110 interesting facts in geography.
1. It is still not clear why Lake Hillier in Western Australia is pink in color.
2. To protect against evil spirits, the people of the Akha tribe living in northern Laos, nail to the posts of the gate wooden models of Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades. People are sure that no evil spirits will dare to pass through such gates.
3. The driest place on earth is the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, where there has been no precipitation for two million years.
4. The largest number of languages spoken by the population of Africa - the number of African languages exceeds two thousand. The rarest of them is the Bikya language. In 1998, only one 87-year-old woman from a village on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria spoke this language.
5. Holland is a province within the Netherlands that was the political and economic core of the state in the 16th and 18th centuries. Since then, the history of this province has become so fused with that of the whole country that the Netherlands has come to be called Holland.
6. At the geographical poles (North and South) time can be chosen at will as all meridians converge to one point, and therefore the concept of geographical longitude loses its meaning. Since calculation of time of day at any place on the Earth is connected with geographical longitude of this place, uncertainty of longitude at geographical poles leads to uncertainty of time of day at them.
7. Istanbul is the only city in the world that is located on two continents.
8. The oldest city in the world is Damascus, the capital of Syria. It flourished for several thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC.
9. The largest building in the world is the skyscraper Burj Dubai (“Tower of Dubai”). Its height is 828 meters (164 floors).
10. Costa Rica does not have a regular army.
11. Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
12. Smallest states: Vatican City - approximately 0.44 square kilometers. Population 770; Monaco - approximately 1.9 square kilometers. Population of 32,000; Nauru - approximately 21 sq. km. Population of 13,000; Tuvalu - approximately 25 sq. km. Population - 12,000; San Marino - approximately 61 sq. km. Population of 29,000.
13. Streets in Japan do not have names.
14. Persia changed its name to Iran in 1935.
15. Austria was the first country to use postcards.
16. 10 percent of the Russian government's revenue comes from the sale of vodka.
17. Japan is 80 percent mountainous.
18. All 14 mountains that are higher than 8000 meters are in Asia.
19. The highest mountain in the world with a foot on the ocean floor is Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Its height is 10203 meters, but only 4205 meters are above sea level.
20. In Korea, it is considered inappropriate to keep your hands behind your back or in your pockets.
21. In Brazil, pulling down the lower eyelid of the right eye means that the listener doubts what you are saying.
22. The full name of Los Angeles is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula” and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of the original size: “LA”.
23. In 1980, there was only one country in the world without telephones - Bhutan.
24. The character Donald Duck was banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
25. In Saudi Arabia, a woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.
26. 7% of Americans don't know the first 9 words of the American anthem, but know the first 7 of the Canadian anthem.
27. 5% of Canadians don't know the first 7 words of the Canadian anthem, but know the first 9 of the American anthem.
28. A West African Matami tribe plays soccer with a human skull.
29. The state of Papua New Guinea includes the islands of New Britain and New Ireland.
30. The Vermont state capital of Montpelier is the only state capital in the United States without a single McDonald's.
31. Montpelier, Vermont, is the smallest state capital in the United States. Its population is only about nine thousand residents.
32. Several buildings in Manhattan have their own zip code. And the World Trade Center even has several of them.
33. The cleanest sea on Earth is considered to be the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.
34. The farthest point from all the oceans on Earth is in China.
35. France, Italy and Chile have officially recognized the existence of UFOs.
36. The longest border between neighboring countries -8963 km, between the United States and Canada.
37. Unlike most African countries, Ethiopia has never been a European colony.
38. Lebanon is the only state in the Middle East that has no deserts on its territory.
39. On the edge of the Sahara, locals build their homes underground. Here they find fresh water and a safe haven from sandstorms.
40. There are only two countries in South America that do not have access to the ocean: Bolivia and Paraguay.
41. Amsterdam and Antwerp have 26 islands each, St. Petersburg has 101, and Venice has 118.
42. In the town of Calama, located in Chile's Atacama Desert, it never rains.
43. The widest street in the world is located in Brasilia (street “Monumental Axis”, width - 250 meters).
44. The inhabitants of the island of Lesbos are called lesbosians and lesbosians.
45. The Red Sea is the warmest sea on Earth.
46. Indonesia is located on 17,508 islands.
47. Saudi Arabia does not have a single river.
48. The Ob River has about 150,000 tributaries.
49. The national anthem of Greece has 158 versions. No one in Greece knows all 158 versions of their country's anthem.
50. In Malaysia, they believe that bathing a child in beer can protect him from all sorts of troubles and diseases.
51. Countries that have no constitution at all are Israel, Lebanon, New Zealand, Oman, and the United Kingdom.
52. The highest extinct volcano on Earth is Aconcagua, located in Argentina. Its height is 6960 meters.
53. Several buildings in Manhattan have their own postal code. And the World Trade Center even has several of them.
54. There is only one river in the world that originates at the equator and flows to the temperate zone - the Nile. For some obscure reason, the other rivers flow in the opposite direction.
55. The continent with the greatest number of borders is Africa-108.
56. In Thailand, it is still considered indecent to use a fork when eating. The fork is only used to transfer food from the plate to the spoon.
57. The North Pole is the only point in the northern hemisphere that does not participate in the daily rotation of the Earth around its axis. There is no change of day and night, no longitude, no east, west, or north direction.
58. 23 of the 50 U.S. states have access to the ocean.
59. On February 18, 1979, it snowed in the Sahara Desert.
60. There are 17 active volcanoes in Japan.
61. The first capital of the Russian state was Ladoga.
62. Cuba is the only Caribbean island that has railroads.
63. Nauru is the only state in the world without an official capital.
64. The world's largest ports: Rotterdam, Singapore, Kobe, New York, New Orleans.
65. The last eruption of the Japanese volcano Fujiyama occurred in 1707.
66. There are 336 rivers flowing into Lake Baikal, but only one (Angara) flows out.
67. Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) is considered the coldest capital in the world.
68. There was not a single telephone in Bhutan until almost the late 1980s.
69. Of the 25 highest peaks in the world, 19 are in the Himalayas.
70. Less than 1 percent of the Caribbean islands are inhabited.
71. There are as many as 3 cities in the U.S. Peru and 9 more Paris.
72. The Ganges has the largest delta of any river.
73. Japan includes more than 3,900 islands.
74. In the state of Togo, a man who compliments a woman is obliged to marry her.
75. In the central square of the Canadian town of Glandon towers its official symbol - dumpling height of 9 meters and weighing 2700 kg.
76. The eruption of the Mexican volcano Paricutin lasted 9 years (from 1943 to 1952). During this time the cone of the volcano rose to 2774 meters.
77. There are 5 nations in Europe that border only one other nation - Portugal, Denmark, San Marino, Vatican City, and Monaco.
78. The 7 largest countries in the world (Russia, Canada, USA, China, Australia, Brazil and Argentina) occupy half of the planet's landmass.
79. The richest monarch of modern times is the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam Muda Hassanal Bolkiah Muizzaddin Waddaulah (his palace has 1778 rooms).
80. The Philippines archipelago includes 7,107 islands.
81. The Trans-Siberian Railway crosses exactly 3901 bridges.
82. The Kingdom of Tonga is the only monarchy in Oceania.
83. The first draft of the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper, and the fibers were used to weave the first American flag.
84. Numbering of houses was first adopted in London in the 18th century, before that the address was determined by the name of the owner.
85. In 1991, a monument to the axe was erected on a concrete pedestal in Canada. The weight of the monument was 7 tons.
86. Italy concentrates 60% of all cultural values of Western Europe. Any Italian city is an open-air museum.
87. In the city of Tegazi (Sahara) there are houses with walls made of rock salt. This is one of the driest places on Earth.
88. In Finland, Italy, Germany, England, France, Germany, England, and Spain, the number of cell phones exceeds the number of regular phones.
89. Visitors to the museum in Wuppertail are given identical postcards and asked to send from their city. They make up the exhibit.
90. In the town of Tombstone, men and women over the age of 18 are forbidden to smile if they are missing more than 1 front tooth.
91. The Ecuadorian Postal Service stamps envelopes with the following: Pyramid, located at the equator and dividing the world in half.
92. In England, 12 million end-of-life cell phones and 2 million televisions are thrown into landfills each year.
93. Singapore can be traveled from end to end by subway. The territory of this country stretches from north to south for 23 km, from west to east for 42 km. The total length of metro lines is 67 km. The local subway is the most modern in the world.
94. During the construction of the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, there was such a demand for Romanian marble that even tombstones throughout the country were made of other materials.
95. The most multinational and multilingual state of India - more than 500 nationalities and tribes speak more than 800 languages and 1600 dialects.
96. The largest island nation is Indonesia.
97. 450 kilometers north of the capital of Namibia lies Hoba, the largest meteorite on Earth. Its weight is about 50 tons.
98. There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than Canadians in Canada.
99. There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.
100. The only country with no births recorded for 1983 is the Vatican.
101. If all the steel cables of Akashi-Kaikyo, the largest suspension bridge in the world, were stretched out, they could girdle the Earth seven times.
102. The windiest place is Victoria Land in Antarctica. Wind speed here reaches up to 215 kilometers per hour.
103. Andorra is the only country in the world with free postage.
104. Scrolling a finger at the temple in Argentina and Peru means “I think”. In other countries, the same gesture means “crazy”.
105. In Japan, it is considered very indecent to kiss in front of witnesses.
106. The equator runs through 13 countries around the world.
107. In Iceland, tipping is considered an insult.
108. The world's oldest constitution still in force today is the U.S. Bill of Rights, adopted in 1789.
109. The world's largest fruit - the fruit of the Seychelles coco-de-mer palm weighs about 20 kilograms.
110. In Paraguay, registered blood donors can legally participate in duels.
