One American father loves his daughter so much that he has claimed an entire kingdom so she can become a princess.
With a flag designed by his three children, Virginia native Jeremiah Heaton claimed a stretch of mountainous land that lies between Egypt and Sudan as his own kingdom to make his 7-year-old daughter Emily a princess, the Bristol Herald Courier reported.
"Over the winter, Emily and I were playing, and she has a fixation on princesses. She asked me, in all seriousness, if she'd be a real princess someday," Heaton told the newspaper. "And I said she would."
The 800-square mile kingdom, a location known as Bir Tawil, is actually one of the last pieces of unclaimed lands on Earth. A decades-old land dispute has left it unclaimed by either the Egyptian or Sudanese governments, according to the newspaper.
Once Heaton got permission from the Egyptian government, he made the 14-hour caravan trip to Bir Tawil in June to plant the new kingdom's blue and white-starred flag into the ground.
"It's beautiful there," said Heaton, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2012. "Bedouins roam the area; the population is actually zero."
After claiming the new territory, which he named "North Sudan," Heaton and his wife bought a crown for Emily and asked the rest of the family to refer to her as "Princess Emily."
"It's cool," the 7-year-old told the newspaper.
It appears she makes a diplomatic princess- she told the newspaper she wants to make sure children in the area have enough food to eat.
"That's definitely a concern in that part of the world." Heaton told the newspaper. "We discussed what we could do as a nation to help."
But achieving status as a nation may take a while. "North Sudan" would have to be legally recognized by Egypt, Sudan, and the United Nations among other groups to beomce a real country.
