Fun geography facts

Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the southeast, and South Sudan to the south.

From the “Etymology” section

Jönköping is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland.

From the “History” section

Teide or Mount Teide is an active stratovolcano on the Spanish island of Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands. Its summit is the highest point in Spain and the highest of any island in the Atlantic Ocean.

From the “Name and legends” section

The São Francisco River, known in English as the San Francisco River, is a large river in Brazil. With a length of 2,914 kilometres (1,811 mi), it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil.

From the “Names” section

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume and depth after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

From the “Hydrology” section

The Falkland Islands, commonly referred to as the Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf.

From the “Etymology” section

The Karakum Desert, also spelt Qaraqum and Garagum, is the 12th largest desert in the world, located in Central Asia. The name refers to the shale-rich sand beneath the surface. It occupies about 70 percent, or roughly 350,000 km2 (140,000 sq mi), of Turkmenistan.

From the “Geography” section

The Gulf of Mexico is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent.

From the “Name” section

Incheon International Airport is the main international airport serving Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world.

From the “History” section

Denmark is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark, also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland in the north Atlantic Ocean.

From the “Etymology” section

Shanghai is a provincial-level direct-administered municipality in China. It has a population of 30,050,000 in the urban area as of 2026, thus making it China's most populous city and more broadly the fifth-largest city in the world by population.

From the “Etymology” section

K2, also known as Mount Godwin-Austen, at 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above sea level, is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest at 8,849 metres (29,032 ft).

From the “Name” section

The Rhine is one of the major rivers of Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss–Liechtenstein border, then part of the Swiss–Austrian border. From Lake Constance downstream, it forms part of the Swiss–German border.

From the “Name” section

Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest average water residence time.

From the “Geography” section

Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country in the Indian Ocean that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands.

From the “Etymology” section

The Mojave Desert is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named after the indigenous Mohave people, it is located primarily in southeastern California and southwestern Nevada, with small portions extending into Arizona and Utah.

From the “Geography” section

The Sea of Japan (see § Names for other names) is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean.

From the “Names” section

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is the international airport serving Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

From the “Overview” section

Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean, covering 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi). It is the third-largest island in the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean, after Cuba and the island of Hispaniola.

From the “Etymology” section

Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a federal territory of Malaysia. It is the most populous city in the country, covering an area of 243 km2 (94 sq mi) with a population of 2,075,600 as of 2024.

From the “Etymology” section

Puncak Jaya or Carstensz Pyramid on the island of New Guinea, with an elevation of 4,884 m (16,024 ft), is the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth, and the highest peak in Indonesia and within Oceania. The mountain is located in the Sudirman Range of the highlands of Mimika Regency, Central Papua, Indonesia.

From the “Etymology” section

The Senegal River ; Wolof: Dexug Senegaal, Arabic: نهر السنغال, romanized: Nahr as-Siniġāl, Hassaniyya pronunciation: [nahrˤ əs.säjnigaːl], French: Fleuve Sénégal) is a 1086-kilometre-long (675 mi) river in West Africa; much of its length marks part of the border between Senegal and Mauritania.

From the “Geography” section

Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan.

From the “Geography” section

Sulawesi, also known as Celebes, is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.

From the “Etymology” section