two other countries. But there also exist merely binational quadripoints—of several varieties. Some of these combine two subdivisions of two countries, others three subdivisions of one country with (one of) another; while still others occur at points where international boundaries appear to touch or cross themselves—with or without subdivision—or where an international boundary appears to bifurcate around disputed territories.

Also below, by country, are some subnational quadripoints composed of primary subdivisions.

Two districts of Adrar Province, Algeria--namely Bordj Badji Mokhtar and Reggane--meet the Tombouctou Cercle of Tombouctou Region, Mali, and the Bir Mogrein Department of Tiris Zemmour Region, Mauritania.

In northern Andorra, the four "parròquies"
or parishes of Canillo, Encamp, La Massana, and Ordino, meet at a quadripoint.

The Argentine provinces of La Pampa, Río Negro, Mendoza, and Neuquén may meet at. Río Negro has disputed this since a 1966 resurvey cast the exact boundary convergence into some doubt.

On the summit of Sorgschrofen peak, the international boundary touches (or crosses) itself at marker number 110, where two Austrian (Tyrolean: Reutte) and two German (Bavarian: Oberallgäu, Ostallgäu) municipalities meet at a quadripoint established politically in 1844, cadastrally 1342 or earlier: (in clockwise order) Jungholz (Austria), Pfronten (Germany), Schattwald (Austria), and Bad Hindelang (Germany).

When almost all of the India–Bangladesh enclaves were extinguished by the Land Boundary Agreement between the two states, effective after 31 July 2015, which exchanged all first-order exclaves, the following quadripoint(s) was(were) thus also extinguished. The international boundary touched (or crossed) itself at one (or possibly two) locations shared by India (West Bengal state, Cooch Behar district) and Bangladesh (Rangpur Division, Lalmonirhat District). A confirmed instance occurred in Mathabhanga subdivision and a less definite one in Mekhliganj subdivision (of Cooch Behar), involving the Bara Saradubi enclave of Hatibandha thana and the Jote Nijjama enclave of Patgram thana (of Lalmonirhat), respectively. Additional political subdivision did not appear to result in either case. Its (or their) international stature had been intermittent since Mughal times and was a result of the Radcliffe Award of 1947.

The international boundary touches (or crosses) itself, without imparting political subdivision, within the commingled municipalities of Baarle-Nassau (North Brabant, Netherlands) and Baarle-Hertog (Antwerp, Belgium). The peculiar situation, which occurs at Baarle but once (at the touchpoint of Belgian enclaves H1 and H2), has existed at least cadastrally since about 1198, but its current international distinction dates only from 1830.

The creation of the Canadian territory of Nunavut might have resulted in the creation of a quadripoint between the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and the territories of Nunavut and Northwest Territories (NWT). Nunavut was officially separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999, though the boundaries had been defined in 1993 by the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. Both documents define Nunavut's boundary as including the "intersection of 60°00'N latitude with 102°00'W longitude, being the intersection of the Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan borders." However, the northernmost point of the Manitoba–Saskatchewan border as surveyed is slightly off from 60° north 102° west, therefore the laws are not perfectly clear about whether the Nunavut–NWT boundary, which has not been surveyed, is to meet the others in a quadripoint or not.

Both of the only known international quadripoints in the Americas occur on the Canada–United States border along remote mountain crests. One, which joins the Canadian provinces of Alberta (Improvement District Number 4) and British Columbia (Regional District of East Kootenay) with the Montana counties of Flathead and Glacier where the 49th parallel crosses the Continental Divide also unites an international peace park comprising national parks of both countries (Waterton Lakes and Glacier, respectively). It has been a politically important and precisely stipulated international boundary point since 1818; has been monumented since 1876 (now by a hollow metallic obeliskoid marker numbered 272); and has maintained a quadripartite status since 1893.

The other of the pair occurs in the international boundary sector known as the Highlands, on the ridge separating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence watershed from the Gulf of Maine watershed, where three minor civil divisions of the state of Maine—namely Dennistown Plantation, Forsyth, and Sandy Bay Townships, all in Somerset County—meet Le Granit Regional County Municipality of the province of Quebec. This quadripoint, which was legally delimited in 1873 and validated in 1895, is marked (like all the corners of the minor civil divisions of Maine) by a brightly painted 8-foot wooden pole.

There is a subnational quadripoint in Colombia at approximate coordinates, at the confluence of the Upía and Guavio rivers, where the borders of the Boyacá, Casanare, Meta, and Cundinamarca departments come together.

At a delimitation point determined partly following World War I and partly following World War II, and indirectly monumented by international pillars 415 and 420 on respective riverbanks, there is on the thalweg (center of downstream navigation channel) of the Danube a trinational quadripoint, where the Hungarian counties of Baranya and Bács-Kiskun meet the Croatian county of Osječko-Baranjska and the Serbian (Vojvodina) District of West Bačka (although Croatia continues to claim its former Yugoslav cadastral territory east of the Danube, leaving the quadripoint technically unsettled).

On the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, there is a binational quadripoint where two departments of Haiti, Centre and Ouest, meet two provinces of the Dominican Republic, Elias Pina and Independencia, at the ridgeline of a feature that is called the Sierra de Neiba in the Dominican Republic and the Chaine du Trou de l'Eau in Haiti, and which a 19th-century communal boundary followed before the intersecting 20th-century international boundary was created. As well, some to the east along the same ridgeline, the same two Dominican provinces produce a subnational quadripoint where they meet two other Dominican provinces, Baoruco and San Juan.

Four provinces (the primary subdivision) of Gabon, namely Moyen-Ogooue, Ngounie, Ogooue-Ivindo, and Ogooue-Lolo, meet at a quadripoint. Moreover at least one instance of four departments (the secondary subdivision), namely Haut-Ntem, Ivindo, Okano, and Woleu, also meet at quadripoint.

The border between Hungary and Slovakia most probably leads the world in international quadrimunicipal points with no fewer than five, but this border is also unique for hosting the only known pair of linked quadrimunicipal points in the world—which are shared in common by the towns of Skaros, Slovakia, and Füzér, Hungary, in conjunction with Trstené Pri Hornáde, Slovakia, and Hollóháza, Hungary, in one case, and Slaska Huta, Slovakia, and Pusztafalu, Hungary, in the other. All these towns are in either the Košice Okolie district of the Košice region of Slovakia or the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county of Hungary.

Four parishes of Jamaica, namely Clarendon, Manchester, St. Ann, and Trelawney, meet at a quadripoint.

At, there is a trinational quadripoint: to the northwest is Russia (specifically the Russian exclave Kaliningrad Oblast); to the northeast Lithuania; and to the southwest and southeast two voivodeships (provinces) of Poland: Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship and Podlaskie Voivodeship. The quadripoint exists thanks to the way the border between Poland and Russian SFSR was defined in 1945 by the Potsdam Agreement. The new border between Poland and the USSR bisected Germany's former province of East Prussia; the northern part became Kaliningrad Oblast, and most of the southern part is now Warmia-Masuria.

Four regions of Mauritania, namely Adrar, Brakna, Tagant, and Trarza, meet at a quadripoint formed by an intersection of non-cardinally oriented geodesic lines that define their borders.

In Mexico there is one precise quadripoint at. The "Mojonera de los cuatro estados" ("Four State Boundary Stone") was built to mark the point where Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, and Zacatecas states effectively meet.

On the border of Sweden and Norway, there is a binational quadripoint where two counties of Norway, Trøndelag and Nordland, meet two counties of Sweden, Västerbotten and Jämtland, at international boundary marker number 204. Though the marker dates from 1760, the point became a quadripoint in the 19th century and became international upon the dissolution of Sweden and Norway in 1905.

Amid the Empty Quarter of Arabia—as trilaterally agreed and monumented in 2006 precisely at the intersection of the 19th parallel and 52nd meridian (datum uncertain)—Oman (governorate of Dhofar) and Saudi Arabia (emirate of Ash Sharqiyah) meet Yemen (and its governorates of Al Mahrah and Hadramawt) in a tricountry quadripoint.

At a secondary summit of Pilsko Peak called Góra Pięciu Kopców, where there is situated a prominent turnpoint on the border of Poland and Slovakia that is evidently demarcated by a primary border marker numbered III/109, there lies a binational quadripoint at which the rural gmina or municipality of Jeleśnia in Żywiec County of the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland apparently meets three municipalities of Námestovo District of Žilina Region of Slovakia called, respectively, Mutne, Oravské Veselé, and Námestovo (although it is unclear if the last-mentioned is an outlier of the eponymous district seat or just an unorganized territory of the Námestovo District itself).

A quadripoint  is created by Saratov Oblast, Samara Oblast, and Orenburg Oblast from the Russian side of the border and West Kazakhstan Region from the Kazakhstani side.

In the Coppename River Suriname enjoys a quadripoint of the districts of Coronie, Para, Saramacca, and Sipaliwini.

In 2007, the municipality of Heby was transferred to Uppsala County, causing Heby of Uppsala County to border the counties of Västmanland, Dalarna, and Gävleborg at the junction of Dalälven and Norrsundet in Färnebofjärden. This was previously a county-level tripoint when Heby was a part of Västmanland. The point forms approximate right angles.

Due to changes to the borders and numbers of administrative counties in the last century, no true quadripoint remains in the United Kingdom.

But quite apart from the few shire/county quadripoints that have actually existed in England, mistaken claims of an extant one are sometimes made about a place near Stamford where Rutland, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire seem to meet at a point (). However, the location actually consists of two tripoints around apart.

The village of Four Marks in Hampshire is so named, because historically four adjoining tithings (or parishes) of Medstead, Ropley, Faringdon, and Chawton met there in a quadripoint.

A pair of conflicting territorial claims can give rise to a void or dispute-pendant quadripoint: of the territory in dispute and the adjacent undisputed territories of the claimants with a fourth territory (or void area) claimed by neither of them.

An international case of such a quadripoint on dry land can be inferred, if not actually found, in a remote area of the Nubian Desert involving both the Hala'ib Triangle and Bir Tawil (about midway between the River Nile and the Red Sea) where the long established but undemarcated international border along the 22nd parallel, as claimed by Egypt, is intersected by a similarly well established administrative boundary preferred and claimed by Sudan as the true international border.

Another occurrence—actually a chain of three such quadripoints linked to two separate unclaimed areas—is inferred where the southern end of the Alaska sector of the Canada–US border aberrates into two crisscrossing versions or claim lines. These conflicting lines produce, besides two areas of overlapping claims, two small triangles of void or virtual high seas—one having two pendant quadripoints and the other a third, all identifiable at fairly precise geocoordinates—as they lurch through the narrows of Dixon Entrance toward their still indefinite boundary termination in the true high seas of the Pacific.

Yet another quadripoint of this type exists on the disputed Thai-Cambodian boundary a short distance northeast of Preah Vihear Temple.

And finally, combining the only other two (of the 7 known) unclaimed or void areas on Earth, is a seventh dispute-pendant quadripoint, at the South Pole. Being at once a simple bilateral quadripoint and a far more complicated intersection of claim limits (an elevenfold 6-country point), the South Pole example combines two parcels of virgin unclaimed land with two parcels of Antarctic Treaty regulated territory (which have been variously claimed, disputed, recognized, ignored, disowned, reclaimed, etc., as national sovereign territory by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, if not also Norway). But whatever the ultimate disposition of disputed national sovereignty, the intersection and quadripoint of two undisputedly pristine and two highly disputable territories endures. The void areas meet the polar quadripoint between the 90th and 150th meridian west longitude (Marie Byrd Land) and, again, between the 20th meridian west and 45th meridian east (this latter sector, of indefinite extent, owing to the Norwegian exclusion of the South Pole from Queen Maud Land), while sovereign or treaty-regulated areas converge at the polar quadripoint in the two intervals between the void areas.

Quadripoints are exceptional and rare because borders and territories do not normally meet in groups of more than three (viz., at tripoints). Correspondingly and proportionally rarer are points of more than fourfold constituency. Perhaps a dozen quintipoints of various levels of geopolitical subdivisions are scattered around the world; for example five counties of Florida, United States, meet in the middle of Lake Okeechobee. Multipoints of greater than quintuple complexity are exceedingly rare.

In Finland near Turku, the borders of six municipalities merge on the same point: Pöytyä, Aura, Turku, Rusko, Nousiainen, and Mynämäki meet on the Kuhankuono border marker in Kurjenrahka National Park. The oldest recorded mention of the point dates to 1381, and the number and identity of municipalities participating has varied.

Eight communities of three districts of Papua-New Guinea meet at a single point, at the summit of Mt. Taraka on Bougainville Island, in North Solomons province. The communities are Lato, Motuna-Huyono and Koraru (within Boku district); Makis, Konnou and Wisai (in Buin district); and Bakong and Bakada (in Kieta district). The resulting octopoint is thus a higher-level tripoint as well.

In the Philippines, an octopoint exists at the summit of Mayon Volcano, where eight municipalities in Albay meet. In the nearby province of Camarines Sur, the peak of Mount Isarog is a hexapoint.

In Northern Ireland, ten townlands meet at the summit of Knocklayd (clearly shown by Ordnance Survey mapping at point 311518 436392). The townlands are, clockwise from north, Broom-More, Tavnaghboy, Kilrobert, Clare Mountain, Aghaleck, Corvally, Essan, Cleggan, Stroan, and Tullaghore.
Similarly in Italy, the borders of ten municipalities meet on the summit of Mount Etna. These municipalities are Adrano, Biancavilla, Belpasso, Bronte, Castiglione di Sicilia, Maletto, Nicolosi, Randazzo, Sant'Alfio, and Zafferana Etnea. The territory of Bronte touches the summit of Mount Etna from two sides, making this decimunicipal point one of elevenfold complexity, and thus evidently the most complicated geopolitical multipoint anywhere, other than the South Pole.

Four Corners is a region in the southwestern United States where the corners of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet.

Four Corners (disambiguation)

Four Corners or 4 Corners may also refer to: