Interesting & Amazing Geographic Facts

Alaska
* More than half of the coastline of the entire
United States is in Alaska .

Amazon
* The Amazon rain forest produces more than 20%
the world's oxygen supply.
* The Amazon River pushes so much water into the
Atlantic Ocean that, more
than one hundred miles at sea, off the mouth of
the river, one can dip
fresh water out of the ocean.
* The volume of water in the Amazon river is
greater than the next eight
largest rivers in the world combined and three
times the flow of all
rivers in the United States.

Antarctica
* Antarctica is the only land on our planet that
is not owned by any country.
* Ninety percent of the world's ice covers
Antarctica . This ice also
represents seventy percent of all the fresh
water in the world.
* As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is
essentially a desert. The
average yearly total precipitation is about two
inches.
* Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it,
i.e.), Antarctica is the
driest place on the planet, with an absolute
humidity lower than the Gobi
desert.

Brazil
* Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other
way around.

Canada
* Canada has more lakes than the rest of the
world combined.
* Canada is an Indian word meaning " Big
Village."

Chicago
* Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish
population in the world.

Detroit
* Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries
the designation M - 1, named
so because it was the first paved road
anywhere.

Damascus , Syria
* Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of
thousand years before Rome was
founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest
continuously inhabited city in
existence.

Istanbul, Turkey
* Istanbul , Turkey is the only city in the world
located on two continents.

Los Angeles
* Los Angeles 's full name is El Pueblo de
Nuestra Senora la Reina de los
Angeles de Porciuncula --and can be abbreviated
to 3.63% of its size: L.A.

New York City
* The term "The Big Apple" was coined by touring
jazz musicians of the 1930s
who used the slang __expression "apple" for any
town or city. Therefore, to
play New York City is to play the big time -
The Big Apple.
* There are more Irish in New York City than in
Dublin, Ireland; more Italians
in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more
Jews in New York City than in
Tel Aviv, Israel.

Ohio
* There are no natural lakes in the state of
Ohio, every one is manmade.

Pitcairn Island
* The smallest island with country status is
Pitcairn in Polynesia , at
just 1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.

Rome
* The first city to reach a population of 1
million people was Rome,
Italy in 133 B.C.
* There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Siberia
* Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's
forests.

S.M.O.M.
* The actual smallest sovereign entity in the
world is the Sovereign
Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M.). It is
located in the city of Rome,
Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as
of 2001 has a population
of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a
sovereign entity under
international law, just as the Vatican is.

Sahara Desert
* In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named
Tidikelt, which did not
receive a drop of rain for ten years.

Spain
* Spain (Espana) literally means 'the land of
rabbits.'

St. Paul Minnesota
* St. Paul , Minnesota was originally called Pigs
Eye after a man named
Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant who set up the first
business there.

Roads
* Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A.:
1%, in Canada : 75%.

Texas
* The deepest hole ever made in the world is in
Texas. It is as deep as
20 empire state buildings but only 3 inches
wide.

United States
* The Eisenhower interstate system requires that
one-mile in every five
must be straight. These straight sections are
usable as airstrips in
times of war or other emergencies.

Waterfalls
* The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest)
in Venezuela drops 3,212
feet (979 meters). They are 15 times higher
than Niagara Falls.