Did you hate Geography at school? I bet you did. Don’t worry though, as here are some fun geography facts to make you love the subject now.
Russia is Bigger than Pluto
Here’s an utterly bizarre fact to get us started; Russia has a bigger surface area than Pluto. The giant country which is found on Earth has a surface area of just over 17,000,000 square km, while the one time planet (when did it officially become a dwarf planet without anyone telling me?) is just under this mark. Apparently people are trying to get it classed as a planet again. Pluto that is, not Russia.
An ATM in the Antarctica
What will you do if you visit the world’s most remote and lightly populated continent and run out of cash? Well, you could always visit the local ATM, I guess. The money dispensing machine located at McMurdo Station in Antarctica serves the local winter population of 200 and the odd passing tourist.
The Mighty Glaciers
Three quarters of the worlds freshwater is stored in glaciers, despite them only covering around 10% of the planet’s surface. It is estimated that if all the ice on land across Earth melted than sea levels would rise by 60 metres (200 feet)
Countries with No Rivers
There are a number of countries in the world with no permanent rivers running through them. Most of them are small places like the Maldives and the Vatican City. Perhaps the most surprising country on the list is Saudi Arabia, which is the 13th biggest country in the world but receives so little rainfall that it has no permanent rivers.
The Longest Place Names
If you are ever in Wales be sure to visit the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll llantysiliogogogoch. Three thousand people live in this place, which has the second longest English place name in the world. In New Zealand you will find the longest place name in the English speaking world. At Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, to be precise.
The Empty Caribbean
Did you know that less than 1% of the islands in the Caribbean are inhabited? There are thousands of islands in this part of the world but only 15 of them have a population of more than 100,000.
The Longest Street
If you want to take a stroll along a mammoth street then you want to mosey on down to Canada. Toronto, to be exact. Yonge Street if you want me to spoon feed you all the details as though this was some sort of informative article. This monster street covers 1,190 miles (1,900 km) and was a part of Highway 11 in the past. It goes all the way from the banks of Lank Ontario to the border between Ontario and Minnesota. Rather disappointingly, the Guinness Book of Record now overlooks it and lists the Pan American Highway as the longest road on the planet, which is a complete cop out in my opinion.
The Shortest Place Name
We’ve already seen some places with whopping great names but which is the shortest? I used to regularly drive past a place in Scotland called Ae but it doesn’t hold the title. Instead, there are places in both Sweden and Norway called Å, which means river.
The City on Every Continent
There is one city name that is present on every inhabited continent. Can you guess what it is? The answer is Rome, although the cities around the world use the Italian spelling of Roma. There are places called Roma in Italy (obviously), the US, Australia, Lesotho, Indonesia and Ecuador.
