Games & Recreation Pointless Trivia

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On a similar note, the longest land border with France is Brazil.

France is super weird in that it includes places such as St Martin (Caribbean, land border with Netherlands), St Pierre and Miquelon (in Canada), New Caledonia and Tahiti and all these Pacific islands, Reunion (in Africa), and French Guiana (South America, land border with two South American countries), all considered as part of France and equal with the France of Europe. If you fly there from say Paris, it is considered a domestic flight.
 
Well, technically the highest Mountain in Australia is not Mt Kosciusko - it's Mawson Peak on Heard Island (one of Australia's territories).

There is a higher peak in the Australian Antarctic Territory, but the Antarctic territories are a bit more fuzzy regarding control etc, and no one really claims ownership of them.
 
The US and Canadian border that sits on the 49th parallel is not actually straight. It's marked by 900 bollards, But as it was marked before any proper maps were available, it could not be done straight. Due to this, there is a small portion of Washington state that is attached to British Columbia. And due to it only having a primary school in this area, students that need to to high school cross the border four times a day. This place is known as Point Roberts.

The "Las Vegas Strip" is not actually in Las Vegas, it's in what is called an 'unincorporated town', called Paradise. It was designed this way so that the casinos would have to pay less tax on it's earnings.

China has the most countries bordering it by land. North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. And if you were to ask Pakistan, they would also be a land border.

Other weird country borders:

Baarle-Nassau and Baarle Hertog - BN is a part of Belgium that is situated inside BH in the The Netherlands. It's one town that is in town countries. House numbers are determined by what side the border your house door in. And there are cafes that in both countries.

Ceurta - This is the northern tip of the African side on entrance to the Mediterranean. It belongs to Spain, and is only connected by land to Morocco.

Gibraltar - This is the southern tip of the European side on the entrance to the Mediterranean. It's a territory on the UK, and is only connect by land to Spain.

Kallingard - This is a subdivision of Russia, but it is situated on the Baltic Sea and has with land borders Lithuania and Poland. It does not connect to any part of mainland Russia. This happened when the USSR was being divided, Kallingard was an area that was culturally different to Poland and Lithuania that it was never attached to either country.

Northern Cyprus - This is disputed land on the island of Cyprus. The only country to recognise Northern Cyprus is Turkey, who tried to capture the land some time ago. The two "countries" are separated by a UN buffer zone. And the island is home to several British military bases.
 
akkaps said:
The US and Canadian border that sits on the 49th parallel is not actually straight. It's marked by 900 bollards, But as it was marked before any proper maps were available, it could not be done straight. Due to this, there is a small portion of Washington state that is attached to British Columbia. And due to it only having a primary school in this area, students that need to to high school cross the border four times a day. This place is known as Point Roberts.

The "Las Vegas Strip" is not actually in Las Vegas, it's in what is called an 'unincorporated town', called Paradise. It was designed this way so that the casinos would have to pay less tax on it's earnings.

China has the most countries bordering it by land. North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. And if you were to ask Pakistan, they would also be a land border.

Other weird country borders:

Baarle-Nassau and Baarle Hertog - BN is a part of Belgium that is situated inside BH in the The Netherlands. It's one town that is in town countries. House numbers are determined by what side the border your house door in. And there are cafes that in both countries.

Ceurta - This is the northern tip of the African side on entrance to the Mediterranean. It belongs to Spain, and is only connected by land to Morocco.

Gibraltar - This is the southern tip of the European side on the entrance to the Mediterranean. It's a territory on the UK, and is only connect by land to Spain.

Kallingard - This is a subdivision of Russia, but it is situated on the Baltic Sea and has with land borders Lithuania and Poland. It does not connect to any part of mainland Russia. This happened when the USSR was being divided, Kallingard was an area that was culturally different to Poland and Lithuania that it was never attached to either country.

Northern Cyprus - This is disputed land on the island of Cyprus. The only country to recognise Northern Cyprus is Turkey, who tried to capture the land some time ago. The two "countries" are separated by a UN buffer zone. And the island is home to several British military bases.
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I love things like this.

That Kaliningrad region is also one of those areas where World War III could kick off as Russia may seek to make it connect to the mainland and annex the area leading to it Crimea-style in the future.
 
CJApples87 said:
I love things like this.

That Kaliningrad region is also one of those areas where World War III could kick off as Russia may seek to make it connect to the mainland and annex the area leading to it Crimea-style in the future.
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There are so many YouTube channels dedicated to stuff like this. I've spend days watching this stuff.
 
There are actually two Spanish enclaves in Morocco - Ceuta and Melilla. Both have football teams that play in the Spanish league (I would know, I took control of Ceuta in Football Manager and found it bloody tough to win La Liga with them).

There is only a couple of kilometres separating Russia and the USA - in the Bering Strait, there are two islands where the western one (Big Diomede Island) is part of Russia and the eastern one (Little Diomede Island) is part of Alaska, USA.

Australia has one active volcano on its territory - Mawson Peak, as Wallaby mentioned.

The closest continent across the Atlantic Ocean from Maine (the most northeastern state in the USA) is Africa.

Sri Lanka was connected to India, by land, as little as 500 years ago.

Love these little geographic oddities.
 
Forward Press said:
There are actually two Spanish enclaves in Morocco - Ceuta and Melilla. Both have football teams that play in the Spanish league (I would know, I took control of Ceuta in Football Manager and found it bloody tough to win La Liga with them).

There is only a couple of kilometres separating Russia and the USA - in the Bering Strait, there are two islands where the western one (Big Diomede Island) is part of Russia and the eastern one (Little Diomede Island) is part of Alaska, USA.

Australia has one active volcano on its territory - Mawson Peak, as Wallaby mentioned.

The closest continent across the Atlantic Ocean from Maine (the most northeastern state in the USA) is Africa.

Sri Lanka was connected to India, by land, as little as 500 years ago.

Love these little geographic oddities.
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The Diomedes were central to the plot of Maupin's Further Tales of the City when Jim Jones kidnapped Dede's twins, and tried to escape to Russia with them.
 
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Monaco (/ˈmɒnəkoʊ/; French pronunciation: [mɔnako]), officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco), is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea.

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www.thoughtco.com
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. Encircled by a 2-mile border with Italy, Vatican City is an independent city-state that covers just over 100 acres, making it one-eighth the size of New York's Central Park. Vatican City is governed as an absolute monarchy with the pope at its head.Mar 12, 2013
 
There have been a couple of good books I have read lately. One about how the US States got their shapes and borders by Mark Stein - LINK

One by Gary Fuller who takes the piss out of American Geographical students who think pineapple, lei and poi are regional to Idaho- LINK
 

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Forward Press said:
There are actually two Spanish enclaves in Morocco - Ceuta and Melilla. Both have football teams that play in the Spanish league (I would know, I took control of Ceuta in Football Manager and found it bloody tough to win La Liga with them).
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The football aspectof this was interesting, so I googled it. There is also a side in the Canary Islands that play in La Liga.
Forward Press said:
Sri Lanka was connected to India, by land, as little as 500 years ago.
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According to Hinduism, it was a bridge known as Rama's Bridge. It was built during to the epic known at the "Ramayana". Lord Rama needed to cross over to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, so he prayed to the water god for safe passage for seven days and nights. The water god said that he was to built as bridge connecting the two land masses, but had to do so by using rocks with his name written on it. The majority of the bridge was built by a group of monkey, under the guidance of Hanuman, known as the Vanara.
 
Procrastinator35 said:

Monaco (/ˈmɒnəkoʊ/; French pronunciation: [mɔnako]), officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco), is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea.
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It is illegal for residents of Monaco to use the casinos.
 
Gough said:
You're on fire this morning Akks.
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I love geography. I could name 125+ countries off the top of my head. And it's this titbits that accompany knowing all these countries that I find really interesting.
Thomas9 said:
Citizens, not residents. And foreign nationals make up 80% of the population, so yeah.
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Yeah, that's what I meant.
 
akkaps said:
I love geography. I could name 125+ countries off the top of my head. And it's this titbits that accompany knowing all these countries that I find really interesting.
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On the Sporcle quiz, I regularly get 185+, occasionally all of them.

/brag

There are three countries with Saint in their name, and all are located in the Caribbean.

Borneo is the only island in the world with three countries on it.

The Panama canal runs from southeast to northwest.

There are two double landlocked countries in the world (countries with no ocean access which are surrounded by countries with no ocean access) - Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan.
 
Forward Press said:
On the Sporcle quiz, I regularly get 185+, occasionally all of them.

/brag

There are three countries with Saint in their name, and all are located in the Caribbean.

Borneo is the only island in the world with three countries on it.

The Panama canal runs from southeast to northwest.

There are two double landlocked countries in the world (countries with no ocean access which are surrounded by countries with no ocean access) - Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan.
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I use JetPunk, but run out of time. My weakness is in Africa.

St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia.

I knew about the Panama Canal, and it's not on the southern border of Panama like most people think.

The double landlocked one is interesting, didn't know that.
 
GreyCrow said:
Of course its easy for us ;) In the above book by Garry Fuller he states that less than 5% of his non-Michigan students knew that. Geography is no longer about borders and areas but weather and GDP
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I think while weather, GDP, ethnicity, etc all play a part in geographic. You should be able to name at least 100 countries and know where they are in the world. One you know what, you can start learning why. There's no point learning the GDP of Monaco when you don't know where it is.
 
GreyCrow said:
Of course its easy for us ;) In the above book by Garry Fuller he states that less than 5% of his non-Michigan students knew that. Geography is no longer about borders and areas but weather and GDP
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As it should be. It's more important to know what the news and government is on about when they talk about climate change, than knowing that Italy has two land-locked countries contained within it. Knowing the basics like Africa not being one country is essential, of course, to understanding geographical concepts.
 
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