Forty questions on rivers, mountains, borders and records. Every answer comes with a sentence of explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches you something.
Which is the largest country in the world by area?
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Russia
Russia covers about 17.1 million square kilometers, roughly one-ninth of Earth's land. Canada is second.
Question 2
Which is the smallest country in the world?
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Vatican City
Vatican City covers about 0.44 square kilometers inside Rome. Monaco is second-smallest.
Question 3
What is the highest mountain above sea level?
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Mount Everest
Everest's summit is 8,849 meters above sea level, the height agreed by China and Nepal in 2020. K2 is second.
Question 4
Which river is usually listed as the longest in the world?
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Nile
Most references list the Nile, at about 6,650 kilometers. Some measurements put the Amazon slightly longer, depending on where its source is placed.
Question 5
Which is the largest ocean?
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Pacific Ocean
The Pacific covers more area than all of Earth's land combined.
Question 6
Where is the deepest known point in the ocean?
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Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench
Challenger Deep, in the western Pacific, is close to 11,000 meters deep.
Question 7
Which is the largest hot desert in the world?
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Sahara
The Sahara is the largest hot desert. Counting cold deserts, Antarctica is larger.
Question 8
Which country has the longest coastline?
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Canada
Canada's coastline, counting its thousands of Arctic islands, is the longest of any country.
Question 9
Which is the largest lake in the world by surface area?
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Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is a saltwater lake. The largest freshwater lake by area is Lake Superior.
Question 10
Which is the deepest lake in the world?
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Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal in Siberia is about 1,640 meters deep and holds roughly a fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh surface water.
Question 11
Which continent has the most countries?
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Africa
Africa has 54 UN member states.
Question 12
As of 2023, which country has the largest population?
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India
UN estimates show India passing China in 2023.
Question 13
Which continent has no permanent population?
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Antarctica
Antarctica has only temporary residents, mostly scientists and support staff at research stations.
Question 14
The equator passes through which of these countries?
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Ecuador
Ecuador is named after the equator, which passes just north of its capital, Quito.
Question 15
Which US state is the largest by area?
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Alaska
Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas.
Question 16
Which US state is made up entirely of islands?
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Hawaii
Hawaii is an island chain in the Pacific; it has no land on the mainland.
Question 17
Which US state borders only one other state?
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Maine
Maine's only neighboring state is New Hampshire.
Question 18
Which state is not one of the Four Corners states?
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Nevada
Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet at the Four Corners. Nevada does not touch that point.
Question 19
Which river carved the Grand Canyon?
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Colorado River
The Colorado River cut the canyon over millions of years.
Question 20
Where does the Mississippi River begin?
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Lake Itasca, Minnesota
The Mississippi starts as a small stream flowing out of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota.
Question 21
Which two countries share the longest international border?
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Canada and the United States
The Canada–US border, including the Alaska section, is the longest international border in the world.
Question 22
Which city sits on two continents, divided by the Bosporus?
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Istanbul
Istanbul spans Europe and Asia on both sides of the Bosporus strait.
Question 23
Which mountain range is conventionally used as part of the boundary between Europe and Asia?
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Ural Mountains
The Urals run north to south through Russia and are a traditional dividing line.
Question 24
The prime meridian, 0° longitude, passes through which observatory?
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Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The 1884 International Meridian Conference chose Greenwich, in London, as the prime meridian.
Question 25
Which country is doubly landlocked, surrounded only by landlocked countries?
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Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein are the world's two doubly landlocked countries.
Question 26
Which is the largest island in the world that is not a continent?
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Greenland
Greenland is the largest island. Australia is usually counted as a continent instead.
Question 27
Which is the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall?
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Angel Falls
Angel Falls in Venezuela drops about 979 meters.
Question 28
The Atacama, one of the driest places on Earth, is mainly in which country?
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Chile
The Atacama Desert runs along northern Chile's Pacific coast.
Question 29
Which river flows through Baghdad?
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Tigris
Baghdad sits on the Tigris. The Euphrates runs parallel to it farther west.
Question 30
The Strait of Gibraltar separates Spain from which country?
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Morocco
At its narrowest the strait is about 14 kilometers wide, between Spain and Morocco.
Question 31
Mount Kilimanjaro is in which country?
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Tanzania
Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania near the Kenyan border.
Question 32
The Danube River empties into which sea?
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Black Sea
The Danube flows through or along ten countries before reaching the Black Sea in Romania and Ukraine.
Question 33
Which is the largest country in South America?
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Brazil
Brazil covers almost half of the continent.
Question 34
What is the lowest point on dry land?
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The shore of the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea's shore lies more than 400 meters below sea level, and the level is still falling.
Question 35
Which country is often called the Land of the Rising Sun?
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Japan
Japan's name in Japanese, Nihon or Nippon, means the origin of the sun.
Question 36
Which country has the most natural lakes?
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Canada
Canada holds more lakes than any other country, a legacy of the ice sheets that covered it.
Question 37
Which country is home to the Great Barrier Reef?
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Australia
The reef runs for more than 2,000 kilometers off the coast of Queensland.
Question 38
Which line of latitude marks the northern edge of the tropics?
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Tropic of Cancer
The Tropic of Cancer, at about 23.4° north, is the farthest north the sun appears directly overhead.
Question 39
Which African country lies entirely inside South Africa?
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Lesotho
Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa. Eswatini also borders Mozambique.
Question 40
Which country has a capital called Wellington?
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New Zealand
Wellington, at the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island, is the southernmost national capital of a sovereign state.
Key numbers
Questions
40
Format
Multiple choice, 4 options
Explanations
Every question
Good for
Solo play or trivia night
What these questions cover
The set mixes physical geography (the highest, deepest and longest places on Earth), political geography (borders, capitals and how countries are counted) and a handful of US questions. Records that depend on measurement, such as the length of rivers, say so in the explanation rather than pretending there's one undisputed number.
They range from warm-ups, like the largest ocean, to questions most people miss, like the world's two doubly landlocked countries. A score of 30 out of 40 is strong.
Can I use these questions for a trivia night?
Yes. Read them out with the four choices, or drop the choices for a harder round. Each explanation gives the host a sentence to add after the answer.
Why do some answers mention a debate?
Some records depend on how they're measured. The Nile and the Amazon, for example, swap places depending on where each river's source is placed, so the explanation says which answer most references give.