World Geography Facts

Want to really be able to show off to friends and acquaintances with your fun facts? Then you should check out the following list geography facts:

1. With more than 3 million lakes and water (yes, you read correctly), Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world’s nations combined. For comparison, e.g. Finland, “The land of the thousand lakes”, “only” in excess of sixty thousand lakes and water.
2. Lake Manitou, Canada, is the world’s largest lake located on an island located in another lake (Lake Huron). By the way, the island on which Lake Manitou is located is Manitoulin Island, the world’s largest island located in a lake.
3. Canada has the world’s longest coastline. Of the United States’ fifty states, Alaska alone has a longer coastline than the 49 remaining states combined. Our own country, Norway, has one of the world’s longest coastlines (though well behind Canada), but only comes in 62nd place in terms of area (and then we have counted on Svalbard and Jan Mayen).
4. The world’s longest place name is 163 characters long (Bangkok’s formal name in Thai). Fortunately, if you want to visit the place with the world’s shortest place name, you fortunately do not have to travel that far. Quite six places in Norway are simply called “Å”. (For example, Å in Meldal municipality, and fishing village Å in Mosque municipality).
5. Historians believe that Rome in Italy, was the first city in the world to reach 1 million residents. This is believed to have happened in the year 133 BC
6. According to figures from Countryaah, the earth had just over 7.4 billion residents in June 2016. Around the beginning of the 19th century, the earth placed 1 billion residents for the first time, the second billion reached in 1930, the third – in 1959, the fourth in 1974, and the sixth in 1986. In 1970, there lived approx. only half as many people on earth as it does today.
7. Totally useless, but still… What has historically been the world’s longest railroad (the Trans-Siberian Railway) runs over 3901 bridges on its way from Moscow in the west to Vladivostok in the east.
8. More than 97 percent of all water on earth consists of salt water. Of the remaining two to three percent, most of all freshwater is in glaciers!
9. If all the people on earth had lived about as close as they do in New York, ALL of the earth’s residents would have had a place in the state of Texas in the United States.
10. Measured by water flow, it is by far the largest river in the Amazon (Some claim that it is also the world’s longest, although the Nile has historically been held to be the longest.). The river at all times brings such huge masses of water into the Atlantic that you can probably pour fresh water into the boat if you are 16 miles straight out of the place where the river flows into the sea.
11. 11.Do you have water? The point with the coordinates 46 ° 16.8′N 86 ° 40.2′E (link to the point on Google maps), north-west of China is the place in the world that is as far away as possible from the sea.
12. If you suspect land disgust, you can instead sail to “Point Nemo” at 48 ° 52.6′S 123 ° 23.6′V in the Pacific. This is the point on earth, which is as far away as possible from land.
13. Istanbul in Turkey is the only city in the world where about half of the city is located in different parts of the world (the Bosphorus Strait divides Asia and Europe in two, and the city has about the same population and population on each side of the strait).
14. The seven largest countries in the world, measured by area (Russia, Canada, the United States, China, Australia, Brazil and Argentina), make up more than half of the world’s total land area.
15. China is the country in the world that shares borders with the most number of countries.
16. The Kingdom of Lesotho, the Vatican and San Marino are the only three countries in the world that are entirely within the borders of one other country(The latter two are completely encircled by Italy, while the former is located in South Africa).
17. Usually we talk about how many meters above the sea (above sea level) a lake is located. That is not the case with the Dead Sea. Namely, the surface of this very saline lake is 415 meters below sea level.
18. The continents are constantly moving apart. For example, Europe and America slip 1-2 cm apart each year. About half as fast as our nails grow.
19. If you are unable to drive all the way north to Finnmark and Nordkapp, you can instead visit the mountain Kjerringa, also called “Vestkapp”, in Selje municipality, Sogn and Fjordane. Norway’s westernmost point. The place hub “Sørkapp”, is also located on Sørkappøya. The southernmost point on Svalbard.
20. If for some reason you were afraid of the earth’s interior, you should hike up the summit of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. Here at 6277 meters above sea level. (at the top of an extinct volcano) you are at the point of the earth which is farthest from the center of the earth.
21. Canal City, may not be the first thing to think of when mentioning the German cities of Berlin and Hamburg, but the facts are both have more canals and bridges than both Venice and Amsterdam. In Berlin alone, there are more than 1,700 bridges!
22. It actually snowed in Sahara December 2016 and February 1979.
23. The longest fjord in the world: Scoresbysundet in Greenland even shames the Sognefjord. However, the 350 kilometer long fjord is covered for much of the year, so you should go here in the summer months if you want to sail by boat here.
24. It is logical that Alaska is the northernmost state in the United States, but did you know that it is also the westernmost and easternmost (at least if longitude is used)? The southernmost point of the United States is at the… southern tip of Hawaii.