|
Fact
|
Country
|
|
Three rivers after which other countries are named rise in its Fouta Djallon highlands
|
Guinea
|
|
Formerly an exclave of a country about a thousand miles distant, it became independent after a bloody civil war in 1971
|
Bangladesh
|
|
Colloquially referred to by its inhabitants as "The Hexagon"
|
France
|
|
Adopted bitcoin as legal tender a month before its value started to decline precipitously
|
El Salvador
|
|
Seceded from a larger country in 1991, without any of the bloodshed which affected the other seceding nations at the same time
|
North Macedonia
|
|
The second-largest Portuguese-speaking country by both population and area
|
Angola
|
|
Winners of the very first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956
|
Switzerland
|
|
The Bissagos archipelago supports a highly diverse ecosystem and was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1996
|
Guinea-Bissau
|
|
The island of Mustique, which cultivates an air of exclusivity and wealth, is part of this country
|
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
|
|
The official national sport is Pato, a horseback sport combining elements of polo and basketball
|
Argentina
|
|
Has a Levenshtein distance of 1 to a neighbouring country to the west
|
Iran
|
|
The Arab Spring began in this country in late 2010
|
Tunisia
|
|
The chemical elements magnesium and manganese are both named after an ancient region of this country
|
Greece
|
|
Named after two islands, themselves named after a religious concept and a cash crop
|
Trinidad and Tobago
|
|
The annual Exit Festival, hosted in the northern part of this country, is one of Europe's largest
|
Serbia
|
|
Its name comes from the Greek for "Red Sea"
|
Eritrea
|
|
Clocks at railway stations throughout this country show the time in the capital city, up to eight time zones away
|
Russia
|
|
Produces 25 million tonnes of mango annually, almost half the global total
|
India
|
|
Due to the seafaring skills of its inhabitants, the archipelago to which this nation belongs was known historically as the Navigator Islands
|
Samoa
|
|
The three-peaked Mount Triglav is considered an emblem of this country
|
Slovenia
|
|
Danish pastries were invented by bakers from this country
|
Austria
|
|
Over 800 known languages are spoken by its inhabitants.
|
Papua New Guinea
|
|
The government of this nation targets Gross Domestic Happiness over any purely economic metrics
|
Bhutan
|
|
Its two Nobel Prize winners, Derek Walcott and W. Arthur Lewis, give it the world's highest rate of Nobel winners per capita
|
Saint Lucia
|
|
In 2012, the capital city was rocked by a huge explosion caused when an arms depot caught fire
|
Republic of the Congo
|
|
Its 16-mile coastline makes it the most nearly landlocked nation in Asia
|
Jordan
|
|
The last country in Europe not to have universal suffrage, with women not being allowed to vote until 1984
|
Liechtenstein
|
|
The only country whose name includes a colour
|
Cape Verde
|
|
Even the vaguest criticism of this country's royal family is savagely punished, sometimes with jail sentences of decades
|
Thailand
|
|
Near-constant thunderstorms over the mouth of this country's Catatumbo River produce about 5,000 lightning strikes a day
|
Venezuela
|
|
This island nation is colloquially referred to as "Bim" by its inhabitants
|
Barbados
|
|
"Dundee United" is a slang term for an idiot in this country
|
Nigeria
|
|
The least densely populated country in the world
|
Mongolia
|
|
Medjool dates, known as the "fruit of kings", originated in this country
|
Morocco
|
|
Its capital lies on the island of Guadalcanal, which is named after a village in Spain and means "valley of stalls" in Arabic
|
Solomon Islands
|
|
A hurricane devasted its former capital in 1961, leading to the construction ten years later of a new inland capital
|
Belize
|
|
Has the most official languages of any country with 37
|
Bolivia
|
|
Lies entirely in the Southern Hemisphere, but its northernmost point is only about 2 kilometres south of the equator
|
Peru
|
|
Its former province of Kafiristan was the setting for Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King"
|
Afghanistan
|
|
The only African country named after a saint
|
Sao Tome and Principe
|
|
The smallest country in the western hemisphere by both area and population
|
Saint Kitts and Nevis
|
|
The only wild hippos outside Africa are found here
|
Colombia
|
|
Named after an animal product which was once an import export from the region
|
Ivory Coast
|
|
Dropped from largest to third-largest country in Africa in 2011
|
Sudan
|
|
Jogging was outlawed in 2014 because the paranoid president feared that people were having subversive discussions while running
|
Burundi
|
|
Remote and uninhabited Hans Island is divided between this country and Denmark
|
Canada
|
|
Its first-level subdivisions are called "Castles"
|
San Marino
|
|
Scores 34 points in Scrabble scoring, the highest of any single-word country
|
Mozambique
|
|
Its capital is the origin of the name of a large island about 1000 miles to the south
|
Somalia
|
|
Its national anthem, the Marcha Real, has no lyrics
|
Spain
|
|
Formerly divided into a Communist south and an Arab nationalist North, the country reunited in 1990
|
Yemen
|
|
The only country in the world with no official capital city
|
Nauru
|
|
Since 1941, this country has used gifts or loans of members of an iconic bear species to bolster diplomatic relations with other countries
|
China
|
|
The only Arabic-speaking country in the Southern Hemisphere
|
Comoros
|
|
Its capital was named Titograd from 1946 until 1992
|
Montenegro
|
|
The president from 2018 to 2024 was a former footballer who is the country's all time top goalscorer
|
Liberia
|
|
An unexplained seismic disturbance occurred in 1993 on land owned by a Japanese cult in this country's vast and remote west
|
Australia
|
|
There are not enough Cs in a set of English Scrabble letters to spell its name, although it would fit on the board
|
Czech Republic
|
|
Perhaps surprisingly, only one person from this country has ever started on pole position in a Formula One Grand Prix
|
Poland
|
|
Many nations have fought for their independence; this country's came involuntarily when it was expelled from a confederation in 1965
|
Singapore
|
|
Known to its own inhabitants as Hayastan
|
Armenia
|
|
Switzerland's army is composed of Swiss citizens, and this country's is as well
|
Vatican City
|
|
The so-called Singing Revolution, which led to the independence of three nations, began in this country in 1988
|
Estonia
|
|
Its national anthem mentions Poland, and the national anthem of Poland mentions this country
|
Italy
|
|
Despite football being the most popular sport in this country, its national football team has not played since 1965
|
United Kingdom
|
|
The Shkumbin River divides this country into two regions which speak different dialects of its language
|
Albania
|
|
A religion which worshipped the Emperor of Ethiopia emerged in this nation in the 1930s
|
Jamaica
|
|
Forced a Ryanair plane to land in its territory in 2021 to abduct a dissident who was flying from Greece to Lithuania
|
Belarus
|
|
Was uninhabited until the 1750s, and is named after the finance minister of France at the time of its settlement
|
Seychelles
|
|
In 2022, a massive volcanic eruption in this country generated the loudest sound ever recorded.
|
Tonga
|
|
Ironically, gambling or even entering a casino is illegal for its citizens
|
Monaco
|
|
This country, its capital, and the island it is on, all have different names but all start with the same letter
|
Brunei
|
|
The United Fruit Company was once the largest private landowner in this country, giving rise to the coining of the term "banana republic"
|
Guatemala
|
|
The largest living species of tortoise comes from this country
|
Ecuador
|
|
A province, a university, a newspaper and a baseball team in this country are named Granma, after a yacht which was named for its owner's grandmother
|
Cuba
|
|
Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain are among the lesser known of the seven constituent parts of this country
|
United Arab Emirates
|
|
Named after a British naval officer who, after sailing to Australia with the First Fleet, travelled to China charting unknown lands en route
|
Marshall Islands
|
|
Site of the first skyscraper to exceed 500m in height
|
Taiwan
|
|
A variant of Hindi is an official language in this country, a legacy of Indian labourers brought to the country when it was a colony of the British Empire
|
Fiji
|
|
Site of the largest volcanic eruption of the last 100 years
|
Philippines
|
|
The film "The Last King of Scotland" is loosely based on the chaotic dictatorship this country experienced in the 1970s
|
Uganda
|
|
The cities of León and Granada are historically fierce rivals, with the country's capital chosen for its compromise location between the two
|
Nicaragua
|
|
The majority of its territory lies on a large island, but the majority of its population lives in the mainland part of the country
|
Malaysia
|
|
By 2531, everyone in this country will have the surname "Sato", because by law, married couples must have the same surname
|
Japan
|
|
Its flag includes a cross which represents the George Cross awarded to the nation during WWII
|
Malta
|
|
Its capital sits at the confluence of the Alzette and Petrusse rivers
|
Luxembourg
|
|
From space, the east and west parts of its capital look distinctly different due to their different street lighting technologies
|
Germany
|
|
The site of the prototypical "Lessepsian migration", a phenomenon in which two previously entirely separate ecosystems are joined artificially
|
Egypt
|
|
This nation is the world's second largest exporter of nutmeg and features a nutmeg fruit on its flag
|
Grenada
|
|
Olympic legend Eric the Eel is from here
|
Equatorial Guinea
|
|
With the lowest average elevation of any country, rising sea levels are of grave concern here
|
Maldives
|
|
Two variants of its name are in use; which one you use is seen as a politicised choice
|
Myanmar
|
|
Covers the eastern half of the only island in the world on which two national capitals can be found
|
Dominican Republic
|
|
The first Warsaw Pact nation to open its border to the west in 1989
|
Hungary
|
|
The smallest of the eight countries which straddle the Prime Meridian
|
Togo
|
|
Palau and the Marshall Islands voted against membership of this federation in referendums when it was created in 1978
|
Federated States of Micronesia
|
|
The Darvaza gas crater has been burning since the 1980s in the middle of this country's Karakum Desert
|
Turkmenistan
|
|
Has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites of any country in the Americas
|
Mexico
|
