149 Fun Facts About Geography

What is the largest continent by land area?

Asia is the largest continent, covering approximately 44.6 million square kilometers, which is about 30% of Earth's total land area.

Which river is the longest in the world?

The Nile is traditionally ranked the longest river, but its length depends on where the measuring starts and ends, so some scientists dispute the title.

Which purpose-built city became Australia's capital as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne?

Canberra wasn't ready for decades, so Parliament sat in Melbourne until 1927, when it finally moved into Canberra's Provisional Parliament House.

Which ocean is the largest by area?

The Pacific Ocean covers more of the planet than all of Earth's land put together.

Which European country is nicknamed 'the land of a thousand lakes'?

Finland's nickname undersells it: the country has more than 160,000 lakes bigger than 500 square metres.

What is the smallest country in the world by area?

Vatican City only became an independent state in 1929, through the Lateran Treaty signed with Mussolini's government.

Which peak is the tallest in the world measured from sea level?

Mount Everest stands at 8,849 meters above sea level, making it the tallest mountain in the world by elevation.

Which African country was formerly known as Abyssinia?

Ethiopia and Liberia are the only African states counted as never fully colonised; Mussolini's forces occupied it in the 1930s but never controlled all of it.

What is the driest non-polar desert in the world?

The Atacama Desert in Chile is considered the driest non-polar desert in the world. Some weather stations there have never recorded rainfall.

Which country is home to the ancient city of Petra?

Petra is located in southern Jordan. This ancient city was carved into rose-red cliffs by the Nabataeans over 2,000 years ago and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

What strait separates Europe from Africa?

The Strait of Gibraltar separates Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa, connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

Which country has the longest coastline in the world?

Canada's coastline runs to more than 200,000 kilometres, though no coastline has one true length: the finer the map, the longer it measures.

What is the capital of Mongolia?

Ulaanbaatar is the capital and largest city of Mongolia, home to nearly half of the country's entire population.

Which waterfall is the tallest in the world?

Angel Falls is named after pilot Jimmie Angel, whose plane got stuck in the marshy ground when he landed on the plateau above the falls in 1937.

Which country is entirely surrounded by South Africa?

Lesotho is completely enclosed by South Africa, making it one of only three countries in the world that are entirely surrounded by a single other country.

The Great Barrier Reef stretches along which country's northeast coast?

Australia's Great Barrier Reef, in the Coral Sea, is the world's largest coral reef system, stretching over 2,300 kilometres.

What is the largest island in the world?

Greenland is about 80% covered by an ice sheet that would raise global sea levels by roughly 7 metres if it all melted.

Which two countries share the longest international border?

The United States and Canada's border strands Minnesota's Northwest Angle, a piece of US territory that can be reached by land only through Canada.

What is the deepest lake in the world?

Lake Baikal in Siberia is about 1,642 metres deep and holds more than a fifth of the world's fresh surface water.

Which European country had the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites as of 2025?

Italy's World Heritage Sites range from the historic centre of Rome to Venice and its lagoon and the ruins of Pompeii.

Which city replaced Auckland as New Zealand's capital?

Wellington took over in 1865 because commissioners judged its central location and good harbour better for governing the whole colony.

Which is the largest hot desert in the world?

The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world at approximately 9.2 million square kilometers across North Africa. The Antarctic Desert is larger overall but is a cold desert.

Which country is home to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu?

Peru's Machu Picchu was largely forgotten outside its own valley until Hiram Bingham brought it to world attention in 1911.

Counting overseas territories, which country spans the most time zones?

France uses 12 time zones, 13 counting its Antarctic claim, because its overseas territories are scattered across the globe.

Which river hosted the swim leg of the triathlon at the Paris 2024 Olympics?

The Seine got a €1.4 billion cleanup for the Games, yet one triathlon race was still postponed when the river failed a pollution test.

Which Central American country's only coastline faces the Caribbean Sea?

Belize was called British Honduras until 1973, when it took its new name in anticipation of independence.

What is the largest landlocked country in the world?

Kazakhstan hosts the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Moscow leases until 2050 and uses for all of its crewed launches.

Which volcano buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash?

Mount Vesuvius last erupted in 1944, when its hot ash wrecked dozens of Allied B-25 bombers parked at an airfield near Pompeii.

Which South American country has coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea?

Colombia, named after Christopher Columbus, is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

Which major city straddles two continents, split by the Bosphorus Strait?

As Constantinople, Istanbul was the Byzantine capital until Sultan Mehmed II captured it in 1453 and made it the Ottoman capital.

What is the capital of Turkey?

Ankara was the headquarters of Atatürk's resistance movement from 1920, and the new republic made it the capital in 1923.

Which country is home to Angkor Wat?

Angkor Wat is located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It is the largest religious monument in the world and was originally built as a Hindu temple in the 12th century.

What is the longest mountain range on land?

The Andes run about 7,000 km, yet the mostly underwater mid-ocean ridge is several times longer.

Which African country has the largest land area?

Algeria is the largest country in Africa by land area at approximately 2.38 million square kilometers, following Sudan's split into two countries in 2011.

Which country do the Galápagos Islands belong to?

Ecuador's Galápagos lie about 900 km off the mainland, and the finches Darwin collected there helped shape his theory of evolution.

Which purpose-built city replaced Rio de Janeiro as Brazil's capital?

Brasilia was built in just 41 months, and Lúcio Costa's master plan lays the city out in the shape of an airplane.

Lake Titicaca straddles the border of Peru and which country?

Bolivia has been landlocked since the War of the Pacific, yet it still keeps a navy that patrols Lake Titicaca.

Which of these seas is by far the saltiest, at roughly 34% salinity?

At about 34% salinity the Dead Sea is nearly ten times saltier than the ocean, so swimmers float effortlessly and almost nothing can live in it. Its shore is the lowest land on Earth.

Which country is home to the Serengeti National Park and its wildebeest migration?

Tanzania's Serengeti herds, about 1.5 million wildebeest, head north into Kenya's Maasai Mara as the dry season begins.

Which ocean trench contains the deepest known point on Earth's seabed?

The Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep is about 10,935 m down, and James Cameron piloted a sub there alone in 2012.

Which country is known as the Land of the Rising Sun?

Japan is known as the Land of the Rising Sun. The name comes from the Japanese word 'Nihon' or 'Nippon,' which literally translates to 'origin of the sun.'

Timbuktu, once a great centre of Islamic learning, is in which country?

Mali's Timbuktu saw residents hide some 350,000 manuscripts and smuggle them to safety when militants occupied the city in 2012.

Which island nation is the largest in the Caribbean by area?

Cuba covers about 110,860 square kilometres, nearly half as much again as Hispaniola, the island that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share.

Which mountain range, running south from the Arctic Ocean, forms part of Europe's conventional eastern boundary?

The Ural Mountains mark where Europe ends and Siberia begins, running from the Arctic coast toward the steppe.

Which country, with around 130 active volcanoes on the Ring of Fire, has suffered more deadly eruptions than any other?

Indonesia's Tambora produced the largest eruption in recorded history in 1815, and Krakatoa's 1883 blast was heard thousands of kilometres away.

What is the capital of South Korea?

Seoul is the capital of South Korea and its largest city. It has been the capital of Korea for over 600 years, since the Joseon Dynasty.

Which river has the world's most international drainage basin, covering territory in 19 countries?

The Danube runs through or along ten countries, from Germany's Black Forest to the Black Sea, but its basin reaches into nineteen.

Which country's Line Islands are the first inhabited place on Earth to reach each new day?

Kiribati erased 31 December 1994 from its eastern islands' calendar so the whole country would share one date, putting them first.

Which country's capital is the northernmost capital of any sovereign state?

Iceland's Reykjavík, at 64°08′N, is the northernmost sovereign capital, though the territorial capital Nuuk lies a few kilometres farther north.

Silfra, a fissure in Thingvellir National Park, lets divers swim between which two tectonic plates?

The North American and Eurasian plates drift about 2 cm farther apart every year, slowly widening the rift divers swim through at Silfra.

What is the capital city of Canada?

Ottawa was chosen over Toronto, Montreal, Kingston and Quebec City because it suited both English- and French-speaking Canada and was easier to defend.

Which body of water is usually described as the world's largest lake?

The Caspian Sea is brackish rather than fresh, with about 1.2% salinity, and five countries share its shores.

Which of the Great Lakes is the largest freshwater lake on Earth by surface area, though only third by volume?

Counting Michigan and Huron as two lakes, Superior is the largest by area; it swallowed the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in a 1975 storm, a wreck Gordon Lightfoot turned into a popular ballad.

What is the highest mountain in Africa?

Kilimanjaro, 5,895 m high, is the world's highest free-standing mountain, rising about 4,900 m above its plateau base.

Which is the largest country in South America by area?

Brazil is so big that it borders every other South American country but two.

Which river carries the greatest volume of water of any river on Earth?

The Amazon carries roughly a sixth to a fifth of all the water that rivers pour into the world's oceans.

What separates the Chukchi Peninsula from Alaska's Seward Peninsula?

The Bering Strait's two Diomede Islands lie just 3.8 km apart, yet the International Date Line puts them almost a day apart.

The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean to which other sea?

The Red Sea and the Mediterranean are joined by 193 km of canal with no locks, which the grounded Ever Given blocked for six days in 2021.

Which city is the de facto capital of Switzerland?

Bern was picked as the federal city in 1848 partly to avoid concentrating power in Zurich, and is only the country's fifth-biggest city.

What is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea?

Sicily's town of Corleone gave The Godfather's Vito Corleone his surname, since he takes his birthplace's name in the novel.

Which cold desert stretches across southern Mongolia and northern China?

The Gobi's Flaming Cliffs are where Roy Chapman Andrews's 1923 expedition found the first fossils scientists recognized as dinosaur eggs.

Which river carved the Grand Canyon?

The Colorado River cut through nearly two billion years of rock, yet so much of it is now drawn off for irrigation that it rarely reaches the sea.

Mosi-oa-Tunya, 'the smoke that thunders', is a huge waterfall on which river?

The Zambezi's falls are 1,708 m wide, and their spray can rise more than 400 m, the 'smoke' in their name.

Which country is the only one with a non-rectangular national flag?

Nepal's flag is a double pennon, two stacked pennants, and it is the only national flag taller than it is wide.

Which peak on the Franco-Italian border is the highest in the Alps?

Mont Blanc, about 4,807 m high, is the highest mountain in Europe outside the Caucasus, and its massif also reaches into Switzerland.

Which country has roughly 267,000 islands?

Sweden's 267,570 islands include fewer than 1,000 that are inhabited, most of them in the Baltic Sea.

Besides Liechtenstein, which is the world's only doubly landlocked country?

Uzbekistan's five neighbours are all landlocked, so reaching the open ocean means crossing at least two borders.

What is the longest river in Europe?

The Volga, nicknamed 'Mother Volga', ends in the largest river delta in Europe.

Which river is the longest in Asia?

The Yangtze powers the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest power station by installed capacity.

Which of these countries has the lowest maximum elevation?

The Maldives is the lowest-lying country on Earth, with islands that mostly sit just 1 to 1.5 metres above the sea.

Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic, belongs to which country?

Russia's Kaliningrad was the German city of Königsberg, where the philosopher Immanuel Kant was born, taught and is buried.

Which city replaced Yangon as Myanmar's capital?

Naypyidaw belongs to no state or region, and its 20-lane boulevard is famously almost empty.

Which is Africa's largest lake by area?

Lake Victoria, about 59,947 km², is the world's second-largest freshwater lake by surface area.

Which island is divided among Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei?

Borneo is split among three countries, and Brunei is the only one whose territory lies entirely on the island.

The Okavango Delta, a vast inland delta, lies in which country?

Botswana's delta swells to three times its size during the dry winter, because floodwater from the rainy season in Angola takes months to arrive.

Which mountain is the highest in the world outside Asia?

Aconcagua, about 6,961 m high, is the tallest mountain in the Americas and one of the Seven Summits climbers chase on every continent.

What is the highest mountain peak in North America?

Denali became the mountain's federal name in 2015, then an executive order officially renamed it Mount McKinley in 2025.

Which African lake, shared by four countries, is the continent's deepest and the second deepest in the world?

Lake Tanganyika is also the world's longest freshwater lake and the second-largest by volume.

The Strait of Hormuz separates Iran from which country's Musandam Peninsula?

Oman's Musandam is an exclave cut off from the rest of the country by the UAE; roughly a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade passes through the strait.

Which African country has more ancient pyramids than Egypt?

Sudan's roughly 255 Nubian pyramids were built by the Kingdom of Kush, whose kings also conquered and ruled Egypt as its 25th Dynasty.

Which is the world's fourth-largest island?

Madagascar's lemurs live naturally nowhere else; their ancestors are thought to have rafted over from Africa on mats of vegetation.

Which city replaced Almaty as Kazakhstan's capital?

Astana was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 after the long-ruling president Nazarbayev, then got its old name back in 2022 once he fell from favour.

What is the capital of Morocco?

Rabat became the capital in 1912, when the protectorate's administrator Lyautey moved it from Fez, while Casablanca became the economic capital.

Which dormant volcano in the Caucasus is the highest mountain in Europe?

Mount Elbrus's western summit reaches 5,642 m, making it the highest volcano in Eurasia.

Uluru, the sandstone monolith, is in which part of Australia?

Uluru, in the Northern Territory, has been closed to climbers since October 2019, as its Aṉangu owners had long wished.

Which is the world's second-largest island by area?

New Guinea has the highest plant biodiversity of any island and the third-largest remaining rainforest on Earth.

Which South Atlantic island is considered the remotest inhabited place on Earth?

Tristan da Cunha has no airstrip, so the only way in or out is a six-day voyage by ship from Cape Town.

What name is given to the spot in the ocean that is farthest from any land?

Point Nemo lies about 2,688 km from the nearest land, so retired spacecraft such as the Mir space station are steered to crash there.

The North Atlantic's Faroe Islands are a self-governing part of which country?

The Faroe Islands belong to the Kingdom of Denmark but have never been part of the EU, mainly over its fishing rules.

Which reservoir in Ghana is the largest artificial lake on Earth by surface area?

Lake Volta, behind the Akosombo Dam, drowned whole forests, and loggers now harvest tropical hardwood from beneath its surface.

Lake Assal, the lowest point in Africa at 155 m below sea level, is in which country?

Djibouti's Lake Assal is so saline that salt has long been quarried from its shores.

Which lake, once 68,000 square kilometres, shrank to a tenth of its size after Soviet irrigation diverted its rivers?

The Aral Sea had split into four separate lakes by 2007, leaving rusting fishing boats stranded in desert dozens of kilometres from any water.

Which capital city was built on the ruins of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan?

Mexico City rests on the drained bed of Lake Texcoco, and parts of it are still sinking by almost 50 cm a year as groundwater is pumped out.

Which mountain range is home to Andorra, the tiny country headed by two co-princes?

Andorra sits high in the Pyrenees, and its two co-princes are the bishop of Urgell and the president of its northern neighbour.

Which mountain's summit is the farthest point on Earth's surface from Earth's centre?

Chimborazo is only 6,263 m high, but Earth bulges at the equator, so its summit sits about 2 km farther from the centre than the world's highest peak.

Which Hawaiian volcano is often called Earth's tallest mountain from base to peak?

Mauna Kea rises about 10 km from its underwater base, though only 4,207 m stands above sea level, and base measurements have no standard definition.

Which cape is Africa's southernmost point, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans officially meet?

Cape Agulhas lies about 150 km east-southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, which many people wrongly think is Africa's southern tip.

Which Central African country on the Atlantic coast lies directly on the equator?

Gabon, nearly 90% forested, is home to more than half of all African forest elephants.

Which 21-square-kilometre microstate is the third-smallest country on Earth?

Nauru's nearest neighbour is the island of Banaba, about 300 km to the east.

Which continent is classed as a desert larger than any hot desert, because so little precipitation falls there?

Antarctica is a polar desert whose central plateau gets only about 50 mm of precipitation a year. Even so, about 70% of the world's fresh water is locked up in its ice.

Which South American country stretches 4,270 km from north to south yet averages only 177 km wide?

Chile extends from a latitude of 17° South to 56° South, giving one narrow country nearly 40 degrees of latitude. Its shape is considered among the world's most unusual.

Which East African capital has a national park with wild lions and rhinos just 7 km from its centre?

Nairobi National Park is fenced on three sides only. Its southern boundary is left open so that migrating wildlife can move between the park and the neighbouring plains.

Which Asian capital's ceremonial name runs to 168 letters, listed by Guinness as the world's longest place name?

Bangkok is known to its residents as Krung Thep, a short form of the ceremonial name. The full title was inherited from the earlier capital, Ayutthaya.

Which island, home to more than 150 million people and the city of Jakarta, is the most populous on Earth?

Java holds about 56% of its country's population on only 7% of the land area. Jakarta sits on its northwestern coast.

Which volcanic island in the Sunda Strait erupted in 1883 with an explosion heard 4,800 km away near Mauritius?

Krakatoa's eruption and the tsunamis it raised killed at least 36,417 people. On the island of Rodrigues, the blast was taken for cannon fire from a nearby ship.

Which European microstate, covering about two square kilometres, is the world's most densely populated country?

Monaco has grown by building out into the sea. Its Le Portier district, on land reclaimed from the Mediterranean, was inaugurated in 2024.

Which California desert basin holds both North America's lowest point and Earth's highest recorded air temperature?

Death Valley reached 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Furnace Creek in July 1913. Its Badwater Basin lies 282 feet (86 m) below sea level.

Which freshwater body in the Scottish Highlands contains more water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined?

Loch Ness is only the second-largest Scottish loch by surface area, after Loch Lomond. Its great depth gives it the largest volume in the British Isles.

Which Central American country contains Gatun Lake, which ocean-going ships reach by climbing 26 metres through locks?

Panama's canal is 82 kilometres long. Gatun Lake, made by damming the Chagres River, was the largest human-made lake in the world when it was created.

Which English river is sometimes called the Isis where it passes through the city of Oxford?

The Thames, at 215 miles, is the longest river entirely in England. The Severn is longer overall, but part of its course lies in Wales.

Which river begins in the Swiss Alps, passes Cologne and Rotterdam, and empties into the North Sea?

The Rhine is the longest river in Germany. Duisburg, one of the cities on its banks, has the largest river port in Europe.

Which river, the most sacred to Hindus, flows past Varanasi and empties into the Bay of Bengal?

The Ganges is worshipped as the goddess Ganga, and a dip in its waters is thought to remit sins. After entering Bangladesh, its main branch is known as the Padma.

Which river, the eastern of Mesopotamia's two great rivers, has Baghdad standing on its banks?

The Tigris rises in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey. It merges with the Euphrates before the combined stream reaches the Persian Gulf.

Which African river, the deepest ever recorded, is the only major one to cross the equator twice?

The Congo has measured depths of around 220 metres. Because its basin lies on both sides of the equator, some part of it is always in a rainy season, which keeps its flow stable.

Which river, named from an Ojibwe phrase meaning 'Great River', flows south from Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota?

The Mississippi borders or passes through ten states on its 2,340-mile course. Its deepest point, about 200 feet, is at New Orleans.

Which waterway, nicknamed both 'China's Pride' and 'China's Sorrow', carries heavy sediment from the Loess Plateau?

The Yellow River is named for the colour that the sediment gives its water. Scholars regard its basin as a cradle of civilization.

Which North American waterfall is really three: the Horseshoe, the American and the Bridal Veil?

Niagara Falls sends about 90% of its water over the Horseshoe section. Together the three have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America.

Which body of water in Oregon, the deepest in the United States, has no rivers flowing into or out of it?

Crater Lake fills the basin left when the volcano Mount Mazama collapsed. Rain and snowfall alone replace its water about every 150 years.

Which sea is bordered by six countries, among them Ukraine, Georgia, Romania and Bulgaria?

The Black Sea has a permanent deep layer with no oxygen, which has preserved ancient shipwrecks in excellent condition. More than 90% of its deeper water is anoxic.

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

Stockholm's oldest quarter, Gamla Stan, sits on the small islands of the earliest settlement and still has its medieval street layout.

Which city at the mouth of the Tagus is the westernmost capital of any mainland European country?

Lisbon sits where the Tagus meets the Atlantic. Cabo da Roca, in its metropolitan area, is the westernmost point of continental Europe.

Which European capital has more than 100 km of canals but is not the seat of its national government?

Amsterdam is the official capital, but the main government institutions and the foreign embassies are in The Hague. Parliament normally sits there too.

Which city, nicknamed La Serenissima, is built on more than a hundred small islands in a shallow lagoon?

Venice has also been called the Queen of the Adriatic and the City of Bridges. The city and its lagoon became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Which Scottish city is built around Arthur's Seat, an ancient extinct volcano in Holyrood Park?

Edinburgh has a second volcanic landmark: its castle stands on Castle Rock, the plug of an extinct volcano about a mile west of Arthur's Seat.

Which city on the southwest shore of the Río de la Plata regards the tango as its own emblem?

Buenos Aires built its main port, an airport and the Puerto Madero district on land reclaimed from the Río de la Plata. The estuary is up to 220 km wide.

Which island city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula lies about one degree north of the equator?

Singapore has made itself bigger through land reclamation. Its area was roughly 580 square kilometres in the 1960s and is set to reach about 770 by the 2030s.

Which South African city grew from a small settlement at the foot of the flat-topped Table Mountain?

Cape Town is the country's oldest city and its legislative capital, the seat of Parliament. Table Mountain National Park lies within the city boundaries.

Which city on the Persian Gulf is home to the Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper with a roof height of 828 metres?

Dubai's Burj Khalifa took the title of world's tallest building from Taipei 101, which had held the record since 2004. Counting its antenna, the tower reaches 829.8 metres.

Which Saudi Arabian city, the birthplace of Muhammad, holds the Kaaba that Muslims face when they pray?

Mecca is closed to non-Muslims under Saudi law. It is also the destination of the Hajj, the pilgrimage that is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Which archipelago nation of more than 7,000 islands was named in honour of a future king of Spain?

The Philippines owes its name to the explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, who in 1542 named two of the islands 'Felipinas' after the prince who became King Philip II.

Which Caribbean island is divided between Haiti in the west and the Dominican Republic in the east?

Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies. Santo Domingo, on its south coast, is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas.

Which Mediterranean island is split by the Green Line, a 180-kilometre United Nations buffer zone?

Cyprus got its Green Line in 1963, when a British general drew the agreed ceasefire line on a map with a green pencil. The line became impassable in 1974.

Which southern African country takes its name from a medieval city built by the Shona people?

Zimbabwe was proposed as the name by a nationalist in 1960. 'Rhodesia' was rejected because it honoured Cecil Rhodes, who drove the British colonisation of the territory.

Which patch of the North Atlantic, bounded by four ocean currents instead of coasts, is named after floating seaweed?

The Sargasso Sea is the only named sea without land boundaries. European and American eels migrate back to it to spawn.

Which Asian upland, the largest and highest of its kind, is often called 'the Roof of the World'?

The Tibetan Plateau is also termed the Third Pole, because its ice fields hold the largest reserve of fresh water outside the polar regions.

Which pyramid-shaped peak above the Swiss town of Zermatt was first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper's party?

The Matterhorn's first ascent ended in disaster. During the descent, a sudden fall killed four of the seven climbers.

Which headland at the southern end of Tierra del Fuego was a major milestone on the old clipper route?

Cape Horn was named in 1616 by Dutch mariners after the city of Hoorn. Its waters are especially hazardous because of strong winds, large waves and icebergs.

Which coastal desert of southern Africa, perhaps the world's oldest, includes the shipwreck-strewn Skeleton Coast?

The Namib has been arid for roughly 55 to 80 million years. Much of its wildlife depends on morning fog from the ocean as a main source of water.

Which strait between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra carries about a quarter of the world's traded goods?

Malacca is the main shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. At its narrowest it is only 2.8 km wide, which makes it one of the world's most congested choke points.

Which South American lake hosts the Catatumbo lightning, a storm that flashes on 140 to 160 nights a year?

Lake Maracaibo sees the highest density of lightning in the world. The storm can flash 16 to 40 times a minute for about nine hours at a stretch.

Which port city on Kola Bay is the largest city in the world north of the Arctic Circle?

Murmansk's port stays ice-free all year thanks to the warm North Atlantic Current, despite the city's long, snowy winters.

Which Argentine city on the Beagle Channel claims the title of the world's southernmost city?

Ushuaia also has the End of the World Train, a tourist line billed as the southernmost railway in the world. It sits below the 54th parallel south.

Which salt flat on the Altiplano, the largest in the world, becomes a mirror 129 km across after rain?

Salar de Uyuni is so level that its elevation varies by less than a metre across the whole surface. Its crust covers a brine exceptionally rich in lithium.

Which lake near Saint Petersburg, drained by the Neva River, is the largest lying entirely in Europe?

Lake Ladoga's winter ice carried the 'Road of Life', the truck route that brought supplies into besieged Leningrad. In summer the supplies came by boat.

Which stretch of water, formed about 8,000 years ago by rising seas, separates Tasmania from the mainland?

Bass Strait is named after George Bass, who sailed through it with Matthew Flinders in 1798–99 while circling the island then called Van Diemen's Land.

Which city in western China holds a Guinness record as the most remote city from any sea?

Ürümqi lies about 2,500 kilometres from the nearest coastline. It once collected taxes from caravans on the northern route of the Silk Road.

Which narrow strait, the Hellespont of ancient writers such as Herodotus, links the Aegean with the Sea of Marmara?

The Dardanelles was swum in 1810 by the poet Lord Byron, purely for pleasure. At its narrowest the strait is only about 1.2 kilometres wide.

Which inlet between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia has the highest tidal range in the world, about 16 metres?

The Bay of Fundy owes its huge tides to resonance in its funnel-shaped basin. The average tidal range worldwide is only about one metre.

Which island in the Indian Ocean, administered by Yemen, is famed for dragon's blood trees found nowhere else?

Socotra is a hotspot of endemism. About 37% of its plant species and 90% of its reptile species live only there.