97 Fun Facts About European Geography

Which mountain range is conventionally taken as the eastern boundary between Europe and Asia?

The Ural River and the Caspian Sea continue the line south; the highest Ural peak, Narodnaya, is only 1,894 metres.

Using the seven-continent model, where does Europe rank by area?

Europe is the second-smallest continent, ahead only of Australia; it covers about 10.2 million square kilometres, roughly 2% of the Earth's surface.

Which country is Europe's largest and most populous?

Russia is both the largest and the most populous European country: its European part alone covers about 39% of the continent's area and holds about 15% of its people.

What is the longest river in Europe?

The Volga, about 3,531 km long, is Europe's longest river and drains into the Caspian Sea; the Danube, at about 2,850 km, is second.

The Danube rises in which German region?

The Danube rises in the Black Forest at Donaueschingen, where the Brigach and Breg streams meet, and runs about 2,850 km to the Black Sea through ten countries.

How many national capitals stand on the Danube?

Four national capitals stand on the Danube: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade, more than on any other river in the world.

In which country does the Rhine rise?

The Rhine rises in Switzerland, in the canton of Graubünden near the Oberalp Pass, and reaches the North Sea through the Netherlands.

Which river is the longest in the French Republic?

The Loire, at about 1,006 km, is France's longest river, rising in the Massif Central and reaching the Atlantic near Saint-Nazaire past the famous châteaux.

The Elbe rises in the Czech Republic and enters the North Sea near which German city?

The Elbe flows through Hamburg, Germany's largest port, and reaches the North Sea at Cuxhaven about 110 km downstream; Bremen lies on the Weser, not the Elbe.

The waterfall at Schaffhausen, Switzerland, lies on which river?

The Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen, about 23 metres high and 150 metres wide, are among Europe's largest waterfalls by volume and lie downstream of Lake Constance.

Which Caucasus peak is, by the usual convention, Europe's highest mountain?

Mount Elbrus, a dormant volcano in the Caucasus, rises to 5,642 metres; Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps, reaches only about 4,808 metres.

Mont Blanc sits on the border of France and which other country?

Ownership of the summit area has long been disputed between the two.

Approximately how long is the arc of the Alps?

The Alps form an arc about 1,200 km long, running from near Nice on the Mediterranean to the outskirts of Vienna, and up to roughly 200 km wide.

What is the highest peak in the Pyrenees?

Aneto, at 3,404 metres in Spain's Huesca province, is the highest peak in the Pyrenees; Monte Perdido, at 3,355 metres, ranks third behind Posets.

Which mountains are home to Europe's largest populations of brown bears, wolves and lynx?

The Carpathians hold Europe's largest populations of brown bears, wolves and lynx outside Russia, with the biggest concentration in Romania's share of the range.

Which mountain range runs along the eastern Adriatic coast through Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro?

The Dinaric Alps stretch about 645 km along the eastern Adriatic from Slovenia to Albania; their highest peak, Maja Jezercë in Albania, reaches 2,694 metres.

Where is Mount Etna, Europe's tallest active volcano?

It stands about 3,403 metres tall on the island's east coast.

Which is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean?

Sardinia, at about 24,000 square kilometres, is the Mediterranean's second-largest island after Sicily; Cyprus, the third-largest, is less than half its size.

Great Britain ranks where among the world's islands by area?

Great Britain is the world's ninth-largest island at about 209,000 square kilometres, and the largest in Europe; Honshu and Canada's Victoria Island rank just above it.

What is the regional capital of Corsica?

Ajaccio, Napoleon's birthplace on the west coast, is Corsica's regional capital; Bastia in the north-east is the island's other main town and commercial port.

Iceland sits on which geological feature?

Iceland straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart by about 2 cm a year, giving it geysers, volcanoes and frequent eruptions.

Which body of water near Saint Petersburg is the largest lake located entirely in Europe?

Lake Ladoga, about 17,700 square kilometres, is the largest lake entirely in Europe; it lies east of Saint Petersburg and drains into the Gulf of Finland through the Neva.

Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe, is in which country?

Lake Balaton lies in western Hungary's Transdanubia region; at about 592 square kilometres it is the largest freshwater lake in Central Europe.

Lake Geneva is the largest lake on the course of which river?

The Rhône enters Lake Geneva near Villeneuve and leaves it at Geneva; about 60% of the lake is Swiss and 40% French.

The Caspian Sea, on Europe's southeastern edge, is described as the world's largest what?

The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, about 371,000 square kilometres of brackish water bordered by Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan.

The Strait of Gibraltar separates Spain from which country?

The Strait of Gibraltar separates Spain from Morocco; it is about 14 km across at its narrowest and joins the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to which body of water?

The Bosporus links the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, which the Dardanelles then joins to the Aegean; at about 700 metres across it is the narrowest strait used for international shipping.

Which city sits on two continents, with about two-thirds of its people in Europe?

Istanbul straddles the Bosporus with about two-thirds of its people on the European side; as Byzantium and then Constantinople it was capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman empires.

Which is the largest of Europe's great peninsulas by area?

The Scandinavian Peninsula, about 750,000 square kilometres, comprises mainland Norway and Sweden plus north-western Finland; Iberia, at roughly 583,000 square kilometres, is second.

Which Spanish river forms a large delta on the Mediterranean coast south of Tarragona?

The Ebro, Spain's largest river by discharge, runs about 930 km from Cantabria to its delta south of Tarragona; the Greek name Iberia is thought to derive from it.

The Balkans take their name from a mountain range that runs across which country?

German geographer August Zeune coined the peninsula's name in 1808 after wrongly assuming the range dominated the region.

What is the smallest sovereign state in the world?

Vatican City covers about 44 hectares inside Rome and, with well under 1,000 residents, is the smallest sovereign state by both area and population; Monaco is second by area.

Which family has ruled Monaco, with brief interruptions, since 1297?

The Grimaldis have held Monaco since François Grimaldi seized its fortress in 1297 disguised as a monk; the principality is the world's second-smallest state and its most densely populated.

Which is the only European country whose neighbours are all themselves landlocked?

Liechtenstein is doubly landlocked: its only neighbours, Switzerland and Austria, have no coastline either; Uzbekistan is the only other such country in the world.

Andorra is headed by two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell and whom?

The President of France and the Bishop of Urgell are Andorra's co-princes, a dual headship that dates from a 1278 agreement between the Count of Foix and the bishop.

Which is the highest capital city in Europe?

Andorra la Vella, at about 1,023 metres in the eastern Pyrenees, is Europe's highest capital city; Madrid, at roughly 650 metres, is the highest capital of an EU member state.

San Marino claims to be the world's oldest surviving sovereign state, founded in which year?

Tradition dates San Marino's founding to 3 September AD 301, when Saint Marinus, a stonemason from the island of Rab, settled on Monte Titano to escape Diocletian's persecution of Christians.

Roughly what share of the Netherlands lies below sea level?

About 26% of the Netherlands lies below sea level, much of it polder land reclaimed since the 14th century; roughly half the country sits less than a metre above the sea.

How high is the Vaalserberg, the highest point in the European Netherlands?

The Vaalserberg rises about 322 metres above sea level in the far south-east of Limburg; its summit is the Drielandenpunt, the tripoint of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Rotterdam holds what title among European cities?

Rotterdam is Europe's largest seaport, handling over 400 million tonnes of cargo a year; the Rhine and Meuse give it access to the Ruhr, earning the nickname Gateway to Europe.

Kaliningrad Oblast is a Russian exclave sandwiched between which two countries?

Kaliningrad Oblast lies on the Baltic between Poland to the south and Lithuania to the north and east; its capital was Königsberg, founded by the Teutonic Order in 1255, until 1946.

Roughly 35% of its country's people live within which capital's city limits?

About 140,000 of Iceland's roughly 390,000 people live within Reykjavík's city limits, about 35%; Iceland is Europe's most sparsely populated country.

Triglav, a peak shown on its national flag, is the highest mountain of which country?

Triglav, at 2,864 metres in the Julian Alps, is Slovenia's highest mountain and appears in stylised form on the national flag and coat of arms.

What is the highest point in the Ural Mountains?

Mount Narodnaya, at about 1,895 metres in the Subpolar Urals, is the range's highest point, lower than many Alpine ski resorts; Yamantau is merely the highest peak of the Southern Urals.

Which landmass lies closest to Iceland?

Greenland lies about 290 km north-west of Iceland across the Denmark Strait, nearer than the Faroe Islands at roughly 420 km or Scotland at about 800 km.

The Meseta Central, a high plateau, covers roughly what share of Spain?

The Meseta Central, a plateau averaging 600–700 metres, covers about 40% of Spain between the Cantabrian Mountains, the Sistema Ibérico and the Sierra Morena, giving Madrid its high, dry setting.

Which country became landlocked when Montenegro voted for independence in 2006?

Serbia became landlocked when Montenegro voted for independence in May 2006, taking the state union's entire Adriatic coastline with it; Bosnia kept its short coast at Neum.

Which European country counted 267,570 islands in a 2013 report, though fewer than 1,000 are inhabited?

Sweden's largest island by far is Gotland, which lies out in the Baltic Sea.

Which stretch of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns lines the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland?

Giant's Causeway is the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. Most of its columns are hexagonal, though some have between four and eight sides.

Which mountain range just north of the Western Alps gave its name to a geological period from the dinosaur age?

Jura gave the Jurassic period its name. The range has also lent it to a French department and to the Montes Jura, a mountain chain on the Moon.

Which Arctic archipelago, about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, houses the Global Seed Vault?

Svalbard is about 60% covered by glaciers and is home to polar bears, reindeer and Arctic foxes. Research and tourism now sit beside its older coal mines.

Which volcano is the only one on Europe's mainland to have erupted in the last hundred years?

Vesuvius last erupted in March 1944. It is counted among the world's most dangerous volcanoes because at least 600,000 people live inside its danger zone.

Which European country's highest natural point is a hill about 171 metres high, topped by a millstone?

Denmark only recognised Møllehøj as its highest point in 2005, when new measurements showed it stood taller than two better-known hills nearby.

Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe, juts into the Atlantic from which country?

Portugal's cape is also the westernmost point of the entire Eurasian landmass. It forms the seaward end of the Sintra mountain range.

East Thrace, about 3% of its land area, is the European part of which transcontinental country?

Turkey's European corner includes Edirne, a former capital of the Ottoman Empire.

Which city is spread across 118 small islands in a shallow lagoon of the Adriatic Sea?

Venice sits in a lagoon that opens to the sea through just three inlets: Lido, Malamocco and Chioggia. Canals, not streets, separate its islands.

Which river, the longest on the Iberian Peninsula, flows about 1,007 km westward to reach the Atlantic at Lisbon?

The Tagus rises in the Montes Universales of eastern Spain, between Cuenca and Teruel, and crosses almost the whole width of the peninsula.

Which river flows through both Kraków and Warsaw before reaching the Baltic Sea near Gdańsk?

The Vistula is the longest river draining into that sea, at 1,047 kilometres. It begins as two mountain streams known as the White and Black Little Vistula.

Which river rises on Plynlimon in mid Wales and flows to the Bristol Channel as the longest in Great Britain?

The Severn is known for its tidal bore, a wave that forms in the river's lower reaches upstream of the port of Sharpness.

Which river flows about 652 kilometres eastward past Turin and Piacenza to a delta on the Adriatic Sea?

The Po begins as a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, beneath the northwest face of Monviso.

Which river rises in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk and flows through Kyiv on its way to the Black Sea?

The Dnieper is the fourth-longest river in Europe and the longest river of Belarus, which it crosses on the way south.

Which river rises on the Langres plateau near Dijon and reaches the English Channel at Le Havre?

The Seine crosses northern France and flows through the middle of Paris on its way to the coast.

Which city, the largest on the European continent by land area, is the most populous lying entirely within Europe?

Moscow also has the largest metropolitan area in Europe. The city's name is thought to come from the Moskva River, on which it stands.

Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano about 250 metres high, rises within which capital city?

Edinburgh's volcano is the main peak of the hills that form most of Holyrood Park, and it is a fairly easy climb with views across the whole city.

The Vltava, a river known in German as the Moldau, flows north through which capital city?

Prague stands on the Vltava not far above Mělník, where it meets the Elbe. Measured upstream from there, the Vltava is actually the longer of the two rivers.

Which Spanish town, a magnet for windsurfers, sits at the southernmost point of continental Europe?

Tarifa lies so far south that the North African capitals Algiers and Tunis are actually farther north than it is.

The Øresund Bridge and its tunnel carry road and rail traffic between Malmö and which capital city?

Copenhagen's end of the crossing runs through a tunnel, chosen partly so the link would not interfere with air traffic from the city's nearby airport.

Which capital city, ringed by three concentric seventeenth-century canals, lies about two metres below sea level?

Amsterdam was founded at the mouth of the Amstel river, which was dammed to control flooding. Its canal ring joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010.

Which capital stretches across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren flows out into the Baltic Sea?

Stockholm's Old Town, Gamla Stan, was built on the central island from the mid-13th century, and a long chain of further islands lies along the coast to the east.

Which 98-kilometre waterway lets ships bypass the Jutland peninsula between the North Sea and the Baltic?

The Kiel Canal saves ships a 460-kilometre detour around the peninsula. Its German name, Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, simply lists the two seas it joins.

Which sea passage, about 33 km across at its narrowest, separates Great Britain from continental Europe?

The Strait of Dover is one of the world's busiest seaways, used by over 400 commercial vessels a day. On a clear day each coast can be seen from the other.

Which arm of the Mediterranean, lying between the Balkans and Anatolia, contains the Cyclades and the Dodecanese?

The Aegean Sea covers some 215,000 square kilometres. Its other island groups include the Sporades and the Saronic islands.

Which sea in Eastern Europe, nowhere deeper than about 14 metres, is the shallowest in the world?

The Sea of Azov is joined to the Black Sea by the narrow Strait of Kerch, and it is sometimes regarded as that sea's northern extension.

Which northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea has nearly fresh water and freezes over for about five months every year?

The Gulf of Bothnia is slowly shrinking. The land beneath it is still rising after being pressed down by ice-age glaciers, by almost 10 mm a year in places.

Which gulf of the Atlantic lies along the western coast of France and the northern coast of Spain?

The Bay of Biscay is known for rough seas. Parts of the continental shelf extend far into it, making the water fairly shallow in many areas.

Which strait, known in classical antiquity as the Hellespont, runs for 61 km beside the Gallipoli peninsula?

The Dardanelles narrows to just 1.2 kilometres in places, and it forms part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe.

Which body of water beside the Alps has no agreed borders, as the three countries around it each see them differently?

Lake Constance reaches its greatest depth, about 250 metres, in the middle of its Upper Lake. Its largest islands are Reichenau, Lindau and Mainau.

Which lake, the third-largest in Europe, is the largest that lies within the European Union?

Vänern drains westward through the Göta älv river towards Gothenburg and the Kattegat. It took its present form after the ice sheets melted about 10,000 years ago.

Which ribbon lake in Cumbria, lying within the Lake District, is the largest natural lake in England?

Windermere is England's largest lake by length, area and volume, yet it is considerably smaller than the largest Scottish lochs and Northern Irish loughs.

Which near-symmetric pyramid of rock, 4,478 metres high, towers over the resort town of Zermatt?

The Matterhorn was first climbed in 1865 by a party led by Edward Whymper, but a sudden fall on the way down killed four of the seven climbers.

Which mountain close to the town of Fort William, 1,345 metres high, is the highest in the British Isles?

Ben Nevis carries the ruins of a summit observatory that was staffed continuously between 1883 and 1904. Work there inspired the invention of the cloud chamber.

Which mountain range of parallel smaller chains runs the whole length of the boot-shaped peninsula south of the Alps?

The Apennines drop steeply to the Adriatic on their eastern side, while most of the peninsula's towns sit on the gentler western foothills.

Mulhacén, the highest point of mainland Spain, belongs to which mountain range?

The Sierra Nevada is high enough for skiing, with one of Europe's most southerly ski resorts, in a region better known for heat and sunshine.

Which fjord, nicknamed the King of the Fjords, is both the longest and the deepest in Norway?

The Sognefjord stretches more than 200 kilometres inland from the ocean and reaches a maximum depth of 1,308 metres below sea level.

Which highland region, studded with volcanoes of many types and ages, covers about 15% of mainland France?

The Massif Central includes the Chaîne des Puys near Clermont-Ferrand, a north-south line of small and geologically very recent volcanoes.

Which island, the fifth-largest in the Mediterranean, was home to Europe's first advanced civilisation, the Minoans?

Crete is the largest and most populous island of Greece. Its Minoan civilisation was eventually overrun by the Mycenaeans from the mainland.

Which country, covering about 603,600 square kilometres, is the largest lying entirely within Europe?

Ukraine has such extensive fertile land that it is an important exporter of grain.

Which country of just 316 square kilometres is the smallest member state of the European Union by area?

Malta is also the world's tenth-smallest country by area. Its people live on three islands, and the smallest, Comino, lies between the other two.

Baarle-Hertog, a patchwork of small exclaves fully surrounded by the Netherlands, belongs to which country?

Belgium and its neighbour are so tangled together there that some houses in the town are divided between the two countries.

Which country contains most of the Danube Delta, the best-preserved river delta on the continent?

Romania's share of the delta lies in Tulcea County, at the point where the river finally empties into the Black Sea.

Which island, the seventh-largest in the Mediterranean, is the largest of Spain's Balearic Islands?

Mallorca's capital, Palma, is also the capital of the whole Balearic autonomous community. Two smaller islands, Cabrera and Dragonera, lie just off its coast.

Which peninsula is tied to the mainland by the Isthmus of Perekop, a strip of land only 5–7 kilometres wide?

Crimea is almost entirely surrounded by sea. Its south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years.

Which peninsula's only natural land link to the rest of Greece is the Isthmus of Corinth, now cut by a ship canal?

The Peloponnese forms the southernmost part of the mainland. Its isthmus separates the Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Gulf, and the canal through it was constructed in 1893.

Which region of north-west France ends in the department of Finistère, a name meaning end of the earth?

Brittany covers the western part of what the Romans called Armorica. It took its present name after Britons crossed the sea and settled there.

Which river, by tradition rising in a small pool in County Cavan, is the longest in the British Isles?

The Shannon is a real barrier between the east and west of Ireland, with fewer than thirty-five crossing points between its upper reaches and Limerick.

Which archipelago, about 170 km off mainland Scotland, marks the northernmost region of the United Kingdom?

Shetland has been run from Lerwick, its largest settlement and only burgh, since 1708. Before then the capital was Scalloway.

Which island, the largest of the Inner Hebrides, has been linked to the Scottish mainland by a bridge since 1995?

Skye's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, whose rocky slopes give some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in Scotland.