The Geografile
The Geografile
Hungary’s capital, Budapest, until 1873 was two separate cities, Buda and Pest, that lay on opposite banks of the Danube River.
The Geografile
The British Commonwealth of Nations is an association of 52 sovereign states, formerly British colonies.
The Geografile
In 1991, South Africa became the first country to make the great white shark a protected species.
The Geografile
Denmark, with about 131 Danes per square mile, is Scandinavia’s most densely populated country, but if you include its territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, it is the world’s most sparsely populated country, with an average of 0.15 people per square mile.
The Geografile
The site of Canberra was chosen as the place to build a new Australian capital in 1908, to replace Melbourne, but that was delayed by World War I and it didn’t become the official national government seat until 1927.
The Geografile
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, in 1999, became the first three former Warsaw Pact countries to join NATO.
The Geografile
Though it has long been stated that the Great Wall of China is visible from the moon, this myth was debunked in 1969 by American astronaut Alan Bean, who reported that when his spacecraft was only a few thousand miles from Earth (the moon is about 230,000 miles distant), no trace of human building was visible.
The Geografile
Brazil borders on 10 other countries. On the South American continent, only Chile and Ecuador don’t share a border with Brazil.
The Geografile
Mount Logan, Canada’s highest mountain, located in Yukon territory’s southwest, was named for Sir William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada.
The Geografile
Fraser Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site off the coast of Queensland, Australia, is the world’s largest sand island, at 74 miles long and 18 miles wide. It’s the only known place on Earth where rainforests thrive on top of sand dunes.
The Geografile
The world’s least-salty seawater is found in the Bay of Bothnia, where Sweden meets Finland.