Dad's desert trek to make daughter a princess

A man has trekked across the Egyptian desert to claim a small piece of land in an attempt to fulfill his daughter's wish to be a princess, Sky News reports. 

Jeremiah Heaton, who lives in Virginia, said he wanted to make good on a promise made months ago to his seven-year-old daughter, Emily.

"While playing one day she stopped and posed a question, 'Daddy, will I ever be a real princess?'" he wrote on his Facebook page.

"The only answer I could give my sweet little girl was 'Yes, of course you will be a princess one day.'"

After researching online, he discovered that a patch of African land between Egypt and Sudan is unclaimed due to decades-old disputes between the two nations.

The area, 2,071 sq km (800 sq miles), is called Bir Tawil. It is a mountainous region where nobody lives.

Mr Heaton, who tried unsuccessfully to win a seat in Congress in 2012, was given permission by Egyptian authorities and travelled to the area in June to plant a flag there and named it the Kingdom of North Sudan.

"I travelled 14 hours through the open desert to reach Bir Tawil," said Mr Heaton, who planted the flag on June 16.

The flag, a golden seal against a blue backdrop, was designed by his children to represent the family.

Experts point out that just planting a flag is not enough to claim ownership of a territory, and Mr Heaton said he would seek formal recognition for the Kingdom of North Sudan.

When he came back, Mr Heaton's daughter asked her family to call her Princess Emily.

Mr Heaton lives in Abingdon, south Virginia. He and his wife Kelly have three children.