There are eight geographic locations that have been named after Queen Victoria: Victoria, Australia. The smallest, most densely populated state in Australia. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The largest city on Vancouver Island. Victoria Falls. On the Zambezi River at the borders of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria Island. A large island in the Arctic Ocean off…
About 20 percent of the earth is under permafrost. This means it has had a temperature below 32 degrees Fahrenheit for over two years. In Siberia, some sections of land are frozen to depths of 5,000 feet.
There are eight time zones are there in North America. From east to west, they are: Newfoundland, Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Yukon, and Alaskan. When it’s 9:00 A.M. in Newfoundland, it’s only 2:00 A.M. in Alaska.
Asia probably got its name from the Assyrian asu, meaning “sunrise, east.” Asu originally referred only to the east coast of the Aegean Sea but gradually came to include the whole continent.
The five largest Lakes in the world are: 1. Kaspiyskoye More (or Caspian Sea). USSR–Iran 2. Superior. United States–Canada 3. Victoria. Tanzania–Uganda–Kenya 4. Aralskoye More (or Aral Sea). USSR 5. Huron. United States–Canada
The zip code was named for the national Zoning Improvement Plan.
Sherwood Forest was the royal hunting ground frequented by Robin Hood and his merry men. It was located in Nottinghamshire, England. Today Sherwood Forest is under the protection of the British Forestry Commission.
What Homer referred to as “wind-swept Troy” was not what we would call a great city. The city of Troy was a village of some 7 acres.
The Arctic Circle lies at 66° 30′ north latitude. This is because that is the southernmost latitude where the sun can be seen for a full 24-hour period on or about June 22, the first day of summer (summer solstice). On the same day in the Antarctic Circle (south of 66°30′ south latitude), the sun…
The Mosquito Coast is also known as The Spanish Costa de Mosquitos. It is a 40-mile-wide band along the coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras. It follows the Caribbean Sea for about 225 miles.
The Antilles, the islands of this chain of Caribbean islands are divided into two groups, the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The islands of the Greater Antilles are: Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico. Those of the Lesser Antilles are: the Virgin Islands, the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands,…
In 1535, the sight of what is now Baja California in Mexico evoked for Spanish conquistador Hernin Cortes an imaginary island and its female black ruler, Calafia, in a popular Spanish novel. In September 1542, when Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo stepped onshore from San Diego Bay, the entire Pacific coast had been named California.
The USSR was composed of 15 republics: Armenia Lithuania Azerbaijan Moldavia Belorussia Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) Estonia Georgia Tadzhikistan Kazakhstan Turkmenistan Kirghizia Ukraine Latvia Uzbekistan
The capitals of the 50 states are: Alabama – Montgomery Alaska – Juneau Arizona – Phoenix Arkansas – Little Rock California – Sacramento Colorado – Denver Connecticut – Hartford Delaware – Dover Florida – Tallahassee Georgia – Atlanta Hawaii – Honolulu Idaho – Boise Illinois – Springfield Indiana – Indianapolis Iowa – Des Moines Kansas…
The name Pygmy is used by anthropologists to describe any human group whose males are less than 4 feet, 11 inches in average height. The best-known Pygmy groups are those of tropical Africa, but they also include some of the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and the Asian Pygmies known as the Negritos.
The United Arab Emirates are a federation of seven Arab states on the Persian Gulf: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Qaiwain. Independent since 1971, they should be distinguished from the United Arab Republic, which was formed when Egypt and Syria united in 1958. Syria seceded from the union in 1961,…
Connecticut. Which state is known as the Blue Hen State? Delaware. Which state is known as the Gopher State? Minnesota. Which state is known as the Beaver State? Oregon.
The abyssal zone begins at a depth of 6,600 feet and runs to 19,800 feet. It covers 83 percent of the area of oceans and seas. Water temperature in the abyssal zone is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit.
Founded in the tenth century, the kingdom of Bohemia was located in what is now Czechoslovakia. From 1526 to 1914, it was ruled by the Hapsburg princes of Austria. At the end of World War I, the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia joined with the Slovaks of Slovakia to form the new Republic of Czechoslovakia….
The Dinosaur National Monument is nearly 205,000 acres of dinosaur beds which are located in Colorado and Utah.
The Seven Hills of Rome are the hills on or about which Rome was built. The original city was built on the Palatine Hill. The other six hills are: the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caefian, and Aventine.
The international date line is the 180th meridian of longitude, marking the point where one civil day ends and another begins. It runs north and south across the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In some places it veers a little to avoid lopping off parts of geographical locations such as Siberia. Which way do you…
The Humber suspension bridge over the Humber River near Hull, England is the longest bridge in the world. Completed in 1981, it is 4,626 feet long. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City, the world’s second-largest bridge, is 4,260 feet long. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is third, at 4,200 feet.
The stretch between San Jose and San Francisco is called Silicon Valley and runs 55 miles.
Birmingham, Alabama. Which city is known as the Rubber Capital of the World? Akron, Ohio. Which city is known as the Pretzel City? Reading, Pennsylvania. Which city is known as the Insurance City? Hartford, Connecticut. Which city is known as the Cement City? Allentown, Pennsylvania. Which city is known as the Celery City? Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The people of the country Persia in southwestern Asia always called their homeland Iran, or “Land of the Aryans.” But Westerners started calling it Persia in the sixth century B.C., taking the name from Persis, or Parsa (modern Fars), a region of southern Iran. In 1935, the country’s government officially requested that the nation be…
The Pole of Inaccessibility is the point on the continent of Antarctica farthest in all directions from the seas that surround it. The site lies on the Polar Plateau and is occupied by a Soviet meteorological research station. The term Pole of Inaccessibility is also sometimes used to describe the point in the Arctic Ocean…
Troy was located in present-day Turkey at the mound now called Hissarlik, about 4 miles from the mouth of the Dardanelles. Also known as Ilium, hence the Greek epic set during the Trojan War is called The Iliad, Troy was destroyed at the end of that war (c. 1200 B.c.). It was first excavated by…
The Grand Canyon, which is the gorge of the Colorado River is 217 miles long. Fifty-six miles lie within Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. The canyon varies in width from 4 to 18 miles.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain was formed in 1707, when England, Scotland, and Wales were united by the Act of Union. But the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was not formed until 1801. In 1945, 24 years after most of Ireland had won its independence, Great Britain’s official name became the United…
There are 132 islands that are part of the Hawaiian Islands. The eight main islands are: Hawaii, Kahoolawe, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau. The islands are spread over 1,500 square miles.
Gibraltar is a limestone promontory off the southeastern coast of Spain. Connected to Spain by an isthmus, it commands the northeastern entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, which joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Gibraltar is a self-governing British colony.
The continent Antarctica is almost completely covered with an ice sheet that is about 6,500 feet thick.
The the five longest rivers are: 1. Nile, Africa 2. Amazon, South America 3. Mississippi, Missouri, United States 4. Yangtze, China 5. Ob, Irtysh, USSR
Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia are all located wholly or in part on the Balkan peninsula. The peninsula lies between the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea. The Balkan Peninsula is one of the three great peninsulas of southern Europe, the others being the Iberian and the Italian.
In the traditional list, there are seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. However, Europe and Asia are sometimes considered a single continent, Eurasia, making only six. Asia is the largest continent, comprising about 17 million square miles. Australia is the smallest, comprising only about 3 million square miles.
Though the origin of the name Europe is not known for certain, the name is very old. A Greek hymn to Apollo from the sixth century B.C. mentions the name, which originally applied only to part of the Balkan Peninsula. Europe probably derives from a word meaning “mainland,” though it may be related to the…
Tipperary is a county in Munster Province, Ireland. It occupies a broad strip of land between the Shannon and Suir rivers. The Irish name for Tipperary is Contae Tiobraid Arann. It is a long way from most places.
The smallest country on earth is Vatican City, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. At 0.16 square mile, it is less than half the size of the next smallest country, Monaco (0.4 square mile). Vatican City became an independent country in 1929. Its 750 inhabitants are ruled by the pope and a…
The United States has about 36,000 acres in Cuba. The United States has a naval base at Guantanamo Bay near the western end of the south coast of Cuba, 572 miles from Havana. The United States has leased the site since 1903, despite pressure from Fidel Castro’s government to leave.
Luxembourg is a tiny country, also known as a Grand Duchy since 1815. It covers 998 square miles, an area slightly smaller than Rhode Island. Its 1980 population was about 350,000. Luxembourg is sandwiched between Belgium, France, and West Germany.
This ancient Greek city called Byzantium was on the shores of the Bosporus. It was renamed Constantinople when the Emperor Constantine moved the Roman capital there in A.D. 330. It became the seat of the Byzantine (or Eastern) Roman Empire. It is now called Instanbul and is one of the most commonly known cities in…
The largest Chinese settlement outside of Asia is San Francisco’s Chinatown district. It covers only about 12 square blocks.
What is left of the earth that is unexplored is approximately 140 million square miles of ocean floor. This is equal to two and a half times the surface area of the earth’s islands and continents.