How well do you actually know the world? Not the tourist highlights, the real geography.
Most people are confident about capitals and country sizes. Most people are wrong about at least a few. This quiz finds out which ones.
Pick your level
Geography is humbling. Most people feel confident about the world's capitals, the largest countries or the longest rivers, until a specific question reminds them otherwise. The gap between what we think we know and what we actually know is where this quiz lives.
The normal quiz sticks to the classics that still catch people out: capitals that are not the biggest city, the smallest state on Earth, the running argument over the longest river. Hard mode is for people who read atlases for fun. It covers odd borders, countries with more than one capital, the deepest and the largest of things, and a few places most people could not point to. Five out of ten is a good score.
Many geography mistakes come from the maps themselves. The Mercator projection, the one on most classroom walls, stretches land the further it is from the equator, so Greenland looks roughly the size of Africa when Africa is about fourteen times bigger.
Population rankings shift from year to year, and even the length of a river depends on where you decide its source is. Questions on rankings give their date, and the explanations flag the debates where they exist, like the Nile against the Amazon.
All ten easy level questions, with the answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Paris
Paris, on the River Seine. Brussels is in Belgium, which it will thank you for remembering.
Correct answer: Berlin
Berlin, which took the role back from Bonn after reunification.
Correct answer: South America
South America, and it covers almost half of the continent.
Correct answer: The Himalayas
The Himalayas, which, together with the Karakoram, hold all fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres.
Correct answer: The Thames
The Thames, which reaches the North Sea through a wide estuary.
Correct answer: Australia
Australia, often grouped with its neighbours under the name Oceania.
Correct answer: The Sahara
The Sahara, which stretches across much of North Africa.
Correct answer: Alaska
Alaska, more than twice the size of Texas.
Correct answer: Cairo
Cairo, on the Nile, just across the river from the Giza pyramids.
Correct answer: The Equator
The Equator. The Prime Meridian runs north to south instead, through Greenwich.
Want to warm up before playing or double-check something? Open any question to reveal the correct answer and a short explanation.
Correct answer: Canberra
Canberra is Australia's capital, chosen in 1908 as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne, which were both competing for the status of national capital.
Correct answer: Russia
Russia is the world's largest country, covering 17.1 million km². It accounts for about 11% of the total land area on Earth.
Correct answer: India
India, which overtook China in spring 2023 according to United Nations estimates, with more than 1.4 billion people. China's population has started to shrink.
Correct answer: Ottawa
Ottawa, chosen in 1857, has been Canada's capital since 1866. Many people mistakenly assume Toronto, the largest city, is the federal capital.
Correct answer: Vatican City
Vatican City covers just 0.44 km² in the heart of Rome. It is the world's smallest sovereign state, both in area and population.
Correct answer: 27
Twenty-seven. The UK had joined in 1973 and officially left on 31 January 2020. Croatia, which joined in 2013, is still the most recent country to become a member.
Correct answer: Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean separates Europe from the Americas. It is the second largest ocean in the world, after the Pacific.
Correct answer: Nepal and China
Nepal and China, with the northern side in Tibet. The summit, at 8,849 metres, sits right on the border. The busiest route to the top starts on the Nepali side.
Correct answer: The Nile
The Nile is generally recognised as the world's longest river at around 6,650 km. Some recent studies suggest the Amazon may be slightly longer depending on the measurement method used.
Correct answer: Antarctica
Antarctica is the only continent with no sovereign state or permanent human population. It is governed by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which designates it as a zone of peace and scientific research.
Stuck on one, or just curious how nasty it gets? Every hard mode question is here with its answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Bratislava
Bratislava, the Slovak capital, which touches both Austria and Hungary. Vienna is only about 55 kilometres away, making them the two closest capitals in Europe apart from Rome and Vatican City.
Correct answer: The Bering Strait
The Bering Strait, about 82 kilometres wide at its narrowest. In the middle sit the two Diomede Islands, one Russian and one American, less than 4 kilometres apart but on opposite sides of the International Date Line.
Correct answer: Greenland
Greenland, at over two million square kilometres, most of it under an ice sheet. It is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. New Guinea comes second and Borneo third.
Correct answer: Canada
Canada, with more than 200,000 kilometres of coast once all its Arctic islands are counted. Coastline figures depend heavily on how finely you measure, but Canada comes out on top in every major estimate.
Correct answer: Astana
Astana, which replaced Almaty as capital in 1997. It was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 after the country's first president, then went back to Astana in 2022. Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and Bishkek of Kyrgyzstan.
Correct answer: The Mariana Trench
The Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific, at around 10,900 metres. If Everest were dropped into it, its summit would still be more than two kilometres under water.
Correct answer: 54
Fifty-four. The newest is South Sudan, independent since 2011. Western Sahara, whose status is disputed, is not a UN member.
Correct answer: South Africa
South Africa: Pretoria for the government, Cape Town for Parliament and Bloemfontein for the judiciary. Bolivia and Malaysia split their capital functions between two cities, and the Netherlands keeps its capital in Amsterdam and its government in The Hague.
Correct answer: San Marino
San Marino, which claims to be the oldest surviving republic in the world, traditionally founded in 301 AD. Monaco borders France, Andorra sits between France and Spain, and Liechtenstein between Switzerland and Austria.
Correct answer: Africa
Africa. Asia and South America miss the Greenwich meridian, and Europe misses the Equator. The two lines meet in the Gulf of Guinea, off the African coast, at a spot nicknamed Null Island.