155 Fun Facts About Geography Trivia for Kids

How many continents do most English-speaking countries say there are?

Seven: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Some countries teach six by joining Europe and Asia or counting the Americas as one.

Which is the largest continent?

Asia is the largest continent, covering about 44.6 million square kilometres and home to roughly 60 percent of all the people on Earth.

Which is the largest and deepest ocean on Earth?

It covers nearly a third of the whole planet, more than all the land put together.

What is the deepest known point in any ocean?

The Challenger Deep, at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, reaches about 10,920 metres below sea level, deeper than Mount Everest is tall.

Which river is usually called the longest in the world?

It runs about 7,088 kilometres through northeast Africa, though other rivers carry far more water.

Which river carries more water than any other on Earth?

It pours out more water than the next seven biggest rivers combined.

What is the largest hot desert in the world?

The Sahara covers about 9 million square kilometres of North Africa, making it the largest hot desert; only the icy polar deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic are bigger.

Which continent is the coldest, driest and windiest of all?

Temperatures there have dropped as low as minus 90 degrees Celsius.

What is the highest mountain on Earth above sea level?

Mount Everest, on the border of Nepal and China, is the highest mountain above sea level; a 2020 survey put its summit at 8,848.86 metres.

Which country is the largest in the world by area?

Russia is the largest country, covering about 17.1 million square kilometres across Europe and Asia, and it shares land borders with fourteen countries.

What is the smallest country in the world?

Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state by both area and population, about the size of a big park.

Which country has more people than any other?

It passed China in 2023 with more than 1.4 billion residents.

What is the largest island in the world?

Greenland, at about 2.17 million square kilometres, is the largest island; Australia is bigger but is counted as a continent rather than an island.

What is the capital city of Australia?

Canberra was built as a compromise between rival cities Sydney and Melbourne and named in 1913.

Which country is the second-largest in the world by area?

It also has the longest coastline of any country, touching three different oceans.

The shore of which body of water is the lowest land on Earth, more than 430 metres below sea level?

Its water is so salty that swimmers float on top like corks.

What is the name of the world's largest coral formation, found off Queensland?

The Great Barrier Reef, off Queensland, Australia, is made up of more than 2,900 separate reefs and about 900 islands stretching over 2,300 kilometres.

The Grand Canyon in Arizona was carved out over millions of years by which waterway?

The Colorado River cut the Grand Canyon over millions of years, exposing rock layers nearly two billion years old in its walls.

What is the highest mountain in Africa?

Mount Kilimanjaro is not part of any range, which makes it the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world.

Which mountain range is the longest on land?

The Andes form a continuous highland along the whole western edge of South America, the longest continental mountain range in the world.

Angel Falls, the tallest uninterrupted waterfall in the world, is in which country?

Angel Falls is in Venezuela, in Canaima National Park; it plunges 979 metres, more than 15 times the height of Niagara Falls.

What is the largest lake in the world, even though it is called a sea?

The Caspian Sea, at about 371,000 square kilometres, is the largest lake on Earth; its slightly salty water is one reason people argue over whether it is a lake or a sea.

Which lake is the deepest in the world?

Lake Baikal in Siberia is the deepest lake, reaching 1,642 metres, and holds about a fifth of all the fresh surface water on Earth.

The Panama Canal lets ships take a shortcut between which two oceans?

The Panama Canal, opened in 1914, links the Atlantic and Pacific; before it, ships had to sail around the stormy southern tip of South America.

Roughly how long are all the sections of the Great Wall of China put together?

A 2012 Chinese survey measured every section of the Great Wall at about 21,000 kilometres (21,196 km), counting 10,051 separate wall sections plus thousands of towers and forts.

What is the imaginary line at 0 degrees latitude that divides Earth into northern and southern halves?

The Equator is the 0-degree latitude line splitting Earth into northern and southern hemispheres; it runs about 40,075 kilometres around the middle of the planet.

The prime meridian, the starting line for measuring east and west, runs through which London district?

The prime meridian passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich; twenty-two countries voted to make it the world standard at the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington.

How many fully recognised countries are there in Africa?

Africa has 54 fully recognised countries, all United Nations members, from Algeria to Zimbabwe, more than any other continent.

Which is the largest US state by area?

It is bigger than Texas, California and Montana combined.

How many Great Lakes are there along the northern border of the United States?

They are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario, and their first letters spell HOMES.

The Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar place on Earth, lies mostly in which country?

Some weather stations there have never recorded a single drop of rain.

Which continent is the second smallest, just ahead of Australia?

Europe, at about 10 million square kilometres, is the second-smallest continent after Australia, yet it holds around 740 million people, far more than the smallest continent.

Which two continents are the only ones completely surrounded by ocean, with no land link to any other?

Antarctica and Australia are the only continents ringed entirely by ocean; Africa touches Asia at Sinai, Europe joins Asia, and Panama links the Americas.

About what fraction of Earth's water surface does the biggest ocean cover?

It is bigger than all of the world's land put together.

Which strait separates Spain from Morocco?

The Strait of Gibraltar, only about 14 kilometres wide at its narrowest, separates Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa and joins the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

How many time zones does the world's largest country stretch across?

When people in the far west are eating breakfast, people in the far east are heading to bed.

The famous desert city of Timbuktu is in which African country?

Timbuktu is in Mali, on the southern edge of the Sahara; in the 1400s it was a centre of Islamic learning and the salt and gold trade.

Which of the five Great Lakes is the largest one lying entirely inside a single country?

Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake lying entirely inside the United States; Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario all straddle the border with Canada.

The Eiffel Tower stands in which city?

The Eiffel Tower stands in Paris, on the Champ de Mars; locals nickname it 'La dame de fer', the Iron Lady, because it is made of wrought iron.

The Eiffel Tower was built as the centrepiece of a World's Fair in which year?

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, a World's Fair that marked 100 years since the French Revolution.

The Statue of Liberty stands on an island in the harbor of which US metropolis?

The Statue of Liberty stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor; it was a gift from France and was dedicated in 1886.

The Parthenon and the Acropolis stand in which city?

The Parthenon, a marble temple to Athena finished in 438 BC, crowns the Acropolis hill in Athens, the capital of Greece.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb for which pharaoh?

The Great Pyramid was built around 2560 BC as the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu and stayed the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,700 years.

Mount Rushmore shows the carved heads of how many US presidents?

Four presidents are carved there: Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln, each head about 60 feet tall.

Mount Rushmore is carved into the Black Hills of which US state?

Mount Rushmore is in the Black Hills of South Dakota; the Lakota name for the mountain, Six Grandfathers, predates the carving finished in 1941.

The Golden Gate Bridge links which city to Marin County?

The Golden Gate Bridge, opened in 1937, links San Francisco to Marin County across the Golden Gate strait, which is about a mile wide.

Big Ben is really the nickname of what?

The tower it hangs in was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012.

The Sydney Opera House was designed by an architect from which country?

Jørn Utzon of Denmark won the international design competition in 1957; the Sydney Opera House he designed opened in 1973.

The Colosseum in Rome is the largest ancient example of what kind of building?

It is also the largest amphitheatre still standing anywhere in the world.

The giant statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooks which city?

Christ the Redeemer overlooks Rio de Janeiro from the top of Corcovado mountain; the 30-metre statue was completed in 1931.

The ancient rock-carved city of Petra, the 'Rose City', is in which country?

Petra is in southern Jordan; the Nabataeans carved it from pink sandstone cliffs more than 2,000 years ago, which is how it earned the nickname 'Rose City'.

Chichen Itza, with its famous step pyramid, was built by which people?

The Maya built Chichen Itza in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula; its step pyramid, El Castillo, honours the feathered-serpent god Kukulcan.

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

The Ming ruled from 1368 to 1644.

Angkor Wat, the largest religious complex in the world, is in which country?

Angkor Wat is in Cambodia, near Siem Reap; the Khmer king Suryavarman II built it in the 12th century as a Hindu temple.

Stonehenge stands on Salisbury Plain in which English county?

Stonehenge stands on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, about 13 kilometres north of Salisbury; building began around 3100 BC.

What kind of building is the famous leaning landmark in Pisa, Italy?

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the bell tower, or campanile, of Pisa Cathedral; repairs between 1993 and 2001 reduced its tilt to just under 4 degrees.

The 828-metre Burj Khalifa is in which city?

The Burj Khalifa is in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; opened in 2010, it rises about 828 metres, just over half a mile.

Machu Picchu, the 'Lost City of the Incas', is in which country?

Machu Picchu is in Peru, on an Andean ridge 2,430 metres up; the Incas built it in the 1400s.

Uluru, also called Ayers Rock, is a huge monolith made of what?

Uluru is made of arkose, a coarse sandstone, and rises 348 metres above the surrounding plain; it is sacred to the Anangu Aboriginal people.

Table Mountain, famous for its flat top, overlooks which city?

Table Mountain overlooks Cape Town, South Africa; its flat summit rises about 1,085 metres above the city and its national park draws millions of visitors a year.

Which river flows through London?

The Thames flows through London to the North Sea; at 215 miles it is the longest river entirely in England.

The Mississippi River empties into which body of water?

The Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans, after flowing about 2,340 miles from Lake Itasca in Minnesota.

The Danube, Europe's second-longest river, empties into which sea?

The Danube empties into the Black Sea through a delta in Romania and Ukraine, after starting in Germany's Black Forest and passing through ten countries.

Which is the longest river in China?

The Yangtze, at about 6,300 kilometres, is China's longest river; its Chinese name, Chang Jiang, simply means 'long river'.

The Seine flows through Paris and reaches the sea at which port?

It reaches the sea at Le Havre after 777 kilometres.

Niagara Falls sits on the border between the US state of New York and which Canadian province?

Ontario shares the falls with New York; the largest of the three waterfalls is Horseshoe Falls.

The great waterfall the locals call 'The Smoke that Thunders' is on which African river?

Victoria Falls, called Mosi-oa-Tunya, 'The Smoke that Thunders', is on the Zambezi River at the Zambia-Zimbabwe border and is about 1,708 metres wide.

Which is the largest body of fresh water in Africa, and the world's largest tropical one?

Lake Victoria, shared by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, covers about 68,800 square kilometres, making it Africa's largest lake and the largest tropical lake in the world.

Which of the Great Lakes is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area?

Lake Superior covers about 82,100 square kilometres, the largest freshwater lake by surface area; it is also the northernmost, westernmost and highest of the five Great Lakes.

Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake, lies on the border of Peru and which country?

Lake Titicaca straddles the border of Peru and Bolivia, 3,812 metres up in the Andes, which is why it is called the world's highest navigable lake.

Loch Ness, home of the legendary monster 'Nessie', is in which country?

Loch Ness is in the Highlands of Scotland; 'loch' is the Scots word for a lake, and it holds more water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined.

Which of the world's five oceans is the smallest, the shallowest and also the coldest?

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the five oceans at about 14 million square kilometres, averages only around 1,200 metres deep, and is largely covered by sea ice.

The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea to which other sea?

The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea across Egypt, separating Africa from Asia.

The English Channel separates southern England from which country?

The English Channel separates southern England from France; at its narrowest, the Strait of Dover, it is only about 33 kilometres wide.

Which sea lies between Italy and the Balkan Peninsula?

The Adriatic Sea separates Italy's eastern coast from the Balkan Peninsula; Venice sits at its northern end and it opens into the Mediterranean in the south.

The Red Sea lies between Africa and which large peninsula?

The Gulf of Suez at its north end leads to the Suez Canal.

Which ocean lies between Africa and Australia?

The Indian Ocean lies between Africa's east coast and Australia's west coast; it is the third-largest ocean, covering about 70 million square kilometres.

What is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger areas of land called?

The Isthmus of Panama joins North and South America.

A fjord is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides carved out by what?

A fjord is carved by a glacier grinding out a deep valley that the sea later floods; Norway has nearly 1,200 fjords, including the 200-kilometre Sognefjord.

An iceberg is a chunk of ice that has broken off what?

An iceberg calves from a glacier or ice shelf and floats away in the sea; smaller floating pieces are called 'growlers' or 'bergy bits'.

Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain, is on which island?

Mount Fuji, 3,776 metres tall, stands on Honshu, Japan's largest island, southwest of Tokyo; it last erupted from 1707 to 1708.

Which volcano's eruption in AD 79 destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii?

Vesuvius, on the Gulf of Naples in Italy, erupted in AD 79 and buried Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum under metres of ash.

Mount Etna, one of the world's most active volcanoes, is on which Italian island?

It is in an almost constant state of activity.

The Gobi Desert lies in China and which other country?

The Gobi stretches across northern China and southern Mongolia; it is a cold desert where winter temperatures can drop below minus 30 degrees Celsius.

K2, the second-highest peak on Earth, is nicknamed what?

K2 is called 'The Savage Mountain', a name from American climber George Bell's 1953 remark that it tries to kill you; roughly one climber died for every four who summited before 2021.

Which mountain range contains Mount Everest?

The Himalayas, stretching across Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Pakistan, hold Mount Everest and more than 100 peaks over 7,200 metres.

Mount Everest is known locally as Sagarmatha in which country?

Sagarmatha is Everest's name in Nepal, where Sagarmatha National Park surrounds the mountain; across the border in Tibet it is called Qomolangma.

Which mountain range is the largest mountain system in North America?

The Rocky Mountains stretch about 3,000 miles from British Columbia in western Canada to New Mexico, the largest mountain system in North America.

Which desert covers most of Botswana?

The Kalahari covers most of Botswana and reaches into Namibia and South Africa; its red sands span about 900,000 square kilometres.

What is a giant ocean wave caused by an undersea earthquake called?

A tsunami is a series of huge waves set off by an undersea earthquake or landslide; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed about 230,000 people.

Where was the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth, 56.7 °C in 1913?

The 56.7 °C reading was taken at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, on 10 July 1913, the highest air temperature the World Meteorological Organization accepts.

Yellowstone National Park is mostly in which US state?

About 96 percent of Yellowstone lies in Wyoming, with slivers in Montana and Idaho; it became the world's first national park in 1872.

What is Yellowstone's most famous geyser called?

Old Faithful is Yellowstone's most famous geyser, erupting about every 90 minutes on average and shooting boiling water up to 56 metres high.

About 60% of the world's largest rainforest lies in which country?

Brazil holds about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest; Peru has the next biggest share at 13 percent, followed by Colombia.

Which river flows through Rome?

The Tiber flows through Rome and reaches the Tyrrhenian Sea at Ostia; at about 405 kilometres it is Italy's third-longest river after the Po and the Adige.

A tundra is a cold biome where what cannot grow because of frigid temperatures?

Trees cannot grow on tundra: the growing season is too short and cold and the ground below is permafrost, so only mosses, lichens and low grasses survive there.

The northern lights are also called what?

The northern lights are the aurora borealis, Latin for 'northern dawn'; charged particles from the Sun striking gases in the upper atmosphere create the glow.

What is the capital of Japan?

Tokyo has been Japan's capital since 1868, when the emperor moved his court there from Kyoto; the Greater Tokyo area holds more than 35 million people.

What is the capital of Egypt?

Cairo, on the Nile, is Egypt's capital and the largest city in the Arab world; the Giza pyramids stand on the western edge of its metropolitan area.

Which capital city has lions and rhinos living in a national park inside its limits?

Nairobi National Park, about 7 kilometres from the city centre, lies within Nairobi's boundaries and holds lions, rhinos, giraffes and zebras in sight of the skyline.

Which planned city, founded in 1960, replaced Rio as a national capital?

Brasília, inaugurated by President Juscelino Kubitschek on 21 April 1960, replaced Rio de Janeiro as Brazil's capital; Oscar Niemeyer designed its main buildings.

What is the capital of Canada?

Ottawa, chosen as capital by Queen Victoria in 1857, sits in Ontario on the Ottawa River, directly across from Gatineau, Quebec.

Washington, D.C. stands on the bank of which river?

Washington, D.C. lies on the north bank of the Potomac River, with Virginia just across the water; the Anacostia River joins the Potomac inside the city.

What is the capital of Spain?

Madrid has been Spain's capital since Philip II moved his court there in 1561; it sits about 660 metres above sea level near the centre of the Iberian Peninsula.

What is the capital of Germany?

Berlin, Germany's capital and largest city, is a city-state completely surrounded by the state of Brandenburg.

Beijing, the capital of China, was previously spelled how in English?

Peking was the old English spelling from the Chinese postal romanisation; the pinyin form Beijing spread after China adopted pinyin in 1958 and most English media switched around 1979.

What is the capital of India?

New Delhi, inaugurated as India's capital in 1931 in place of Calcutta, holds the presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan, parliament and the Supreme Court.

Which capital has more people than any other in North America?

Greater Mexico City has almost 22 million people.

What is the capital of Argentina?

Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, lies on the Río de la Plata estuary, facing Montevideo in Uruguay across the water.

Which city replaced Lagos as the capital of Nigeria in 1991?

Abuja, a planned city beside the giant Aso Rock in the centre of Nigeria, officially replaced Lagos as capital on 12 December 1991.

What is the capital of Turkey?

Istanbul is bigger, but Ankara in central Anatolia is the capital.

What is the capital of Nepal, the home of Mount Everest?

Kathmandu, in a valley about 1,400 metres up, is Nepal's capital; Nepal holds eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including Everest.

What is the capital of New Zealand?

Auckland is the biggest city, but Wellington is the capital.

What is the capital of Iceland?

Reykjavík is the northernmost capital of a sovereign state; about 140,000 of Iceland's roughly 395,000 people live in the city itself.

New Zealand's two main landmasses are the South Island and which other?

The North Island, Te Ika-a-Māui, pairs with the South Island, Te Waipounamu; New Zealand also has more than 700 smaller islands.

Which South American country has coasts on both the Pacific and the Caribbean?

Colombia is the only South American country with both a Pacific coast and a Caribbean coast; Cartagena sits on the Caribbean and Buenaventura on the Pacific.

Which tiny country is the second-smallest in the world after Vatican City?

Monaco, at just over 2 square kilometres, is second-smallest after Vatican City and, with about 38,000 people, the most densely populated country.

Which island country lies in the Mediterranean about 90 kilometres south of Sicily?

Malta lies about 90 kilometres south of Sicily; the island nation covers just 316 square kilometres and its capital is Valletta.

Which is the world's largest landlocked country by area?

Kazakhstan, at about 2.7 million square kilometres, is the largest country with no coastline, ahead of Mongolia; it borders the Caspian Sea, which is a lake.

Which is Japan's northernmost main island?

Hokkaido is Japan's northernmost main island, separated from Honshu by the Tsugaru Strait; its capital Sapporo hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics.

Which are Italy's two largest islands?

Sicily (about 25,700 square kilometres) and Sardinia (about 24,100) are Italy's two largest islands; Italy has nearly 800 islands altogether.

Stockholm is the capital of which country?

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden, built across 14 islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea.

Which is the world's fourth-largest island?

Madagascar, about 587,000 square kilometres, is the world's fourth-largest island and lies about 400 kilometres off Mozambique in the Indian Ocean.

Which is the only US state that is an archipelago?

Hawaii's 137 volcanic islands make up almost the entire Hawaiian archipelago, the exception being Midway Atoll.

The giant panda is a bear species found in the wild only in which country?

Giant pandas live wild only in China, in mountain bamboo forests of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu; bamboo makes up almost all of their diet.

Sri Lanka, formerly called Ceylon, is separated from India by which narrow stretch of sea?

The Palk Strait, roughly 64 to 137 kilometres wide, separates northern Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu in southeast India; the Gulf of Mannar lies to its southwest.

Easter Island is famous for nearly 1,000 giant statues called what?

The moai are nearly 1,000 stone statues carved by the Rapa Nui people between about 1250 and 1500; Easter Island is a special territory of Chile.

The Galápagos Islands belong to which country?

The Galápagos belong to Ecuador and lie on the equator about 900 kilometres west of the mainland; Charles Darwin visited them in 1835.

Which is the third-largest island in the world?

It has a population of about 23 million.

Crete is the largest island of which country?

Crete, about 8,300 square kilometres, is the largest island of Greece and the fifth-largest in the Mediterranean; Heraklion is its main city.

Which Australian city hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics?

Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics, the second Games held in Australia after Melbourne in 1956.

The Seychelles is a country made up of how many islands?

The Seychelles has 115 islands, 41 granitic and 74 coralline; its capital Victoria, on Mahé, lies about 1,500 kilometres east of mainland Africa.

Fiji is made up of more than how many islands?

Fiji has more than 330 islands, of which only about 110 are permanently inhabited; Viti Levu and Vanua Levu hold most of its people.

Which US city is nicknamed the Windy City?

Chicago, on the shore of Lake Michigan in Illinois, is nicknamed the Windy City, a label newspapers were using by the 1870s.

Puerto Rico is a Caribbean territory of which country?

Puerto Rico has been a United States territory since 1898, when Spain ceded it after the Spanish-American War; its capital is San Juan.

On a compass, which direction is at 90 degrees?

East is 90 degrees on a compass; north is 0, south is 180 and west is 270.

A compass needle turns to line up with what?

A compass needle is a small magnet that swings to line up with Earth's magnetic field, pointing to magnetic north, which lies hundreds of kilometres from the geographic North Pole.

What is a book that is a collection of maps called?

An atlas is a book of maps; Gerardus Mercator first used the name for his collection of maps published in 1595.

Unlike a flat map, what does a globe NOT do to the Earth's surface?

A globe does not distort Earth's surface because it is a sphere like the planet itself, whereas any flat map must stretch or squash shapes, areas or distances.

Lines of latitude measure position in which direction?

Latitude measures position north-south of the Equator, from 0 degrees at the Equator to 90 degrees at each pole.

What do contour lines on a map show?

Contour lines join points of equal elevation above sea level; lines drawn close together show steep ground, and widely spaced lines show gentle slopes.

The International Date Line runs roughly along which line of longitude?

The International Date Line follows roughly the 180° meridian through the Pacific, zigzagging around islands; crossing it westward moves the calendar forward a day.

The Tropic of Cancer is the northernmost line where the Sun can be seen doing what?

At the Tropic of Cancer, about 23.4 degrees north, the Sun is directly overhead at noon on the June solstice; its southern twin is the Tropic of Capricorn.

How many degrees of longitude does Earth rotate through in one hour?

Earth turns 360 degrees in 24 hours, so it rotates 15 degrees of longitude every hour, which is why time zones are roughly 15 degrees wide.

What is the northernmost point on Earth called?

The North Pole is the northernmost point on Earth, where the axis of rotation meets the surface, amid the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean.

The Vatican City, the world's smallest country, is enclosed by which city?

Vatican City is an enclave entirely inside Rome, Italy's capital; it has been an independent state ruled by the pope since the 1929 Lateran Treaty.

Where on Earth are most volcanoes found?

Most volcanoes are underwater, along mid-ocean ridges where plates pull apart; about three-quarters of Earth's volcanic activity happens on the sea floor.

Which is the largest bay in the world?

The Bay of Bengal, between India and Myanmar, is the world's largest bay at about 2.2 million square kilometres; the Ganges and Brahmaputra drain into it.

Which mountain is the highest peak in North America?

Denali rises 20,310 feet in Alaska, the highest peak in North America; its summit towers about 18,000 feet above the surrounding land, one of the biggest rises on Earth.

Which river in Europe empties into the North Sea after flowing through the Netherlands?

The Rhine starts in the Swiss Alps, forms borders with Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany and France, then crosses the Netherlands to reach the North Sea near Rotterdam.

Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, is in which country?

Aconcagua is in Argentina's Mendoza province near the Chilean border; at about 6,961 metres it is the tallest peak outside Asia and one of the Seven Summits.

Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, is what kind of mountain?

Elbrus is a dormant volcano: its two summits are both volcanic domes, the taller western one reaching 5,642 metres in Russia's Caucasus.

Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, sits on the border between France and which country?

At 4,807 metres it is the highest peak in Europe outside the Caucasus, and the two countries have long argued over who owns the summit.

The Ganges river flows through India and which other country?

It is 2,525 kilometres long and starts high in the western Himalayas; in Bangladesh it is called the Padma.

Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain on mainland Australia, is in which state?

Mount Kosciuszko stands 2,228 metres tall in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales; explorer Paweł Strzelecki named it in 1840 after the Polish general Tadeusz Kościuszko.