Some countries are so landlocked you must cross two borders to reach the sea

There are 44 landlocked countries on Earth — nations with no direct coastline on an ocean or open sea. To ship goods abroad, they must send them overland through a neighbor first. But two countries take this to an extreme: they are doubly landlocked, meaning every country that surrounds them is also landlocked. To reach salt water, you'd have to cross at least two international borders.

The world's only two doubly landlocked countries are Liechtenstein, tucked between Switzerland and Austria in the Alps, and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, ringed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan — none of which touch an ocean either. (The Caspian and Aral seas don't count, as they're enclosed inland bodies of water.)

Being landlocked shapes a nation's economy and culture in real ways. Without ports, countries depend on the goodwill and infrastructure of their neighbors for trade, which often makes shipping slower and more expensive. This is one reason many landlocked developing nations face steeper economic challenges — geography quietly writes part of their story.