Friends, our planet is truly an incredible place in both the geographical elements formed by nature and those we came up with ourselves. Here are some geographical facts about the earth that will make you want to search the same on a globe or world maps.
1 MOUNT EVEREST is arguably the most well-known mountain in the world. Yet, it is a common misconception that it is the tallest mountain in the world. Yes, it is the tallest mountain above sea level, but the tallest mountain on earth is Mauna Kea, which is located in Hawaii. It is only 13,769 feet above sea level, but from its base at the bottom of the pacific, it is 32800 feet, about 3000 feet taller than Everest.
2 MEXICO CITY is sinking into the earth. As per history, this city was built on a lake in 1325 AD, afterwards, an artificial island was created around it. However, because the locals rely on the water that is taken from beneath the city, therefore city is sinking, and it has sunk an unbelievable 32 feet over the last 60 years.
3 PHILIPPINES, there are more than 7,641 islands in this country, which is several more than the 7,107 islands researchers believed the country previously contained.
4 Russia, morning and night happen at the same time in the country. Considering Russia’s massive size, it has 11 time zones out of the 24 in the entire world. This means that on one side of Russia, the country is waking up at 7 am, while the other side is about to sit down for dinner.
5 The Saragasso Sea, has no coasts. Any water body must have some kind of coast, but this is not the case here. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean in the North, where it is surrounded by four ocean currents, with no land. It is given its name for the Sargassum seaweed that covers it all over.
6 Diomede Islands, these are two islands which are just 4 km apart, are also 20 hours apart. As Big Diomede island is located in Russia and Little Diomede island in America, and are separated by both the international border and Date Line. For these reasons, they are 20 hours apart. The big one is referred to as Tomorrow island and the Little one is Yesterday island.
7 Damascus, being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, for the last 11,000 years. In 2008 it was named Arab Capital of Culture. The city is home to 1.7 million people and has more than 125 monuments.
8 Sahara Desert, it snows here. It is also considered one of the hottest places on Earth, with temperatures reaching more than 136 deg F. With temperatures this high, one would think that this region will never see snow, but that is not the case. While the desert’s average temperature in the evening is 86 deg F, it can drop to an average of 25 deg F. Unbelievably it received snowfall in January 2018, which was the third time in 40 years, the previous one in 1979 and 2016.
9 Africa spans all four hemispheres. It is the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent after Asia. It is the only continent in the world to cover the north, south, east, and west hemispheres, totaling 12 million square miles.
10 The Mississippi River, is the second-longest river and second-largest drainage system on the North American continent. The river is about 2,348 miles long, and it would take a drop of water 90 days to travel from the northernmost source in Minnesto to its end in the Gulf of Mexico.
11 Australia, has the largest sand island on earth. The Fraser Island in Australia was formed by sand blowing across the land for thousands of years. Its length is 76 miles with its width approx 14 miles. It is the traditional land of the Butchulla people and as per the 2016 census, had a small population of 182 people.
12 Scotland, The shortest commercial flight in the world can be taken between Westray and Papa Westray islands. The 1.7 miles flight connects two islands and takes a grand total of just 57 seconds, depending on the weather.
13 Istanbul, it is the only city that rests on two continents, ie Europe and Asia. A bridge connects the two parts of the city with the European half the most populous and serves the city’s historical center. The city has a population of 14 million.
14 Russia & China, both have borders with 14 countries each. The Russian border includes the region Kalinigrad borders Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine. China borders Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.
15 Sudan, has more Pyramids than Egypt. When talking pyramids, Egypt might come first to mind for most people, being so well known for the Pyramids of Giza. In fact, Sudan has double of Pyramids as compared to Egypt, which has 138 and Sudan has around 255 Pyramids.
There are many more unknown and unheard geographical facts about the earth, I have just mentioned a few of the important ones.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
7th September 2022.
Tejinder Singh Sethi
Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.
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Vatican City is the smallest country in the world..
THE ENTIRETY OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION COULD EASILY FIT IN TEXAS.