Ten amazing pieces of geography trivia to impress your friends with

By David Whitley

April 4, 2024 — 7.34am

Some geography trivia – flags, capital cities, US states – is bread and butter pub quiz fodder. It’s also not particularly exciting. But there are some geography trivia titbits that will have your friends wowed and reaching for the nearest atlas to check out the truth. Here are 10 pearlers to keep in your armoury.

The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal famously connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, so the logical assumption is that it runs east to west. It doesn’t, however, as Panama is essentially horizontal.

This means the Panama Canal runs north-west to south-east. Extraordinarily, the Atlantic entrance is further west than the Pacific entrance.

Lesotho’s elevation

Landlocked Lesotho is the highest country in the world. Credit: Getty

If measured by the height of the lowest point, the landlocked African country of Lesotho is the highest country in the world. Its lowest point is 1400 metres above sea level. This means it lies higher, in its entirety, than several other countries – including the United Kingdom, Bangladesh and Finland.

Pheasant Island

There’s an island in Europe that changes nationality every six months. Pheasant Island in the Bidossoa River, which for much of its length forms the border between France and Spain. In 1659, the Franco-Spanish War ended here, with the Treaty of the Pyrenees kicking off the agreement that the two countries share the island. Formal control switches hands in February and August each year.

Easter Island’s longitude

In many people’s mental maps, North and South America line up in a roughly straight line. But South America is much further east than most of us imagine, and North America much further west.

So much so that Easter Island, all on its lonesome in the South Pacific, is considerably further east than Las Vegas. The respective longitudes are 109.35° W and 115.14° W, if you must know.

Similarly, Santiago in Chile is east of Boston, and the Galapagos Islands are east of Houston.

Soul Buoy

Africa is the only continent that is in the northern, southern, western and eastern hemispheres. But there is no piece of land in all four hemispheres. Unless, of course, you count Null Island in the Gulf of Guinea.

This island doesn’t actually exist, but is used in computing and mapping databases as the point where the Equator and Greenwich Meridian cross. There is, however, a weather buoy at the exact point, called Soul Buoy.

The French border

Brazil has the longest land border with France, thanks to French Guiana.Credit: iStock

One question guaranteed to start fights at a pub quiz is: “Which country has the longest land border with France?” Most people will start guesstimating the length of the French border with Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain. But the correct answer, with a 730km-long border is… Brazil. That’s because French Guiana in South America is regarded as an integral part of France, in the same way that Corsica, Normandy and Paris are.

The Pacific antipodes

An antipode is the opposite point on the Earth’s surface, if you drew an imaginary straight line through the Earth. The antipode of Sydney, for example, is in Portugal’s Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Pacific Ocean is so massive, however, that it is opposite itself. Some parts of the Pacific off South America have antipodes in the Pacific off South East Asia.

Canada v California

Canada’s southernmost point, Middle Island in Lake Erie, is further south than the northernmost point of California.Credit: Google Maps

That you can drive south from the US (Detroit) into Canada (Windsor, Ontario) is a fairly well-known piece of trivia. What’s perhaps more astonishing is just how far south Canada goes. Its southernmost point is on Middle Island in Lake Erie, at 41.40° N.

That’s further south than the northernmost point of California, which is at 42.00° N. Middle Island is also on almost exactly the same latitude as Madrid in Spain.

Crossing the Amazon

The 6400km Amazon River is too jungly to have a single bridge across it. Credit: iStock

The Amazon River is 6400km long, and there’s not a single bridge across it. This is because the areas where a bridge could feasibly be built are so remote and jungly that there’s no point. It’d also get flooded out in the wet season. The parts of the Amazon River where you might want a bridge, meanwhile, are too wide. The width of the Amazon estuary clocks in at around 380 kilometres.