A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley
Quiz | Easy like Sunday morning: on geography
Children sledding in a village near the Arctic Circle beside one of the 10 biggest lakes in the world. Where is it?
START THE QUIZ
1 / 10 |
On September 18, 1870, Henry Washburn, during his exploration of Northwestern Wyoming, came across an extraordinary natural phenomenon. He and his team realised that it was happening with a remarkable regularity of once every 74 minutes. Each time the event happened for 15 to 20 minutes and reached a height of almost 125 feet. In the following years it was even used as a laundry, the hot water washing the clothes thoroughly. Named as ‘Old Faithful’ by Washburn, what geographic entity is this?
2 / 10 |
Almost all great civilisations are built on the banks of rivers, with multiple countries being built on one river as is the case in Europe. There is however a whole host of countries in an area that does not have rivers at all. The largest country not to have a single river is officially a kingdom that stretches across 2,150,000 km. Which country is this that is the world’s largest oil exporter?
3 / 10 |
In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones tracks down the Holy Grail to a glorious, ancient temple. The place that was used as the location for this temple was carved directly into a sandstone cliff, with the stone carved into stunning pillars and doorways. This abandoned city is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been named as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Where in the world would you find this temple?
4 / 10 |
This city is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world and has been at the centre of major historical events for thousands of years. One of the reasons it plays such an important role in history is because of its geography. It is the only transcontinental major city. It stretches across two continents. The commercial and historical centre lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives in suburbs on the Asian side. Which city is this that is literally the bridge between Asia and Europe?
5 / 10 |
In 1881, a farmer in the village of Bakhshali discovered a document made up of 70 pages of tree bark. This document contained the earliest written record of the use of ‘zero’. Carbon dating proved that the manuscript dated back to 224-383 AD, and since 1902 has been stored under protection at the Bodleian library in Oxford University. In what modern-day country is the village of Bakhshali found?
6 / 10 |
This is the second largest country in the world and has half of all of the natural lakes in the world (563). An impressive 1.2 million square kilometres (14% of the country’s land areas) is covered by freshwater lakes. This is roughly 25% of the world’s wetlands, making it the largest wetland area in the world. Most of these lakes were created by glacial erosion. Which country is this?
7 / 10 |
The U.K. refers to a country comprising Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. However, Northern Ireland lies on the separate island of Ireland. So what is the name of the geographic entity on the island that is made up of Scotland, Wales and England?
8 / 10 |
This bird is thought to have first been domesticated in Mexico about 1,500 years ago and was called huehxolotl by the Aztecs. In Great British it is known as ‘Hindi’. In India, the bird is known as ‘Peru’ (from the Portuguese name for this bird). In Malaysia they were referred to as Dutch chickens, while in French they are called ‘Indian chickens’. What is the common English name for this bird, which probably comes from the fact that the English first saw this in markets in Constantinople?
9 / 10 |
This is the country with the world’s lowest population density of approximately four people per square mile. Its 2.5 million people occupy over 1,564,116 km.sq of land and about 30% of them are nomadic. The overall density is limited as only a tiny proportion of the land can be used for agriculture, with the vast majority of the land only able to be used for nomadic herding. Which landlocked country is this?
10 / 10 |
The Republic of Kiribati is an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, which consists of 33 reef islands and one large island. The total Exclusive Economic Zone (the ocean area over which they have rights) covered by this country is about 3.5 million km.sq. Kiribati is geographically special as the spread of the islands covers both sides of the equator (latitude) and the 180th meridian (longitude). What unique status does this give Kiribati?
Answer : It is the only nation that occupies all four hemispheres — Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western
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