Twenty questions about the planet and the countries on it: borders, flags, records and natural wonders, each with the fact behind the answer. Play them as a quiz, or read the list with the answers marked.
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The same questions as the quiz, right answer highlighted and the fact under it. Print the page for a quiz night: the print layout keeps the questions and answers only. The Geography topic in Lock&Learn holds 117 facts in all.
Which country in the world has a population under 1,000?
Vatican City has fewer than 900 residents. Vatican City is both the smallest country by area (about 0.44 square kilometers) and by population, with roughly 880 residents. It's an independent state entirely enclosed within the city of Rome.
Source: Britannica
Which country's flag had no stripes, no stars, no emblem, just one plain color?
Libya's flag was once a single block of green. From 1977 to 2011, Libya flew a solid green flag with no design of any kind, the only national flag of its era to feature just one color and no markings. It was replaced after the 2011 revolution.
Source: Wikipedia
Which country holds the record for the most official languages?
Bolivia officially recognizes 37 languages. Bolivia's 2009 constitution names Spanish plus 36 Indigenous languages, including Quechua, Aymara, and Guarani, as co-official. That gives it the world record for the most official languages of any nation.
Source: Guinness World Records
Which nation spans a record-breaking 12 time zones?
France has more time zones than any other country. Thanks to overseas territories from Tahiti to Reunion, France spans 12 time zones in total, edging out Russia and the United States, which each have 11. Mainland France itself sits in just one.
Source: Guinness World Records
Why isn't Sydney or Melbourne the capital of Australia?
Australia's capital was built to end a rivalry. When Australia federated in 1901, Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to be the capital and neither would back down. The compromise was to build a brand-new city, Canberra, roughly halfway between them and at least 100 miles from Sydney.
Source: Wikipedia
Which country is roughly 25 times longer than it is wide?
Chile stretches 2,700 miles but averages just 110 wide. Chile runs about 4,300 kilometers from its northern border to the tip of South America, yet averages only around 175 kilometers wide. That ratio makes it the longest, narrowest country on Earth.
Source: Wikipedia
What's the longest place name in the United Kingdom?
A Welsh village's name runs 58 letters long. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, a village on Anglesey, holds the record for the UK's longest place name. It was stretched out in the 1860s as a publicity stunt to draw tourists and put the local railway station on the map.
Source: Wikipedia
Which continent is home to 54 separate countries?
Africa has more countries than any other continent. Africa contains 54 recognized sovereign states, more than any other continent on Earth. Algeria is the largest of them by area, while Nigeria has the biggest population.
Source: Worldometer
Which countries share a land border with only one other nation?
Some countries border just a single neighbor. Portugal borders only Spain, Canada borders only the United States, and South Korea borders only North Korea. Each of these countries has just one land frontier, despite having coastline on every other side.
Source: World Atlas
What sales trick did a Viking explorer play when naming a mostly frozen island?
Greenland was named as a marketing trick. Viking explorer Erik the Red reportedly named the mostly ice-covered island Greenland around 985 AD specifically to make it sound inviting to potential settlers. By his own reasoning, people would be more likely to move somewhere with an appealing name.
Source: Britannica
Which nation gave its sign language equal legal status to its spoken languages?
Sign language is an official language of an entire country. New Zealand recognizes three official languages: English, Maori, and New Zealand Sign Language. NZSL gained official status in 2006, making the country one of the few in the world to give a signed language full legal recognition.
Source: Wikipedia
Which country's flag includes an AK-47?
One national flag features an assault rifle. Mozambique's flag shows a crossed hoe and rifle, generally identified as an AK-47, layered over an open book. Adopted in 1983, it's the only national flag in the world to depict a modern firearm, symbolizing the fight for independence.
Source: Wikipedia
Which country has no coastline but is still bigger than Western Europe?
The world's largest landlocked country covers 2.7 million sq km. Kazakhstan has no direct access to the open ocean, yet at roughly 2.7 million square kilometers it's the largest landlocked country on the planet. Only the landlocked Caspian Sea touches its western edge.
Source: Guinness World Records
Which country's official name is a lot longer than its everyday nickname?
The UK's full official name has 45 letters. What most people call 'the UK' is officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The short version stuck simply because the full name is too long for everyday use.
Source: World Atlas
Why can't you look someone up by surname in this country's directory?
Iceland's phone book is sorted by first name. Icelanders traditionally don't use inherited family surnames; instead, children take a patronymic built from their father's first name plus '-son' or '-dottir.' Since siblings can each end up with different last names, Icelandic directories are alphabetized by first name instead.
Source: Wikipedia
Which nation's name is just the Spanish word for the line it straddles?
One country is literally named 'The Equator'. Ecuador means 'equator' in Spanish, a name chosen in 1830 when the country broke away from Gran Colombia. Its capital, Quito, sits just a few kilometers from the equatorial line itself.
Source: Wikipedia
Which country's name is a Spanish nod to the gold early explorers hoped to find?
Costa Rica's name means 'Rich Coast'. Costa Rica translates directly to 'rich coast,' a name tied to early Spanish explorers who reported seeing gold jewelry worn by Indigenous people along the shore. Ironically, the country never turned out to have major gold deposits.
Source: Wikipedia
Where can you sit with one foot in Belgium and the other in the Netherlands?
A cafe here can have one table in each of two countries. In the twin towns of Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau, the Belgium-Netherlands border zigzags through streets, shops, and even living rooms, creating dozens of tiny enclaves. Some buildings have two front doors and two addresses depending on which country the room falls in.
Source: Wikipedia
Which countries are so far from the sea that even their neighbors are landlocked?
Only two countries are landlocked twice over. Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan are the world's only 'doubly landlocked' countries, meaning every single nation bordering them is itself landlocked. Reaching open ocean from either one means crossing at least two national borders.
Source: World Atlas
Which nations are completely enclosed inside a single other country?
Only three countries are fully surrounded by one neighbor. Lesotho sits entirely within South Africa, while San Marino and Vatican City are both wholly encircled by Italy. These are the world's only three enclave countries, places you cannot reach without first entering the one nation surrounding them.
Source: World Atlas
This page has 20, each with three answers and the fact that settles it. They are the first 20 of the 117 facts in the Planet Earth topic of Lock&Learn, which holds the rest.
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