Top travel trivia we’re getting wrong
Even if you are a geography whiz or avid traveller, it is time to face the facts – and realise you’re getting many of them wrong. It seems that kangaroo-riding, drop bear-avoiding Australians believe many of the myths and misconceptions perpetuated about rivers, peaks, cities and place names around the globe. For the sake of our high school geography teachers and pub trivia teams, we did our research to bust open these top 18 surprising mistakes:
Antarctica has no time zones – False
The widely held belief that Antarctica does not use time zones has been debunked by the stations operating on the icy continent. In actual fact, nine different time zones are in use in the South Pole.
Russia and Turkey are the only countries on two continents – False
A quick look at the map might make it appear that Russia and Turkey are the only countries lying across two continents, but the experts beg to differ. Geologists insist that the boundary between Asia and Europe is in fact the Caucasus watershed, which would mean Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan also qualify.
The Nile River is the longest in the world – False
This one comes down to semantics. If you take tributaries, river bends and multiple channels into consideration, the Amazon River is marginally longer than its North African cousin at 6992 kilometres to the Nile’s 6852.
The South Pole is the same as Antarctica – False
It isn’t actually wrong to identify Antarctica as the South Pole, although technicality would have it that the term can refer to four possible South Poles on the frozen continent. The Geographic South Pole, Inaccessible South Pole, Geomagnetic South Pole and Magnetic South Pole (which constantly moves with magnetic drift!) are all different locations in Antarctica.
The capital of Switzerland is Geneva – False
Despite its prominence in international politics, the European UN’s headquarters is not in fact the nation’s capital. Neither is Zurich, another famous global cultural centre. The title actually goes to humble Bern, the fourth largest city in Switzerland, situated on the Aare River.
Written by Sophie Cullen. Republished with permission of MyDiscoveries.