124 Fun Facts About Asia

Which ancient city in Jordan did the Nabataeans carve into rose-coloured sandstone cliffs?

Petra's Treasury, Al-Khazneh, played the entrance to the Holy Grail's resting place in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

What is the highest mountain on Earth above sea level?

Everest's most recent survey, in 2020, put it at 8,848.86 metres; it is called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet.

Peak XV now bears the surname of Sir George, a Briton who had held which post?

Sir George, a former Surveyor General of India, opposed the honour, saying his name could not be written in Hindi or pronounced by Indians.

Which beekeeper first topped the world's highest peak alongside Tenzing Norgay?

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing summited on 29 May 1953, and the news broke in London on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.

Which lake is the deepest in the world, holding around 22-23% of Earth's fresh surface water?

Lake Baikal is a rift lake in southern Siberia, slightly larger than Belgium and 1,642 metres deep at most.

What is the world's largest inland body of water, straddling Europe and Asia?

The Caspian Sea has no natural outflow and is often called the world's largest lake; the Volga, Europe's longest river, feeds it.

The shores of which lake are the lowest land-based point on Earth?

The Dead Sea is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean, and its water is so dense that swimming in it feels like floating.

Which is the longest river in China and third-longest in the world?

The Yangtze is Chang Jiang, 'Long River', in Chinese, and it meets the East China Sea at Shanghai.

Which river's monsoon floodwater makes Cambodia's Tonlé Sap river flow backward each year?

The Mekong, known in China as the Lancang, swells the Tonlé Sap lake from about 2,500 to 16,000 square kilometres in the rainy season.

In Bangladesh, which great river's main channel is called the Padma?

The Ganges flows into Bangladesh as the Padma and, with the Brahmaputra, builds the world's largest river delta.

Which is the smallest country in Asia by land area?

The Maldives' 26 atolls hold just 298 square kilometres of land, spread over some 90,000 square kilometres of ocean.

Which island nation became a tea giant after coffee rust wiped out its coffee plantations in the 19th century?

Sri Lanka, then British Ceylon, lost its coffee estates to leaf rust from 1869, and planters turned to tea, which James Taylor had introduced in 1867.

What does 'Gobi', the name of the desert across southern Mongolia and northern China, mean in Mongolian?

Dryland: Mongolians use the word Gov' for waterless regions, and much of the Gobi is bare rock rather than sand.

Which building ended the Petronas Towers' reign as the world's tallest in 2004?

Taipei 101 is steadied by a 660-tonne steel pendulum, a tuned mass damper hung between its 87th and 92nd floors.

What is the largest religious complex in the world?

Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century to honour Vishnu, later became a Buddhist temple, and appears on Cambodia's national flag.

The 9th-century Buddhist temple of Borobudur stands on which island?

Java's Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple, drew world attention in 1814 through Stamford Raffles, then British ruler of the island.

The white marble mausoleum at Agra was built by Shah Jahan as a tomb for whom?

His wife Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631, and the Taj Mahal was raised over her tomb on the Yamuna at Agra.

The best-known sections of the Great Wall of China were built by which dynasty?

The Ming built in brick and stone instead of rammed earth after the Oirat Mongols routed a Ming army at Tumu in 1449.

The Great Wall's most-visited section, Badaling, lies on the outskirts of which capital city?

Badaling, about 80 km north-west of central Beijing, once guarded the approach to the capital, and millions visit it every year.

Who was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206, founding the largest contiguous empire in history?

Genghis Khan was born Temüjin, and after his father was poisoned, his family was abandoned by its tribe on the steppe.

Which Chinese dynasty's expansion into Central Asia around 114 BCE began the Silk Road?

The Han envoy Zhang Qian's missions opened the routes, and China extended the Great Wall to protect the trade.

Chess descends from which 7th-century Indian game?

Chaturanga reached Sasanian Persia as chatrang, or shatranj, and that form of the game was carried on to medieval Europe.

Papermaking is traditionally credited to which Chinese court official, around 105 CE?

Cai Lun, a court eunuch, added tree bark and hemp to the pulp, though paper-like material in China is older still.

Which is the world's third-largest religion, with about 1.17 billion followers mainly in India and Nepal?

Hinduism has no single founder, and many followers call it Sanātana Dharma, 'the eternal dharma'.

Which is the largest branch of Buddhism, dominant in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam?

Mahayana means 'Great Vehicle', and its traditions include Zen and Pure Land Buddhism.

Diwali, the festival of lights, is linked to the return of which deity to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana?

Diwali means a row of lamps, lit to mark Rama's return to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshmana.

Holi, India's festival of colours, celebrates the love between which two deities?

Holi celebrates the love of Radha and Krishna, and it also marks Vishnu's victory as Narasimha over Hiranyakashipu.

Which Thai new year festival is famous for nationwide public water fights?

Songkran begins on 13 April, and its public water fights symbolise ritual cleansing for the new year.

Kimchi is most often made from which vegetable?

Kimchi is most often made from napa cabbage, and winter kimchi, gimjang, was stored in buried onggi jars to keep it from freezing.

Which Japanese dish began as fish fermented in rice, with the rice thrown away before eating?

Sushi's early form, narezushi, was eaten for the fish alone; vinegared rice came much later, and nigiri followed around 1824.

Pho, the Vietnamese noodle soup, is usually made with which meat?

Beef pho, phở bò, is credited to the city of Nam Định, and refugees spread it worldwide after the Vietnam War.

The word 'Bollywood' is a portmanteau of Hollywood and which city's former name?

Bombay was Mumbai's official name until 1995, and Bollywood means only Hindi-language films, not all Indian cinema.

K-pop traces its origins to the 'rap dance' of which early-1990s group?

Seo Taiji & Boys got the jury's lowest rating on a 1992 TV talent show, then their song 'I Know' became a huge hit.

Which BTS single, released in 2020, was their first to debut at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100?

Dynamite, BTS's first song recorded fully in English, made them the first all-South Korean act to top the Billboard Hot 100.

What does the name BTS, Bangtan Sonyeondan, literally mean?

BTS, the Bulletproof Boy Scouts, debuted under Big Hit on 13 June 2013, three years after the group was formed.

Which cartoonist's 1960s work established the characteristic art style of anime?

Osamu Tezuka simplified Disney techniques to cut costs and frame counts, starting with his 1963 TV series Astro Boy.

Which city was renamed Tokyo, 'Eastern Capital', when the emperor moved there in 1868?

Edo, seat of the Tokugawa shoguns from 1603, had over a million people by the early 18th century, perhaps the world's largest city.

Which Japanese artist made the woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa?

Hokusai made The Great Wave in late 1831, in his seventies, and it has been called possibly the most reproduced image in all art.

The Komodo dragon, the largest living lizard, is native to which country?

Indonesia's Komodo dragons live only on a few islands, including Komodo, Rinca and Flores, and their bite delivers venom.

Bhutan's official name since the 17th century, Druk Yul, means what?

Land of the Thunder Dragon refers to the Druk, a dragon from Bhutanese mythology that also appears on the national flag.

Which Central Asian country is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world?

Uzbekistan is surrounded entirely by other landlocked countries, so reaching an ocean means crossing two borders; the only other such country is Liechtenstein.

Which Turkish peak is traditionally identified as the resting place of Noah's Ark?

Mount Ararat, a dormant volcano and Turkey's highest peak, was first climbed in 1829, though Genesis names only the 'mountains of Ararat'.

As of 2025, which is the world's largest hydroelectric power station, on China's longest river?

Building the Three Gorges Dam displaced somewhere between 1.13 million and 1.4 million people.

Asia is generally defined as lying east of which waterway separating it from Africa?

The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, spared ships between Europe and Asia the long voyage around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

Which strait, about 82 km wide at its narrowest, separates Asia from North America?

The Bering Strait holds the two Diomede Islands, one Russian and one American, 3.8 km apart on either side of the International Date Line.

Which peak is the second-highest volcano on any Asian island, after Sumatra's Kerinci?

Fuji last erupted in 1707-08, and its symmetrical cone is covered in snow for about five months of the year.

What was Singapore known as in its early history as a maritime emporium?

Temasek appears in old Malay literature, and the island later took the name Singapura, Sanskrit for 'Lion City'.

Which Japanese word first named the typhoons that wrecked Kublai Khan's invasion fleets in 1274 and 1281?

Kamikaze means 'divine wind', and in World War II the name passed to Japan's suicide attack pilots.

Which Myanmar city's plain holds the remains of over 2,200 medieval Buddhist temples and pagodas?

Bagan was capital of the Pagan Kingdom, which first unified what became Myanmar, and over 10,000 religious monuments rose on its plain.

Which country is transcontinental, with the Sinai Peninsula in Asia and the rest in Africa?

Egypt's Sinai Peninsula holds Mount Sinai, where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments.

Who became the first Asian Nobel laureate, winning the Literature prize in 1913?

Rabindranath Tagore wrote the words and music of the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus founded which micro-credit institution?

Grameen Bank lends small sums to poor people, especially women, and it shared the 2006 prize with him.

The name 'Asia' is thought to derive from Assuwa, a Bronze Age toponym recorded by which people?

The Hittites recorded Assuwa as a league of western Anatolian states, including Troy, that rebelled against them and lost.

Which Russian mountain range, running north to south, forms part of the conventional border between Europe and Asia?

Philip Johan von Strahlenberg's 1730 atlas proposed the Ural Mountains as the border, departing from the classical line along the Don.

Which waterway between Sumatra and mainland Asia carries about a quarter of the world's traded goods?

Over 94,000 vessels a year pass through the Strait of Malacca, carrying oil, coal, palm oil and Chinese manufactured goods between the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Which ex-Portuguese colony, returned to China in 1999 after 442 years, is the most densely populated region on Earth?

Macau packs about 720,000 people into 32.9 km², and two-thirds of that land was reclaimed from the sea.

Which 3,180 km river, from which the word 'India' is derived, is now the main source of drinking water for Pakistan?

The Indus rises in Tibet as the Sengge Zangbo and bends sharply around the Nanga Parbat massif before crossing Pakistan to a delta south of Thatta.

Which river bisects Myanmar from north to south, flowing past Mandalay before fanning out into a nine-armed delta?

The Irrawaddy is sometimes called 'The Road to Mandalay' after Rudyard Kipling's poem, and its delta pushes out to sea by about 50 metres every year.

Which island, largest of the four main Japanese ones, holds Kyoto, Nara and Kamakura and 82% of the country's people?

Honshu is the seventh-largest island in the world and the second-most populous, and it generates more than 80% of the national GDP.

Which island chain north of Hokkaido is so disputed that Moscow and Tokyo have never signed a World War II peace treaty?

The Kuril Islands' four southernmost members are claimed by Tokyo as its 'Northern Territories', and a 1956 joint declaration ended the state of war without settling them.

Which Indian archipelago holds North Sentinel, whose Sentinelese people defend their isolation by force?

The Andaman Islands' Sentinelese killed an American missionary in 2018, and India will not prosecute them for killing anyone who ventures ashore.

Which Yemeni archipelago, the 'Galapagos of the Indian Ocean', is home to the umbrella-shaped dragon's blood tree?

Socotra is administratively Yemeni but geologically a fragment of Africa on the Somali plate, and a third of its plant species grow nowhere else on Earth.

Which Russian peninsula has around 160 volcanoes, 29 of them active, including Klyuchevskaya Sopka?

Kamchatka's Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the highest active volcano in Eurasia, and the peninsula's volcanoes form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On which Russian Arctic island did woolly mammoths survive until about 4,000 years ago, alongside Bronze Age Sumer?

Wrangel Island's 500 to 1,000 mammoths outlived their mainland relatives by some 6,000 years, and a 2024 study blamed their end on a sudden catastrophe rather than inbreeding.

Which sea between the Korean Peninsula, Sakhalin and Hokkaido does South Korea officially call the 'East Sea'?

The Sea of Japan's name is disputed three ways: South Korea wants 'East Sea' used alongside it, while North Korea pushes for 'East Sea of Korea'.

Which landmass, the largest of all peninsulas at 3.24 million km², is roughly the size of India and fronts the Red Sea?

The Arabian Peninsula was torn from Africa by the Red Sea Rift between 56 and 23 million years ago.

Which city's metro area passed 50% of South Korea's entire population in 2020?

Seoul's metropolitan area covers only about 12% of South Korea's land, and more than half of all Koreans who move between regions now head for the capital region.

Which Philippine volcano's 1991 eruption, the 20th century's second-largest, briefly cooled global temperatures?

Mount Pinatubo's aerosols cooled the planet for about two years, and in 1992 the Antarctic ozone hole grew to its largest size until then.

Which country's Wakhan Corridor was drawn in the 1890s as a buffer so Russian and British territory would never touch?

Afghanistan's corridor is a relic of the Great Game, fixed by the 1893 Durand Line and 1895 Pamir boundary deals, and it still separates Tajikistan from Pakistan by as little as 13 km.

Which peak on the Nepal–Sikkim border was assumed to be the world's highest until survey sums showed otherwise in 1852?

Kangchenjunga was officially demoted to third-highest in 1856, and its first climbers stopped just short of the summit to honour a promise to Sikkim's ruler that the top stay inviolate.

Which 76 km Karakoram glacier, seized by India in 1984, is Earth's highest battleground, with troops above 6,000 m?

Siachen Glacier has killed far more Indian soldiers through weather than combat: 869 to climate and terrain by 2015, and about 220 to enemy fire since 1984.

Which Indian state's Khasi Hills hold the world rainfall records of Mawsynram and Cherrapunji?

Meghalaya means 'abode of clouds'; Mawsynram has the world's highest average annual rainfall, while Cherrapunji holds the records for a month and a year.

Which Indian plateau, walled by the Western and Eastern Ghats, sits on basalt flows erupted about 66 million years ago?

The Deccan Plateau's lava layers, the Deccan Traps, are more than 2 km thick in places, and because the Western Ghats block the monsoon the plateau is semi-arid while the coast is soaked.

Which Xinjiang basin, its Ayding Lake 154 m below sea level, holds China's lowest point?

The Turpan Depression is a fault-bounded trough in the eastern Tian Shan, and its Ayding Lake floor is among the lowest patches of exposed land on Earth.

Which Asian country, about the size of Western Europe, is the world's largest landlocked country?

Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country of any kind, and Russia rents a slice of its steppe until 2050 to launch space rockets.

Which Central Asian lake shrank to a tenth of its size after Soviet irrigation diverted its rivers?

The Aral Sea left behind a dry eastern basin now called the Aralkum Desert. UN chief Ban Ki-moon called its shrinking one of the planet's worst environmental disasters.

Which island, the world's third-largest, is divided among three countries, including tiny Brunei?

Borneo is the largest island in Asia, and its rainforest, around 140 million years old, is one of the oldest on Earth.

Which city of over 15 million people straddles the Bosporus, with districts in both Europe and Asia?

Istanbul served as the capital of four empires over nearly 16 centuries, most of that time under the name Constantinople.

Which volcano's 1883 eruption made the loudest sound ever measured, heard 4,800 km away?

Krakatoa's blast was mistaken for cannon fire from a nearby ship on the island of Rodrigues. The eruption destroyed over 70% of the volcano's own island.

Which waterway, the second-longest in China, is nicknamed 'China's Sorrow' for its floods?

The Yellow River takes its colour from silt washed off the Loess Plateau, and one estimate counts 1,593 floods in the 2,540 years up to 1946.

Which spiky fruit, the 'king of fruits', is banned on Singapore's trains because of its smell?

Durian has an odour so persistent that it can linger for several days, which is why some hotels across Southeast Asia refuse it too.

Which territory did Britain hand back to China at midnight on 1 July 1997, after 156 years of rule?

Hong Kong had been in British hands since the capture of its main island in 1841, during the First Opium War.

Which peak, Earth's second-highest, was dubbed the 'Savage Mountain' by a 1953 American climber?

K2 was the last of the 8,000-metre peaks to be climbed in winter, falling to a team of ten Nepalese climbers only in January 2021.

Which upland, the world's largest and highest, is called the Third Pole for its reserves of ice?

The Tibetan Plateau averages over 4,500 metres above sea level, and its ice fields hold the largest reserve of fresh water outside the polar regions.

Which channel between Iran and Oman is the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean?

The Strait of Hormuz carried about a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade in 2023–2025, with tankers kept to shipping lanes just two nautical miles wide.

Which arm of the Indian Ocean, covering 2.6 million km², lies between eastern India and Myanmar?

The Bay of Bengal is the world's largest bay, about twice the size of Canada's Hudson Bay, and it breeds severe cyclones between September and December.

Which mountain range, spanning five countries, takes its name from the Sanskrit for 'abode of snow'?

The Himalayas rose when the Indian tectonic plate collided with Eurasia, and most of the range is made of rock that was once the top of India's crust.

Which first emperor of China had the Terracotta Army's 8,000 clay soldiers made to guard his tomb?

Qin Shi Huang's clay army lay forgotten until 1974, when a group of farmers digging a well struck it by accident.

Which palace complex of 980 buildings housed 24 Chinese emperors until the last abdicated in 1912?

The Forbidden City is recognised by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world, and it has been a public museum since 1925.

Which city in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Muhammad, is closed by law to non-Muslims?

Mecca is the destination of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Which Chinese philosopher, born around 551 BCE, had his sayings collected in the Analects?

Confucius is a Latinised form of Kong Fuzi, roughly 'Great Master Kong', a name coined by Jesuit missionaries in the late 16th century.

By which name was Ho Chi Minh City known when it served as the capital of South Vietnam?

Saigon was renamed after the North Vietnamese leader once the country was reunified, but the old name is still used informally.

Which island is said to have been named Ilha Formosa, 'beautiful island', by passing Portuguese sailors?

Taiwan later drew the Dutch East India Company, which set up a trading post at Fort Zeelandia on a coastal sandbar in the early 17th century.

Which nation, wedged between Thailand and Vietnam, is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia?

Laos is, per person, the most heavily bombed country in history: between 1964 and 1973 the US dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on it.

Which Chinese language group has nearly a billion native speakers, more than any other on Earth?

Mandarin has a standard form based on the dialect of the capital, yet many of its southwestern varieties can't be understood by speakers from there.

Which reptile of South and Southeast Asia, up to 5.85 m long, is the world's longest venomous snake?

The king cobra is the only snake that builds a nest for its eggs, heaping up dry leaf litter that the female then guards until they hatch.

Which invention did Chinese alchemists likely stumble on while trying to brew an elixir of life?

Gunpowder first appears in a formula of 808, and a text some 50 years later warned that the mixture had burned hands, faces and even a whole house.

Which religion follows the teachings of Guru Nanak and worships at the Golden Temple in Amritsar?

Sikhism runs a langar, or community kitchen, at its temples, serving free meals to anyone regardless of religion, caste or gender.

Which ancient city on the Euphrates, in modern Iraq, was famed for its Hanging Gardens?

Babylon is estimated to have been the world's largest city twice over, though one scholar argues its famous gardens actually stood near Nineveh.

Which line of latitude was chosen in 1945 to split Korea into Soviet and American zones?

The 38th parallel was picked in Washington as 'an invisible line across Korea'. Northern troops crossed it on 25 June 1950, starting the Korean War.

Which peninsula, also known as Asia Minor, makes up the majority of Turkey's land area?

Anatolia comes from the Greek for 'the East', because the peninsula lay to the east from a Greek point of view.

Which big cat of Asia's high mountains has thick whitish-grey fur, a bushy tail and cannot roar?

The snow leopard has vocal folds just 9 mm long, too short for roaring, and it uses its fat, furry tail like a blanket over its face while asleep.

Mesopotamia lay between the Euphrates and which other river, which flows through Mosul and Baghdad?

The Tigris joins the Euphrates near al-Qurnah in southern Iraq to form the Shatt al-Arab, which carries both rivers to the Persian Gulf.

Which empire did the Central Asian prince Babur found in 1526 after the First Battle of Panipat?

The Mughal Empire has a name that is the Indo-Persian form of 'Mongol', even though its early followers were Chagatai Turks rather than Mongols.

Which port city, home of Russia's Pacific Fleet, is the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway?

Vladivostok means 'Ruler of the East'; it was founded in 1860 as a military outpost on land newly taken from Qing China.

Which Vietnamese bay of 1,969 mostly limestone islets has a name meaning 'descending dragon'?

Ha Long Bay, in local legend, was made by a family of dragons sent by the gods, who spat out jewels and jade that turned into its islands.

Which Persian Gulf state is linked to Saudi Arabia by the King Fahd Causeway?

Bahrain was famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, considered the best in the world into the 19th century, long before oil took over.

Which mountain pass near Peshawar was for centuries an invasion route into the Indian subcontinent?

The Khyber Pass let armies from Darius I of Persia to the Mongols into the subcontinent, and as part of the Silk Road it carried ivory, pepper and textiles the other way.

Which Southeast Asian nation became the 21st century's first new sovereign state on 20 May 2002?

East Timor had first declared independence back in 1975, but only a UN-sponsored vote in 1999 ended the occupation that followed.

Which mangrove forest, the world's largest, is shared by India and Bangladesh and prowled by tigers?

Sundarbans literally means 'beautiful forest', though the name more likely comes from the sundari mangrove tree that grows thickly there.

Which desert, known in English as the Empty Quarter, covers 650,000 km² of Saudi Arabia and beyond?

The Rub' al Khali is mostly sand sea, with dunes up to 250 metres high, and the world's largest oil field reaches into its northern edge.

Which mountain range holds Mount Elbrus, a dormant volcano and the highest peak in Europe?

The Caucasus crest is usually taken as the continental boundary between Asia and Europe, and Elbrus is also the highest volcano in Eurasia.

Which region of Turkey is known for 'fairy chimney' rock spires and sunrise hot-air balloon flights?

Cappadocia hides whole underground cities, many dug by Christians as shelter from raids and persecution; its spires were carved from soft volcanic rock by wind and water.

Which river is called the Yarlung Tsangpo near its source and the Jamuna in Bangladesh?

The Brahmaputra stands out on a subcontinent where most rivers have female names, and it is one of the few rivers in the world with a tidal bore.

Which shifting-sand desert fills the Tarim Basin, skirted by two branches of the Silk Road?

The Taklamakan is hemmed in by the Kunlun, Pamir and Tian Shan ranges, and Silk Road travellers hugged its edges to avoid crossing the arid wasteland.

Which Silk Road city, famed for its tiled Registan Square, did Timur make his capital in 1370?

Samarkand also holds Timur's own mausoleum, the Gur-e-Amir, and under his dynasty it became a noted centre of Islamic scholarship.

Which spice from the Banda Islands led the Dutch to give up Manhattan for the tiny island of Run?

Nutmeg mattered so much that the Dutch East India Company waged a bloody battle with the Bandanese in 1621 to win a monopoly on it.

Which Chinese admiral led seven treasure voyages between 1405 and 1433, reaching the Horn of Africa?

Zheng He was born Ma He into a Muslim family and enslaved as a eunuch servant before winning the trust of the prince who became emperor.

Which Sumatran lake, the world's largest volcanic lake, fills the caldera of a supervolcano?

Lake Toba was born in an eruption about 74,000 years ago, rated the maximum 8 on the volcanic explosivity scale, that temporarily changed the Earth's climate.

Which Central Asian lake has fresh water in its western part but salt water in its eastern half?

Lake Balkhash is split by the Saryesik peninsula, and only the narrow Uzynaral strait links its shallow, fresh western part with its salty eastern half.

Which cave in Vietnam, found in 1990 by a man hunting for agarwood, is the world's largest?

Son Doong is so large that a Boeing 747 could fly through it without its wings touching either side, and its passage is believed to have twice the cross-section of the next largest.

Which 15th-century Joseon king is remembered for creating Hangul, the native Korean alphabet?

Sejong created the script because Chinese characters were so hard to master that commoners were largely illiterate; it was published in 1446.

Which spaceport on the Central Asian steppe launched both Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin?

Baikonur, by most accounts, was named after a mining town some 320 km away in order to mislead the West about the real launch site.

Which spice, hand-harvested from the crimson threads of a crocus flower, comes about 90% from Iran?

Saffron regularly sells for over US$5,000 a kilogram, so the 'saffron' robes of Buddhist monks are really dyed with cheaper turmeric or jackfruit.