30 Of The Weirdest And Most Interesting Geography Facts You Probably Didn’t Know
Interview
Geography is an ever-changing and fascinating subject, encompassing a range of physical, social, and environmental sciences. By comparing collected geographic data we can find insights into the diversity of cultures, as well as learn how big or small some countries used to be.
However, due to the field's complexity, going in-depth and analyzing different facts is time-consuming. But luckily for us, there are many geography fans who just love finding new and interesting information and sharing it with the lazier population. One such example is the Instagram page geography._.facts, which offers various comparative and eye-opening maps.
So, Pandas, whether you are a geography aficionado or simply curious, we invite you to explore our list because we are sure you will find something intriguing that you are yet to learn.
Also below, you will find an interview with the hosts of 80 Days: an exploration podcast, who kindly shared about their geography-inspired content.
More info: 80dayspodcast.com | Patreon | Instagram | Facebook
This post may include affiliate links.
People in Mississippi voted in the referendum for a flag change. This is going to be a new flag of Mississippi state
What about the people in Mississippi who don't believe in God? They are not represented by their state flag.
"80 Days" podcast was created by “three history and geography nerds” that, in each episode, share their knowledge on little-known countries around the world. One of the hosts shared what inspired them to create this podcast. “We started the podcast in 2016, and the idea was essentially born out of a desire to find out more about obscure places that we've all heard of - Gibraltar, Tasmania, Easter Island, etc. - but that not too much of us know in depth. For example, we wanted to find out why there's a country that's entirely enclosed by South Africa, or why Newfoundlanders sound Irish. It turns out that there was no podcast filling that niche at the time, so we started our own!”
On their website, you can find 5 seasons with 10 episodes each, where you can learn more in-depth about countries like Québec, Djibouti, Seychelles, and more. We asked them to share how they decide on destinations they explore in the show. “We typically look for places that people usually would have heard of, but may not know much about. Sometimes the places we choose are quite obscure, but we often find that those ones have the most interesting stories and quirks associated with them,” shared one of the hosts.
how the f did this conversation about Brazil and France turn into the USA
Yes, we don't have to worry about any high tech threat from North Korea. They're the ones at risk.
When it comes to researching and presenting information about each location, the hosts involve a variety of sources. “Each of us (the three co-hosts) researches independently, and we divide up the place we're talking about into different time periods. That way, often, when we are recording our episodes, there will be surprise stories or facts that the others haven't heard about because it wasn't covered in their own section. In terms of resources, we rely a lot on academic reports, history books, as well as, documentaries, and other media sources such as podcasts. We also try to interview people who are from the areas we speak about, or who are experts in that field of geography/history.”
My wife (brown eyes) and I (blue eyes) agreed on everything regarding our kid like approach to religion, education, raising methods etc. but we didn't agree on our wish about the eye colour. I wanted my kid to have blue eyes, wife wanted her to have brown eyes. So she has one brown and one blue eye. The universe is twisted sometimes :D
people forget historic poland was even larger than this before the 3 wars of sequestration in the 1700s. People forget Ruthenia region around Lviv/Lvov had many ethnic poles, and historically was poland. The soviets kicked out a lot of the poles when they assigned it to Ukraine post WW2, but today Poland an Ukraine are good friends, and Poland no longer lays claim to those areas. But people always wonder why Poland feels so close to Ukraine and helps them so much, it is because so many people have family on both sides of the border in the Ruthenia region
TOP 5 Highest female to male ratio:
Djibouti - 83:100, Hong Kong, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia - 86:100
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TOP 5 Lowest female to male ratio:
Qatar - 339:100, UAE - 256:100, Bahrain - 153:100, Kuwait - 138:100, Saudi Arabia - 130:100
Immigration into a country with male-only hiring practices?
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lots of male guest workers immigrating for manual labor jobs will do that
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It's not. There's a demographic that is IIRC about 130:100, but it's not the whole population.
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The one that really surprises me is Hong Kong. What's happened to all the men in Hong Kong??
Exploring the physical and cultural geography of each destination is a key aspect of 80 Days. The host shared how they balance these two elements.
“The easiest rule of thumb for podcasting is generally to talk about what's interesting. Often the physical aspects of a place will inform its history, and so on. We try very hard to tell a coherent story when we're talking about a place, but we'll also drop whatever isn't particularly interesting in order to keep the conversation flowing and keep listeners engaged.”
I am happy to correct this map: same-sex marriage is now allowed in Switzerland, too. Has been since July ‘22. Late as always but better than never.
The age at which a person's, typically a girl's, consent to sexual intercourse is valid in law
Is this taking into account the Horny Teenager laws that basically exist to stop high school couples getting put on various Registries, or does Europe just have a disparity between the age of consent and the age of majority across the board? I'm taking into consideration that our brackets (AUS) are 16-18 and 18+ so even assuming Horny Teenager laws are present on the map these numbers seem almost absurdly low to me.
As the hosts Joe, Luke, and Mark have delved into a wide variety of locations and cultures around the world, they have gained valuable insights into the remarkable diversity and interconnectedness of our planet.
“Overall I would say the most valuable thing that we've learned is that there are interesting facts, stories, and people everywhere. Some of the smallest and most obscure places we've spoken about, such as Pitcairn Island or Nauru, have been absolutely fascinating to discover. We've also found it really interesting to see the common threads between places we discuss, such as the destructive nature of colonialism or the similar cultural issues that crop up as new societies develop. It's also crazy how often people hundreds of years ago manage to crop up in several different places. We tend to think of intercontinental travel as a relatively new thing, but for a certain class of people, traveling significant distances and to these obscure places wasn't all that rare.”
And it's 100 degrees colder on that little peninsula tip than the rest of the island
So... if no-one's claiming the south-west part... maybe I should? Dibs!!
When asked about the value of exploring the world through a geographical lens and how their podcast contributes to a greater appreciation and understanding of geography, one of the hosts of 80 Days podcast explained the significance of discovering the stories of small places and the extraordinary characters that come to light along the way. “I think that the value of exploring small places, as I mentioned above, is that there is so much to discover everywhere. The reason we started the show was to discover why these small places came to be what they are, but very often the stories that we discover along the way, the heroes and villains that crop up, are just as extraordinary.”
This needs some explanation. How is the unrepresentative British First Past the Post system and unelected Upper House and unelected Monarchy as head of state more democratic than say Italy?
And lastly, the host added: “If you'd like to learn more about burning Christmas Goats, the world's largest exporter of false teeth, the ancient burial ground underneath Paris, a war criminal known as 'General Butt Naked', how Che Guevara was almost assassinated using a poisoned milkshake, or many other strange and obscure facts, please check out the show.”
Its a great system. You get money back from each bottle and some people just go around collecting bottles around the streets
I'd question that here in Germany- We don't really have censorship, but the framing towards the narative the government wants to tell is very obvious.
Dagen H (H day), today usually called "Högertrafikomläggningen" ("The right-hand traffic diversion"), was the day on 3 September 1967, in which the traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The "H" stands for "Högertrafik", the Swedish word for "right traffic". It was by far the largest logistical event in Sweden's history.
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There were various arguments for the change:
All of Sweden's neighbours drive on the right, including Norway and Finland, with which Sweden has land borders, and five million vehicles cross those borders annually.
Approximately 90 percent of Swedes drove left-hand drive vehicles, and this led to many head-on collisions when passing on narrow two-lane highways. City buses were among the very few vehicles that conformed to the normal opposite-steering wheel rule, being right-hand drive (RHD).
However, the change was unpopular; in a 1955 referendum, 83 percent voted to keep driving on the left. Nevertheless, the Swedish Parliament approved Prime Minister Tage Erlander's proposal on 10 May 1963 of right hand traffic beginning in 1967, as the number of cars on the road tripled from 500,000 to 1.5 million and was expected to reach 2.8 million by 1975. The Statens Högertrafikkommission (HTK) ("the state right-hand traffic commission") was established to oversee the change. It also began implementing a four-year education programme on the advice of psychologists.
As Dagen H neared, every intersection was equipped with an extra set of poles and traffic signals wrapped in black plastic. Workers roamed the streets early in the morning on Dagen H to remove the plastic. A parallel set of lines was painted on the roads with white paint, then covered with black tape. Before Dagen H, Swedish roads had used yellow lines.[citation needed] Approximately 350,000 signs had to be removed or replaced, 20,000 in Stockholm alone
If you're wondering why the freeway on ramps in Sweden are very short... They used to be the exits
Someone heard about that place in Wales and said "hold my beer".
I like this one. It recognises the fact that it is human nature to try to escape. I think this is true in some other countries also.
Half of the vater in Balkhash lake is fresh and half is salty.
The lake is divided into two parts by a narrow strip. So the water in both parts is not able to mix. The first (by flow) part is supplied by rivers - so it's fresh. The second part doesn't have any outflow - so the water just evaporates and the water is slaty
Because that’s the European time and the smart thing to do. In Western countries we don’t live with the sun anymore. noon is not the middle of the day and midnight not the middle of the night. It’s smarter to adapt the time zone. Guess who didn’t do it?
Der, die, das. Wer, wie, was? Wieso, weshalb, warum? Wer nicht fragt bleibt dumm!
Food, animal food, living animals, print media, Public transportation, tickets for cultural establishments and eating in a restaurant only have a tax of 7% here in Germany
One for Scotland and the second one for the rest of the UK. The Ulster Banner is used to represent the Northern Ireland, hopefully it won't offend anyone
This place is located on Sicily islands in Italy
True story 🙂 The Oder (Odra) and the Neisse River (Nysa). The border runs downstream the Odra river up to Widuchowa, where it also separates into East Oder and West Oder.
The federative system is one of the problems in Germany, in my opinion. Bavaria should just split off from Germany.
Coffee is actually the most popular beverage here in Germany aside from plain water
Vatican City and Switzerland the only countries with square flag
For those that do not know - "The Treaty of Trianon is one of the Paris peace treaties that ended the First World War. It was concluded between Hungary and the Allied and Associated Powers on 4 June 1920 in the Grand Trianon Palace situated in the Versailles Palace park. It sanctioned the dismemberment of the Hungarian state." It is less well known than the Treaty of Versailles.
There are many other contiguous transcontinental countries, and there are also non contiguous transcontinental countries. My favourite transcontinental fact is Denmark now shares a land border with Canada. Han Island was a source of disagreement as to whether it belonged to Greenland (part of the Kingdom of Denmark) or Canada. It has been decided, and it's pretty much an even split.
Errrr, incorrect - it is available in the Balkans, at least where I live! :)
Paris is actually really small (this refers to the city of Paris not the metropolitan area)
Aren't most cities like this? Boston proper is quite small, but the Greater Boston Area encompasses nearly a third of the state of Massachusetts and nearly two-thirds of the state's population.
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the First World, while the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and their allies represented the Second World. This terminology provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on political and economic divisions. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term Third World has decreased in use. It is being replaced with terms such as developing countries, least developed countries or the Global South. The concept itself has become outdated as it no longer represents the current political or economic state of the world.
Büsingen am Hochrhein , "Buesingen on the High Rhine" commonly known as Büsingen, is a German municipality (7.62 square kilometres (2.94 sq mi)) in the south of Baden-Württemberg and an exclave entirely surrounded by territory belonging to Switzerland. It has a population of about 1,450 inhabitants. Since the early 19th century, the village has been separated from the rest of Germany by a narrow strip of land (at its narrowest, about 680 metres (2,230 ft) wide) containing the Swiss village of Dörflingen.
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Politically Büsingen is part of Germany, forming part of the district of Konstanz, but economically it forms part of the Swiss customs union, along with the principality of Liechtenstein and up until 2019, albeit unofficially, the Italian village of Campione d'Italia. As such there have been no border controls between Switzerland and Büsingen since 4 October 1967.
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Büsingen is a holiday destination for much of the year and attracts a significant number of visitors from around the region as well as from further afield, for its recreational areas along the Rhine and proximity to the Rheinfall waterfalls in nearby Neuhausen am Rheinfall. Many dwellings in Büsingen are holiday flats which are accompanied by a number of small guest houses
And you can still see the border from space due to different street lights
Because last time they messed with the West Coast it didn't end that well... (sorry, couldn't resist a history joke with that caption)
germans paid for the whole speedometer, they're going to use the whole speedometer
This is like the 5th country compared to europe. We get it, we're not the biggest continent on earth
[In a French accent] No surprise zere, we are quite into getting laid ! We can get laid on any country, try us !!
The severn always seemed to be the river equivalent of dads hearing that petrol was three pence cheeper an hour away.
i hate looking at this. we have no right being that big.
The Netherlands and Belgium : Sinterklaas, 5 or 6 december depending on the country. You know, the guy the states used to copy/paste and update a bit into Coca-Cola ads...
Is this supposed to show the most popular or what's available?
Not sure what this is trying to show? individual people in these States generate as much economic activity as individual people in other countries??? And what do the colours mean???
Some of these are quite interesting, but the lack of proper explanations makes some of them useless.
To compare any country’s size, go to www.thetruesize.com e.g. https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTY2ODY1OTI.OTAxMTAzNg*MjYzMzYzNTg(NzM1MTk4Mw~!AU*MTQ0NjMxNTU.MTMxMzkxMTQ)Mw
Some of these are quite interesting, but the lack of proper explanations makes some of them useless.
To compare any country’s size, go to www.thetruesize.com e.g. https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTY2ODY1OTI.OTAxMTAzNg*MjYzMzYzNTg(NzM1MTk4Mw~!AU*MTQ0NjMxNTU.MTMxMzkxMTQ)Mw
