Two islands which neighbour each other and are only two miles apart are separated nearly by an entire day.
Found just below the Arctic Circle these two tiny land masses are found in the Diomede Islands and are known as Big Diomede and Little Diomede.
The Diomede Islands, dubbed by the Russians as Gvozdev Islands, consist of two rocky, mesa-like islands found between mainland Alaska and Siberia.
These islands are owned by both Russia and the US as are sandwiched between the two nations with Russia to its west and the US via Alaska to its east.
Russia owns the larger of the two isles which sits as an empty plot of land while the US is involved in the smaller isle.
Little Diomede Island, also known as Yesterday Island, is an inhabited region found in the Bering Strait between the Alaskan mainland and Siberia.
The United States gained this ownership after it purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, which included Little Diomede.
Located in Russia, the Big Diomede island is also known as Ostrov Ratmanova and is part of the Chukotsky District of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia.
As the two regions are connected to their mainland sponsors there are notable differences between the two including their time zones, which, in turn, significantly separates them equally.
As the Little Diomede owned by the US follows the Alaskan timezone and the Big Diomede follows the Anadyr, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug timezone, and Anadyr Time, their two-mile separation means a vast time difference.
These two islands are separated by an international border with each of them following two separate time zones, they are both separated by the International Date Line, placing them a whopping 21-hours difference.
Travel between both is strictly forbidden.
These separate yet neighbouring islands are also often mentioned as likely being intermediate stops for a hypothetical bridge sometimes referred to as the Bering Strait crossing.
During winter, an ice bridge is said to form between the two, however, occasionally, forming a solid structure that spans the distance between these two islands.
This ice bridge is said to theoretically allow for a person to walk between Russia and the United States however it is illegal.
Little Diomede island is home to a small native local population known as the Native Village of Diomede.
As of 2021, there were approximately 82 people who lived permanently on the island.
Big Diomede Island is the easternmost point of Russia with two two miles to the west of that island being home to a Russian weather station which also serves as a base of Russia’s Border Service – part of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB).
