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Fact
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Country
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The northernmost penguins in the world are found here
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Ecuador
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The singer Rodriguez became extremely popular here in the 1970s, but was unaware of his fame until the late 1990s.
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South Africa
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The people of this nation, which occupies one of the largest islands on Earth, descend from emigrants from an even larger island some 5,000 miles away
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Madagascar
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A federation of the states of Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk and Yap
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Federated States of Micronesia
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King Sobhuza II ruled it for 82 years, 254 days - the longest verified reign of any monarch
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Eswatini
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Its president held a cabinet meeting underwater in 2009, to highlight the threat the nation faces from rising sea levels
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Maldives
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Known as the Graveyard of Empires
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Afghanistan
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Australia and New Zealand commemorate their war dead on the anniversary of a landing in this country
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Turkey
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A failed attempt by Scotland to colonise this country caused financial ruin and hastened its union with England
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Panama
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This island nation lies 350 miles west of the geographical feature that it is named after
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Cape Verde
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Administered as two largely separate entities, neither of which corresponds to the two regions in the country's name
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Has been a republic for more than 1700 years
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San Marino
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Erta Ale volcano in its Afar Region has had an active lava lake for more than 100 years
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Ethiopia
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Slavery was officially abolished here in 1981, though not actually made illegal until 2007
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Mauritania
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By convention, its President is a Christian, its Prime Minister is a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the parliament, a Shi'a Muslim
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Lebanon
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A Kalashnikov rifle appears on its flag
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Mozambique
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In 1889, Russia established a colony which they called New Moscow in what is now this country, but the would-be settlers were routed by French forces a month later
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Djibouti
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Shares its etymology with a district of West London which has several canals
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Venezuela
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If you meet someone from its largest region, you might expect them to be artistic, unconventional and free-spirited
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Czech Republic
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The village of Ytterby, namesake of four chemical elements, is in this country
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Sweden
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Its name derives from the ancient Greek name for the Red Sea
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Eritrea
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The most recent amendment to its constitution was ratified in 1992, 202 years after it was proposed
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United States
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Has the only flag in the world that has no red, white or blue on it
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Jamaica
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Has one skyscraper, which gives it the second-highest number of skyscrapers per capita of any nation
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Monaco
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Suffered a major eruption of La Soufriere volcano in April 2021
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Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
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A cult on one of the islands of this archipelagic nation worships Prince Philip
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Vanuatu
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Ruled between 1967 and 2023 by a family whose surname is almost an anagram of the country's name
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Gabon
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Known as Bharat to its own inhabitants
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India
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Home to more elephants than any other nation
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Botswana
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Inexplicably gives its name to a species of rodent native to the Andes
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Guinea
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80% of this island nation is uninhabitable due to ecologically devastating phosphate mining
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Nauru
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Introduced online voting in 2005
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Estonia
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Formerly ruled by an extremely paranoid dictatorship, nearly 180,000 military bunkers dot its landscape
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Albania
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In 1978 when this country won the Eurovision Song Contest, Jordanian television cut the broadcast and later announced that Belgium had won
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Israel
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All public transport in this country is free
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Luxembourg
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Named after a type of tree which strangely does not produce any nuts
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Brazil
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Lies 1200km further south than any other member state of the Arab League
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Comoros
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Its language was written in Arabic script until 1928, then Latin script until 1939, and then Cyrillic script since then
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Tajikistan
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The film Zoolander depicted a plot to assassinate a fictional Prime Minister of this country, and was banned here as a result
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Malaysia
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Winners of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012 but have never yet qualified for the FIFA World Cup
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Zambia
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Leased a large area of forest to the Peoples Temple cult, which massacred 900 of its members in 1978
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Guyana
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Its name is 90 per cent consonants
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Kyrgyzstan
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The king of this country has been known to go about in disguise, revealing his identity when he encounters poor customer service
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Jordan
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Founded by freed former slaves from the United States
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Liberia
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Four successive presidents resigned over just two weeks during a financial crisis in 2001
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Argentina
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Its English name comes from the Venetian language. In its own language, it is called Crna Gora
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Montenegro
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Half of the 23 million people of this country are less than 15 years old
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Niger
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The least-visited country in the world in 2018 with 2,700 international arrivals - an average of 7.3 per day
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Tuvalu
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The first of the three territories that have left the European Union, doing so in 1962
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Algeria
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In their first ever FIFA World Cup game in 2002, they beat the defending champions 1-0
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Senegal
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The first recorded speculative bubble took place here, inflating the price of tulips to absurd levels
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Netherlands
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Part of this country, on the east bank of the Dniestr river, is a de facto independent nation but has no international recognition
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Moldova
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Visiting for up to six months requires no visa, unless you are from a nearby country which has its first eight letters in common with this one
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Dominica
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The world's largest producer of cocoa beans
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Ivory Coast
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The oldest living land animal is a giant tortoise nearly 200 years old, originally from this country and now resident on Saint Helena
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Seychelles
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The third-biggest consumer of Guinness, after the UK and Ireland
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Nigeria
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Very frequently confused with a similarly-named country to its south
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Slovakia
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Its waters became notorious for ship hijackings in the early 2010s
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Somalia
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Its royal family has about 15,000 members
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Saudi Arabia
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Has 60% of the world's lakes
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Canada
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Reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup, with the help of a talismanic striker who, at the age of 38, scored four goals
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Cameroon
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The last major landmass to be discovered and settled, some time in the 1300s.
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New Zealand
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Very long surnames are common here because by law, each surname is unique to one family
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Thailand
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About a quarter of the population of this country live in traditional tents.
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Mongolia
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Ironically, ranked second to last in the 2020 Democracy Index
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Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Its Skeleton Coast has seen hundreds of ships wrecked
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Namibia
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Fought a war with its southern neighbour in 1969 after losing to them in a World Cup qualifying game
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Honduras
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The steel drum, now widely used in the music of the region, was invented here
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Trinidad and Tobago
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A monarchy since becoming an independent nation, it became a republic in November 2021
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Barbados
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Despite spanning more than 60 degrees of longitude, the country uses a single time zone
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China
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Shares its name with the fourth-largest city in its neighbouring country to the east.
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Benin
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Since it became independent in 1974, only one president of this country has served a full five-year term
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Guinea-Bissau
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The equator does not actually cross its land territory
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Equatorial Guinea
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Its people are so known for their stylish neckwear that the cravat derives its name from the country
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Croatia
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Its lowest ever recorded temperature is 19C
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Singapore
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The largest landlocked country in the world
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Kazakhstan
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Holds the record for the longest post-election failure to form a government at 541 days
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Belgium
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Home to 6,600 Akhal-Teke horses, renowned for their speed, endurance, and gold-coloured coats
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Turkmenistan
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Its territory extends over two continents, three oceans and 12 different time zones
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France
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A six-metre high statue of Frank Zappa can be found in its capital.
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Lithuania
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The largest religious structure in the world by land area is its biggest tourist attraction, and is also represented on its flag
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Cambodia
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A young Che Guevara witnessed the 1954 CIA-backed coup in this country
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Guatemala
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The most generically-named of all countries
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Central African Republic
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Borders five countries, all of which end with the same four letters as it does
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Uzbekistan
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The current president is a comedian who played the president in a satirical television programme
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Ukraine
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The television program that has been repeated the most times in this country is a 1962 British comedy sketch that is virtually unknown in the United Kingdom
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Germany
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Has the highest lowest point of any country at 1400m above sea level
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Lesotho
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The only nation to successfully land a probe on Venus
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Russia
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In its last military engagement in 1866, 80 men left and 81 came back, having experienced no actual fighting but making a friend on their way.
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Liechtenstein
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The alcoholic drink Pisco might have been invented in this country, although its neighbour to the south very strongly disputes that
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Peru
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This landlocked nation operates a navy on the world's 12th-longest river
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Laos
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The capital of one of its eight regions is a metaphor for the mysterious and remote.
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Mali
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Invented democracy
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Greece
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If somebody comes from this country, there is a 40% chance that their surname is Nguyen
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Vietnam
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More than three-quarters of the population is male
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Qatar
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The Queen of the United Kingdom's representative sacked the Prime Minister of this country in 1975
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Australia
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Its capital was to be the title of a sequel to "Casablanca"
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Republic of the Congo
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Named after a biblical king
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Solomon Islands
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1. The fact about Czechia is subjective, could apply to other countries and you could definitely find a better one
2. You cannot reasonably say "Kyrgyzstan" is 90 per cent consonants. The "y" in this word is not used to make the consonant sound like in "yellow", but an "i" like in "bit" sound, therefore it's a vowel. I know english considers y a consonant, but in this case, it isn't.
3. I'd say South Africa is equally as generically named as CAR, but that's also subjective
1. As worded, it sounds a bit subjective, but it's essentially giving you a definition of the word "Bohemian". I'm going to adjust the question though.
2. I completely agree that "y" is, linguistically speaking, a vowel in Kyrgyzstan. But in common parlance it isn't. I'm going to leave that one for the moment.
3. Yeah, when I was reading the questions again the other day I thought that was a possibility. But I decided that "Republic" is definitely more generic a noun than "Africa"!
I thought it was very nicely formulated :)
"Commonly confused with its south-/north-ern neighbor*". Commonly confused by whom? And depending on that answer, anything from North/South Korea to the Congos to Zambia/Zimbabwe to even like Canada/USA could be a plausible answer. *I realize that the clue does not actually use the word neighbor, but that is what I took it to mean, and not restricting it to neighbors actually only creates more plausible answers. Definitely my least favorite questions.
I would also consider whether South Africa is less generically named than the answer there. (Tied?)
Could use *slightly* fewer football questions. 2 or 3 seems like enough.
Seconded on the Kyrgyzstan issue. The clue is very easy to guess but feels a bit off.
And the other question I strongly disliked was about New York. While not technically wrong, the spirit of the question implies several untruths. The island of Run is as least as important, and it is not like the city couldn't have been built elsewhere.
Great job mixing difficulties on the questions. Some of these seemed obvious, some I knew instantly and felt good about knowing, some I could work out or use elimination, some I had absolutely 0 idea what they were talking about.
"Administered as two separate entities", New Moscow, "Inexplicably gives its name", "Until 1997, it's name included a cardinal direction", Skeleton Coast, Oriental Republic, Crna Gora, Five and half-fourth, Namesake lake, Canaan Banana, The Guardian misspellings, O'Higgins streets, all were clues I really loved. Keep them.
I also liked the -shvili clue, although you wrote "descendents" when you meant "ancestors".
Was worried about how you could reliably calculate "least-visited", but the answer was one of my top 4 guesses, so that helped. Just keep in mind that in any single given year, some countries (often) have effectively 0 visitors, so it's more of a long-term thing. But this answer certainly works.
Also sticking to my guns on South Africa. If it was called "South African Country" then it would win, but "Republic" is a more generic word than "Africa".
I have three questions about football plus one that mentions it. I'm afraid I like combined football/geography trivia too much to remove any of them.
I never expected Kyrgyzstan to be the most controversial question. The opinions are split 2v2. Next comment decides!
Fixed the blunder in the "-shvili" question - thanks for pointing that out!
Oh and the least visited country is according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization 2018 report.
Thanks again for the comments!
The problem about those Tourism data is that they often simply don't collect data for the countries that have the lowest numbers. Libya, for example, has been nearly un-visitable since the civil war began, but it's very likely just a null data point. Of course, in the more long term, Libya is not going to stay anywhere near the bottom once peace is eventually restored, so I'm not too worried about that. Nauru is the one that concerns me, as its annual tourism is stated to be around 200, but it is also often left off of those lists as well.
Anyway, it's your quiz, but those ones are ones I would definitely consider changing. Thanks for the reply!
Great quiz, taught me new bits of trivia, nominated.