World Landmarks Flashcards
Warm current that flows into North Atlantic
Mentioned in “The Old Man & the Sea” & Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”
GULF STREAM
Arm of the Mediterranean
Between Greece & Turkey
Named for Theseus’ father
AEGEAN SEA
Gulf off the Ionian Sea
Between Italy’s heel & sole
GULF OF TARANTO
Flows through Dublin
Crossed by the Ha’Penny bridge
RIVER LIFFEY
Longest river in Ireland & the British Isles
From Cuilcagh mountains to Limerick on the west coast
RIVER SHANNON
Bay on which Philippines’ capital is located
MANILA BAY
Gulf on the Adriatic
Shares name with Italian city within it
GULF OF VENICE
Croatia’s Adriatic coast
Includes Split & Dubrovnik
Named a dog, dead language, pelican, & molly (fish)
DALMATIA(N)
Between Taiwan & the island with which it shares a name
LUZON STRAIT
Between Italy & Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia again, Montenegro, & Albania)
Named for Italian port
Brindisi, Venice, Po River, Dalmatia, & Split are located on it
One end of the Iron Curtain (Trieste)
A kind of fig
ADRIATIC SEA
(from ADRIA)
Between Italy & Albania
Between Adriatic & Ionian
STRAIT OF OTRANTO
Greek island chain in the Aegean including Paros
“Encircle” Delos
CYCLADES
Greek island
Apollo’s birthplace
DELOS
One of the Cyclades
An armless statue of Venus was found there
MELOS
(Venus de Milo)
Largest of the Cyclades
Where Theseus abandoned Ariadne
NAXOS
One of the Cyclades
Gay-friendly, tourism-focused
MYKONOS
Island in the Agean
Named for Daedalus’ son
IKARIA
Largest island of the Philippines
Location of:
Manila & Manila Bay
Quezon City
Bataan Peninsula
Mount Pinatubo
LUZON
Largest & most populous of Greek islands (5th largest in Mediterranean)
Ruled by Minos from palace at Knossos
Southern bound of the Aegean Sea
Heraklion is its capital & largest city
Birthplace of El Greco (painter) & N. Kazantzakis (writer)
CRETE
Chain of 12 Greek islands in the Aegean
Rhodes is the largest
DODECANESE ISLANDS
Aegean island on which a headless statue was found
Called the “Nike of…” or “Winged Victory of…” this island (it is now at the Louvre)
SAMOTHRACE
Volcanic Aegean island in the Cyclades
Name of a Yanni song
SANTORINI
Northernmost of Greece’s Ionian Islands
Birthplace of Philip
CORFU
Capital served by Schiphol Airport
AMSTERDAM (AMS)
Capital served by Haneda (older) & Narita (newer) airports
TOKYO
Tokyo, Japan’s newer of 2 busiest airports
NARITA
Volcano on Luzon in the Philippines
Erupted in 1991
MOUNT PINATUBO
Highest Alp
Between France & Italy
Near Chamonix
Tunnel through it opened 1965
Name of a pen company & a Shelley poem
MONT BLANC
“Monte Cervino” in Italian
Between Switzerland & Italy
Near Zermatt
In 1865, Whymper’s expedition scaled it but lost 4/7 members
Subject of fascination for Disney, replicated at Disneyland
MATTERHORN
Monte Rosa is one of the highest peaks in this range
THE ALPS
Volcano near Mexico City
Aztec name, means “Smoking”
POPOCATEPETL
Volcanic island in Indonesia’s Sunda Straight
1883 eruption was one of the biggest in human history
KRAKATOA
KRAKATAU
Southernmost active volcano
Antarctica
Discovered by James Clark Ross, sits on Ross Island
Named for a ship
Name means “darkness”
In 1979 a plane crashed into it
MOUNT EREBUS
Volcano
“Mongibello” in Sicilian
Mythic site of Hephaestus’ (or Vulcan’s) forge
MOUNT ETNA
Volcano near Naples, Italy
Lies within “Monte Somma”
Camped upon by Spartacus
Erupted in 79 CE, destroying Pompeii & Herculaneum
Killed Pliny the Elder; the Younger described the event in letters
A 1906 eruption caused the 1908 Olympics to be moved from Rome to London
Last eruption was 1944
MOUNT VESUVIUS
Chinese desert
On Gobi’s western side
TAKLAMAKAN
Desert region of southern Israel
Irrigated by the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias)
Location of Beersheba & Ben-Gurion University
NEGEV
Budapest, Hungary has an airport named for this musician
FRANZ LISZT
Cotopaxi is a volcano in this country
ECUADOR
Volcano/island north of Sicily
Where the heroes emerge in Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
Also a rolled pizza dish & villain in Disney’s Pinocchio (1940)
STROMBOLI
Alberta national park just north of Banff
Name is like a gem
JASPER
Yemen island famed for its Dragon’s blood trees
SOCOTRA
Antarctica’s longest river
Named like a mineral
ONYX RIVER
Italy’s longest river
Flows from Alps in northern Italy to the Adriatic Sea
Turin is on it
Byron wrote “stanzas to” it
PO
River of Myanmar/Burma
Flows into Bay of Bengal
IRRAWADDY
Subject of Johann Struass’ “Tales from the…”
Forest in Austria
WIENERWALD
VIENNA WOODS
Sea bounded by Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, & Corsica(France)
Tiber river flows into it
TYRRHENIAN SEA
Between Sicily & Italy
From Ionian to Tyrrhenian seas
Site of Scylla & Charybdis
STRAIT OF MESSINA
Between Italy & Greece
Adriatic to the North
Deepest part of Mediterranean
Supposedly named for a 2-letter nymp
IONIAN SEA
(from IO)
Thai river
A famous “bridge” novel/film
KWAI
Greek islands to the west
Also called “Heptanese” (for the 7 main ones)
Include Corfu & Ithaca
IONIAN ISLANDS
Greek island in Aegean sea
Home of poet Sappho
LESBOS
Located in Batoka Gorge, between Zambia & Zimbabwe on the Zambezi River
Named by Livingstone in 1855
Known as “Smoke That Thunders”
VICTORIA FALLS
“Great River”
Rises in Zambia, dips into Angola, forms Zambia/Zimbabwe border
Africa’s 4th largest river
Includes Victoria Falls
Biggest river to flow into Indian Ocean (Mozambique Channel)
ZAMBEZI
Channel between Madagascar and the mainland
Part of the Indian Ocean
Zambezi River empties into it
Habitat for coelecanths
MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL
Gulf bordering Djibouti and Somalia
Leads from Arabian Sea to strait of Bab El Mandeb (to the Red Sea)
Shares name with Yemeni city
GULF OF ADEN
Bay bordering Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar
Where the Ganges flows into the Indian Ocean
Also the mouth of the Krishna & Brahmaputra
World’s largest “Bay”
BAY OF BENGAL
Bay between New Brunswick & Nova Scotia
Largest tide range in the world
Site of Campobello Island
BAY OF FUNDY
New Brunswick island in the Bay of Fundy
Connected to Maine via FDR Bridge
CAMPOBELLO ISLAND
Longest river entirely within Spain
2nd longest river of Iberian peninsula (after the Tagus)
Flows into Mediterranean
Etymology from “Iberus”
EBRO
Highest flow of any river on the Iberian peninsula
Flows from Spain through Portugal to the Atlantic at Porto
Located north of the Tagus
Also a valley that produces port wine
DOURO
France’s longest river
Flows west through Orleans, Tours, & Nantes into the Bay of Biscay
Also a valley with famed Chateaux
LOIRE
River flowing from Czechia through Germany to the North Sea
Goes through Hamburg & Dresden
Formed part of East/West border
ELBE
(LABE in Czech)
Longest Iberian river
Flows from Spain through Portgual to the Atlantic through Lisbon
Crossed by Da Gama Bridge
TAGUS
English river
Between Birkenhead and Liverpool
Ends in the Irish Sea
Home of a “beat”
Song “Ferry Cross” it
MERSEY
B.C.’s Fraser River is known for producing this fish
SALMON
Rises in Spanish Pyrenees
Flows through Toulouse & Bordeaux
Ends in Bay of Biscay
GARONNE
Chang Jiang, “Long River”
China’s longest
3rd longest in world
Rises in Tibet
Tributaries Wu and Xiang
Three Gorges Dam
Meets Han at Wuhan
Flows into East China Sea at Shanghai
Alligators
YANGTZE
Flows from Tibet to India to Bangladesh before meeting the Ganges
BRAHMAPUTRA
Subject of Hillary’s “Ocean to Sky” expedition
Setting of Jean Renoir’s 1951 film “The River”
Site for Jerry Garcia’s ashes (along with Golden Gate Bridge)
GANGES
Padma in Bangladesh
Rises in Himalayas, flows to Bay of Bengal
Cities include Patna & Allahabad
Personified as Ganga, daughter of Himavat
GANGES
Water rights shared between India & Bangladesh
Largest river delta in the world
Brahmaputra, Jumna, & Hooghly join it
GANGES
Bay in the Atlantic between France & Spain
Aka Gascony/Gascogne
Mouth of Loire & Garonne rivers
Bordeaux, Bayonne, Biarritz, & Bilbao are on it
Basque country
BAY OF BISCAY
Dutch waterway
Joins with IJ at Amsterdam
Also a beer
AMSTEL
Strait between Queensland and New Guinea
TORRES STRAIT
Japanese bay on Honshu
Home to Kobe, and shares name with one of Japan’s largest cities
OSAKA BAY
Plaza in Cairo
Arabic, “Liberation”
aka “Martyr Square”
Heart of anti-Mubarak protests in 2011
Subject of 2013 documentary “The Square”
TAHRIR SQUARE
Northern Ireland formation
Coastal basalt columns
Big guy’s legendary bridge
GIANT’S CAUSEWAY
Lake in Banff, Alberta
Named for daughter of Queen Victoria
“Emerald” green glacial lake
LAKE LOUISE
River in Tuscany
Crossed by Florence’s Ponte Vecchio (“Old Bridge”)
Flooded in 1966, harming much art
Flows into Ligurian Sea near Pisa
Mentioned in “A Room With a View”
ARNO RIVER
Museum and gallery in Florence
Built as an office
UFFIZI
Desert of northern Chile (“Norte Grande”)
Between Pacific Ocean & Andes Mountains
One of the driest in the world
Mining area, especially copper
ATACAMA
From Arabic, “desert”
World’s biggest at about 3.3 million square miles, 3500 miles across
Between Maghreb to the north and Sahel to the south
Home of the Tuareg people and Fennec foxes
SAHARA
Desert on a peninsula
Includes the Empty Quarter, Rub Al-Khali
ARABIAN DESERT
The Arabian Desert’s “Rub Al-Khali” is known as this
THE EMPTY QUARTER
Fossil-rich mountains of France & Switzerland
Namesake of geologic period
JURA
Mountain in the Caucasus
Highest in Russia & highest in Europe
MT. ELBRUS
White marble campanile (freestanding bell tower)
Construction began in 1174
In 1990s, restoration brought it back to 3.97 degrees off the vertical
Site of some experiments by Galileo
LEANING TOWER OF PISA
TORRE PENDENTE DE PISA
Italy’s 3rd longest river
Flows through Tuscany & Umbria, with its mouth at Ostia (Tyrrhenian Sea)
Romulus & Remus set adrift on it
In 6th century BCE Horatius destroyed its Pons Sublicius to prevent Etruscan invasion
TIBER RIVER
River of Rome
Vatican is on its west bank
Ponte Sant’angelo and Castel Sant’angelo, built by Hadrian in 2nd century, overlook it
TIBER RIVER
Tower in Milan, Italy named for a tire company
PIRELLI TOWER
Highest mountain in Turkey
Extinct volcano
National symbol for Armenia
Supposed site of Noah’s Ark landing
ARARAT
Overlooks Cape Town, South Africa
Sometimes covered in a cloudy “cloth”
TABLE MOUNTAIN
Connects Pakistan to Afghanistan near Kabul and the Peshawar Valley
Strategically important gap in the Spin Ghar mountains
KHYBER PASS
National Park & resort in Alberta
Canada’s 1st national park, 1887 (originally called “Rocky Mountains”)
North of Jasper
Site of Lake Louise & Bow Lake
BANFF
Peninsula of Denmark (makes up ~70% of its non-Greenland land)
Borders Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein
Site of a 1916 WWI battle
Also a horse breed
JUTLAND
Greek mountain
Delphi is on its slope
MOUNT PARNASSUS
Paris hill where St. Denis was beheaded
Known for its mills, especially Moulin Rouge
Toulouse-Lautrec & Utrillo worked there
Site of the Sacre-Coeur basilica
MONTMARTRE
Basilica overlooking Montmartre, Paris
SACRE-COEUR
Arm of the Mediterranean
Mediterranean on the southwest, Tyrrhenian on the southeast
Touches Italian Riviera, Corsica, and a small bit of France
Genoa is on it
LIGURIAN SEA
One end of the Champs-Elysees
Paris’s largest square
Where Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, & Robespierre were beheaded - also called “Place de la Revolution”
Site of Obelisk of Luxor
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE
Mountain east of, and overlooking, Jerusalem
Associated with the life of Jesus
Gethsemane is at its foot
Supposedly where Jesus ascended
Important Jewish cemetery - location of M. Begin’s grave
MOUNT OF OLIVES
Israel’s unicameral legislature
Includes art by Marc Chagall
KNESSET
Atlantic coastal desert that gives its name to a country
Also extends into parts of Angola & South Africa, touches the Kalahari
Includes a section called the “Skeleton Coast”
NAMIB
Desert savanna of Botswana, Namibia, & South Africa
Name from Tswana, “Waterless place” or “Great thirst”
Africa’s 2nd-largest desert
Crossed by the Dorsland Trek (1870s)
Home to the San (also called Bushmen) and to meerkats
KALAHARI
Australia’s largest desert, located in the south
Named for a queen
GREAT VICTORIA DESERT
Australian desert between the Great Victoria & Great Sandy
Named for a man who got lost and died there in 1874
GIBSON DESERT
Australian desert in the northwest
Includes parts of Canning Basin
Apt name
GREAT SANDY DESERT
Mongolian for “desert”
500,000 square miles
Located in the rain shadow of the Himalayas between Inner Mongolia (China) and Mongolia
Home to Bactrian camels
GOBI DESERT
Africa’s tallest mountain (>20,000 ft.)
Located in Tanzania, near Kenyan border & the equator
Composed of 3 volcanoes, 2 extinct (Mawenzi & Shira) & 1 dormant (Kibo)
Highest peak is Uhuru on Kibo, formerly called “Wilhelm-Spitze”
Scaled by Marangu Route
“Snows of “ it are mentioned in a Hemingway short story title
KILIMANJARO
2nd tallest mountain in Africa
Shares name with its country
MOUNT KENYA
Afghanistan’s longest river
Also a province west of Kandahar
HELMAND
Cave complex in Afghanistan’s Spin Ghar mountains
Site of a 201 siege by U.S. against Al-Qaeda & Osama bin Laden
Rhymes
TORA BORA
Plateau near Sea of Galilee
Previously part of Syria
Occupied by Israel in Six Day War (1967) and annexed in 1981
GOLAN HEIGHTS
Japan’s largest lake
Located on Honshu
Pearl growing area
LAKE BIWA
Alpine range in Italy
Named for a mineral of limestone & magnesium
DOLOMITES
“Backbone of Italy”
Highest is Corno Grande
Mountains of Umbria & San Marino
APPENINES
Second highest mountain in the world (>28,000 ft.)
Located in Kashmir, Pakistan
Named for its range (Karakoram)
Also known as “Godwin-Austen” or “Dapsang”
K2
Mountain range between Pakistan & China
Location of K2
Its “highway” is the highest international highway in the world
KARAKORAM
Australia’s highest point
Located in the Snowy Mountains of the Australian Alps
Named for Polish hero of the American Revolution
MOUNT KOSCIUSKO
Antarctica’s highest point (~16,000 ft.)
Overlooks Ronne Shelf
Named for Georgia congressman
VINSON MASSIF
Name of a Scottish river (and a firth and a dale)
Runs through Glasgow
Source of a horse breed
RIVER CLYDE
Vatican City building
Begun 300s
1506 Pope Julius II lays new cornerstone
Rebuilt by Bramante, Bernini, Michelangelo (Pieta)
Capacity ~60,000
ST. PETER’S BASILICA
Venice building
Previously Doge’s chapel
Named for gospel writer whose remains it supposedly contains
ST. MARK’S BASILICA
Canadian river
Runs from Labrador to the Atlantic
Previously called “Hamilton River”
Named for a British P.M.
CHURCHILL RIVER
Canadian river
Runs from prairies into Hudson Bay
Named for a governor of Hudson’s Bay Company
CHURCHILL RIVER
Strait between Baffin Island & Quebec mainland
HUDSON STRAIT
Bay off of Hudson
Named for explorer Thomas
JAMES BAY
