Content tagged with “geography”

“ There’s a unique architecture to keeping the South Pole research station running. ”

“ A photo gallery of ad hoc graves found in the American desert. ”

“ A settlement in Antarctica is so remote and isolated, that you can’t still have your appendix and live there because the nearest hospital is so hard to get to that a burst appendix will kill you. ”

“ This is German for ‘land in back of.’ It’s often used to refer to land inland from a coast, but is always used to generally mean ‘the area away from the center of something.’ ”

“This is a large, Gilded Age home in Ashville, North Carolina. It was built by the Vanderbilts in the early 1890s. It would technically be the largest private residence in the United States at 135,000 sq. ft., but it’s been a museum since the 1950s. It’s owned by a private company, open to the…”

“This is a vague term, and it’s not a single thing. You can speak of a continental divide, not the continental divide. In most contexts, it refers to a hydrological divide, which is a point where water flows to different oceans. This means that most continents will have a north-south divide and an…”

“ Prevailing winds and historical poor sanitation have caused the east side of cities to be generally less wealthy than the west sides. ”

“This is the extreme western region of France. It’s mostly a peninsula that extends into the Atlantic. The largest city in the region is Rennes, with about 750,000 in its metro area. (Interestingly, the two other large cities are named Vannes and Nantes, which points to some common etymology.)…”

“ Of the coast of Brazil is a small island which has evolved to become the home of one the most venomous snakes in the world. One bite will cause you to ‘die screaming,’ and there are thousands of them on the island, preying on migrating birds. ”

“ The word ‘detroit’ is French for ‘narrow strip of water’ or ‘strait.’ ”

“‘Kill’ is a borrowed word from Dutch. In that language it means ‘body of water’ or, more often, ‘creek.’ Thus, names like Fresh Kills, West Kill, Peeksill, Fishkill, usually refer to a nearby body of water. This usage is common in Upstate New York. Oddly, the Catskill Mountains might be a…”

“This is a French-controlled island in the Indian island, east of Madagascar. The French often call it ‘La Réunion.’ It was ‘settled’ by the French in the 17th century and used for sugarcane production, mostly through slave brought in from East Africa. Today, it still produces sugar and rum, but is…”

“Neither. Both the actor and the city were named (indirectly) for a medieval English hunting ground. The actor, who was born in 1943, is actually named Cornelius Chase. ‘Chevy’ is a childhood nickname. (Apparently, he was also indirectly named after the English land, not the city.) The city in…”

“This is a geographic ‘notch’ of Minnesota that pokes up into Canada. It contains the northernmost point in the contiguous United States. What’s unique about this place is that it mostly consists of the Lake of the Words in the southern portion, which cross the entire span, from east to west. At the…”

“ This is a chain of islands off the northwestern coast of Scotland. Not truly north, like the Shetland or Faroe Islands, but what is essentially the northern most part of the west coast of the island of Britain. The Hebrides are directly north of Ireland. ”

“ This is an abbreviation you hear in hip hop occasionally. It can stand for: ‘Long Beach, California’ ‘Long Beach City’ ‘Long Beach (and) Compton’ ‘Long Beach Crip’ (referring to a specific street gang) ”

“This comes from the Latin word barbarus meaning foreign. ‘Barbary’ referred to foreign lands (lands not of ones own). And ‘barbarian’ referred to the people who lived there. The northern coast of Africa was named ‘The Barbary Coast’ by English speakers after attacks from pirates based in Tripoli…”

“ Swiss mapmakers have an odd habit of hiding secret images in maps, for no particular reason. ”

“ A group of Wikipedia editors broke off, and the reasons why give an interesting look into how Wikipedia works, and how different people and subjects can come into conflict. ”

“ There are ‘bar codes’ printed on the ground in multiple places around the United States, used to calibrate spy satellites. ”

“ This is a province on the southern tip of Spain. The cities of Seville and Cordoba are located here. The region has a strong Muslim history, and is the location of The Great Mosque/Cathedral of Córdoba. ”

“ This is the British equivalent of ‘Main Street.’ It’s meant to refer to the central or most important road in a metro, or the retail shopping district. ”

“A mountain range in Italy. They’re named for the type of rock they’re formed of. Also known as The Southern Alps. The mountains are located at the Northern Edge of Italy, towards Austria. This is where you ski in Italy, apparently. Unbeknownst to me, the winter scenes of For Your Eyes Only – one of…”

“This is an informal geographic term – it seems to be slang or patois for ‘hollow,’ but some resources reject that and claim it has a definition all its own. It’s an Appalachian term for valley. The University of South Carolina defines it as: A small, sheltered valley that usually but not…”

“ This is a historic name for the island of Great Britain. It might come from the Latin word for ‘white,’ referring to the white cliffs of Dover. ”

“ It may stem from a Turkish word to describe an ancient ruling dynasty. Marco Polo used the word quite often when describing his travels. ”

“This is the southeastern coast of France, also called the French Rivera. The name translates to ‘Coast of Azure’ or ‘Coast of Blue,’ referring to the color of the Mediterranean. The French Riviera ends at the Italian border in the east, but where it starts in the west is up for debate. Some sources…”

“ Maps throughout history show how a 100-million year old coastline predicts voting demographics in modern-day Alabama. ”

“Two of them – Zeeland and New Zealand are absolutely related. But perhaps not Zealand. First, some definitions: Zeeland : a coastal province of The Netherlands Zealand : the largest island of Denmark, where Copenhagen is located New Zealand : an island nation in the South Pacific (and where I was…”

“There are technically eight islands…but not really. There are four islands with any notable population. Hawaii or ‘The Big Island’ is the largest physically, by far; all the other islands could fit inside of it, with lots of room to spare Maui is the next biggest, but it’s just 18% the size of the…”

“ Russia would absolutely love an independent Scotland, because its withdrawal from the NATO has a shockingly large impact on world security and the world’s economy. ”

“This is from the Greek ‘kataraktes,’ which means ‘downrush.’ Clearly, most people know ‘cataract’ from the disorder of the mammalian eye. So, how did that get named for a waterfall? Wikipedia has some theories : As rapidly running water turns white, so the term may have been used metaphorically to…”

“ A remote town in Alaska is only accessible via a single tunnel, and the entire population lives, learns, worships, and socializes in a single high-rise apartment building. ”

“In geometry, a ‘great circle’ is a flat plane that cuts through the middle of a sphere. Essentially, it becomes the longer line that was drawn around that sphere. In aviation navigation, a ‘great circle route’ is the shortest path between two points, and is achieved by finding the great circle that…”

“Like most countries in that region of the world, Taiwan is actually a chain of 168 islands. The biggest island – and the one most people think of when they think of ‘Taiwan’ – is called Formosa, and it comprises 99% of the total land area of the chain. The largest city, Taipei, is located here, as…”

“ An artist has finally revealed a massive sculpture he spent half a century working on. ”

“This is a pass through the Appalachian Mountains. It’s located at almost the exact point where Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia come together. It is depressed between 600 and 900 feet from the peaks on either side of it. It used to have a highway, but that was dangerous, so a tunnel under the…”

“ There’s actually a lot of information embedded an interstate highway’s number. ”

“ The title gets fact-checked, but is mostly true: the vast majority of the population of the world will experience sunlight at the same time during a 1-minute period every July 8. ”

“A series of mountain resorts in the Catskills of Upstate New York which catered largely to Jewish families. They were popular because they were within train distance from New York City at a time when air travel was new and expensive, and antisemitism was sill prevalent, which caused Jewish families…”

“Well, it’s not formally defined, really. A continent is a ‘large landmass’ on Earth, but opinions on the specifics vary. In the United States, we’re taught that there are seven continents, but not everyone agrees. In different places and different time periods, the count has changed. Many countries…”

“My first mistake here is that Harlem is not a full-fledged borough, it’s just a neighborhood in Manhattan. It’s the upper boundary of Manhattan, north of 110th Street, which is the top boundary of Central Park. It extends north to the Harlem river, which cuts diagonally from northwest to southeast….”

“This was an ancient city near the modern city of Tunis in the country of Tunisia on the northern coast of Africa. It lay directly across the Mediterranean from Italy, and was often at war with the Roman Empire. The African Muslim populated drove the Romans out of Africa when they laid siege to and…”

“ A journalist finds some strange circles on Google Maps. He goes down a research rabbit hole which culminates with adventurers driving out into the middle of nowhere, digging up dynamite, and bringing home sardine cans. ”

“It is just south of present-day Baghdad, Iraq, about 50 miles, along the banks of the Euphrates. It no longer exists as a major population center, but there are significant ruins of the ancient walled city remaining. Here it is on Google Maps. Babylon was no longer a ‘city’ by about the 900s – was…”

“Well, no one knows, really. What people agree on is that Memphis, Tennessee was named after Memphis, Egypt. The Egyptian Memphis is now just ruins, in the southern part of Cairo. It was long-abandoned in 1819, when the Tennessee city was founded. But, during it’s heydey in the millennia BC, it was…”

“Technically, this is an official census region of the United States. It stretches from the Dakotas in the west to Ohio in the east, and from the northern border down to Missouri’s southern tip. It’s these 12 states: Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Dakota Ohio…”

“‘Bohemia’ was an actual place – it was the western end of the current Czech Republic, though it’s not technically named this anymore. The word ‘Bohemian’ has come to refer to a carefree, counter-cultural, often traveling lifestyle. This usage comes from a French reference to the Romani people of…”

“When a country spreads beyond its immediate borders, the source or center of its power becomes the ‘metropole.’ London, for example, was the metropole of the British Empire. It’s from the word ‘metropolis,’ which is Greek for ‘mother city.’ Though, where metropolis has become generic to mean any…”

“This is the western coast of the Balkan Peninsula, against the Adriatic Sea. It’s dominated by Croatia spreading southward, with the exception of a tiny sliver of Bosnia poking through to the ocean. In addition to the mainland coast, there are hundreds of small islands. The name comes from the…”

“I didn’t like this. But what bothers me is that I don’t know why I didn’t like it . I am very interested in the subject matter. This should absolutely be a book I like. I have no idea why I couldn’t connect with it, but dreaded picking it up. It’s about a journalist who wanders around the Holy…”

“ This is Hebrew (and Arabic, perhaps) for ‘mound’ or ‘hill’ or ‘hill city.’ It can also be spelled ‘Tell.’ The most well-known one is ‘Tel Aviv’ which literally translates as ‘Spring Hill.’ It’s often used in archaeology to refer to ruins on a hill. ”

“This is probably just a coincidence. The U.S. State of Georgia is very clearly named for King George II. It became a colony in 1732 while he was in power. The country of Georgia is one of the former Soviet republics, located north of Armenia, between the Black and Caspian seas. Where it got its…”

“ Climate change has opened year-round shipping lanes along Russia’s northern coast. This will dramatically affect both Russia’s and the world’s economy and geopolitical balance. ”

“ This is a city in Spain. However, it was formerly the Islamic capital of Spain, and it was ruled by Muslims from the 700s to the 1200s. At one point, it was the largest Islamic city in the world. It’s still home to The Great Mosque of Cordoba. ”

“ The world’s shortest scheduled commercial flight lasts 1 minute, 20 seconds and flies at 350 feet. ”

“This is the Slavic name for a country subdivision – what other countries call a ‘state’ or a ‘province.’ The former Soviet Union used the word, and it’s used by many former Soviet republics – Ukraine, Belarus, etc. It literally translates from Russian as ‘region.’ There are 46 oblasts in…”

“ There is an area of the Sahara desert that no country will claim because it would require affirming a border which would exclude more valuable land. So it belongs to no one. ”

“ The Orient technically means anything east of Europe – basically, Asia. It comes from the Latin ‘oriens’ which literally means ‘east.’ In the Western world, we have traditionally associated it with the Far East (again, relative to Europe) counties, such as Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. ”

“No, not really. It is specifically not a single country. Most generally, this is the entire Arabian Peninsula, which currently includes the countries of: Saudi Arabia (most of it) Kuwait Oman Qatar United Arab Emirates Yemen The root of the word is ‘Arab,’ which has meant all sorts of things over…”

“ This is technically a specific mountain sub-range in the Rockies. However, it’s used as a general descriptor for area on the Eastern side of the Rockies. ”

“This was the original name of the current country of Sri Lanka. It was named Ceylon until 1972. I couldn’t find any specific reference to where ‘Ceylon’ came from. The Portuguese used it when they occupied the island in the early 1600s, and it carried forward. It was finally rejected as a ‘slave…”

“The historical name for a region of Eastern Russia, Northeast China and Eastern Mongolia. This was never an official country or territory, just an informal name – like, ‘the Midwest.’ The area referred to as ‘Manchuria’ has been occupied by both China and Russia. It comprises the extreme Eastern…”

“ An island belonging to Alaska is so far to the west that it’s technically…east. ”

“ A 3D visualization of the depth of the oceans. ”

“This is the third largest city in The Netherlands, commonly known for the International Court of Justice (the ‘World Court’), which is the judicial arm of the United Nations. The name was originally a royal hunting ground in the 1400s, and was known as ‘des Graven Hage’ (the Count’s Enclosure or…”

“This is a group of municipalities on the east end of Long Island, known for wealth, expansive homes, and proximity to New York City. In the state of New York, there are multiple governmental subdivisions: county, city, town, village, hamlet, etc. Some of these have their own governing bodies, and…”

“This refers to a group of three lowland countries in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Large amounts of land in these countries is below sea level, hence the name. The three countries are politically aligned via a 1960 treaty. In many contexts (especially business), these…”

“It’s an alternative name for Iran. The term ‘Persia’ is considered a relic of ancient times by most, and usage of it usually implies a historical reference to Iran. In 1935, the reigning shah announced that the country would henceforth be referred to by its modern name of ‘Iran.’ This wasn’t…”

“A historical kingdom and region in Central Europe. Today, it’s mostly part of Poland. It’s a named region only (like ‘the Midwest’) and has no government or citizenship. It’s home to eight million people, with its largest city being Wrocław, Poland. It’s divided up into Upper, Middle, and Lower…”

“It’s a French suffix meaning ‘city,’ ‘town,’ or ‘farm.’ The French were allies during the American Revolution. From Wikipedia : France’s help was a major and decisive contribution towards the United States’ eventual victory and independence in the war. This led to positive French sentiment after…”

“ Most Canadians live south of the northern border of the United States. The Canadian population is wildly undistributed. ”

“ A sizable city in Siberia is the coldest place in the world, with winter temps dipping to -90F. This is how they survive. ”

“ There’s a ridiculous ultra-marathon that goes through the Sahara. In 1994, an Italian competitor got lost in the desert for 11 days. ”

“ Where the ‘summit’ lies on a tall mountain is a matter of debate. Consequently, many people think they’ve climbed to the top, but haven’t really. ”

“ Twice a week, a van makes a 16-hour, 500-mile drive from Fairbanks, Alaska, north to the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. ”

“ There’s a ‘wet spot’ in the California desert that started slowly moving in 2016, and no one knows why. It’s wiggling under highways, train tracks, and other infrastructure, which causes problems. ”

“This is a wonderful book, more for the format than the topic. First, the topic – it’s about a river. The Seine starts in southern France and flow northward through Paris to the English Channel. The book is all about this river. (I wasn’t actually interested in the topic, but there was a ‘Buy Two,…”

“This is an entertaining book that falls prey to what I call ‘The Malcolm Gladwell Syndrome,’ which says ‘just find a bunch of anecdotes and connect them together with the barest whisper of an over-arching premise.’ To be fair, this makes for some interesting books. But those books stray pretty far…”

“ Over a hundred years ago, Chinese immigrants settled in the Mississippi Delta. Their descendants still live in the Deep South. ”

“ In 1977, a German tourist accidentally de-planed in Bangor, Maine, and spent three days thinking he was in San Francisco. When the truth was discovered, he become a brief sensation. ”

“ When geographic coordinates are empty – ‘0,0’ or ‘null’ – mapping databases use a fake placename called ‘Null Island’ to represent the thing that is not there. ”

“ Hardly anyone lives in a big chunk of the United States, and that pattern is true for most countries. Where cities historically started and thrived comes down to geography and water. ”

“ There are places where the original wagon wheel ruts from covered wagons in the late 1800s have remained undisturbed and are still visible. ”

“ A lonely stretch of railroad cuts hundreds of miles through the Sahara desert, taking iron ore from interior mines to the coast. ”

“ The longest contiguous train ride in the world is from Porto, Portugal to Saigon, Vietnam. Unsurprisingly, it takes a long time, and costs a lot of money. ”

“ A documentary on how climate change is slowly sinking the Marshall Islands and how that population might be reestablished in the American South. ”

“ An interesting meditation on spelunking and how that morphed into a ground-breaking computer game. ”

“ Satellite and photo analysis shows the ship that brought the explosive chemicals to Beirut sank, just across the harbor, where it still lies. ”

“ Ultimately, climate change is a migration problem. Humanity can survive it, but lots of people are going to have to move, and that causes other problems. ”

“ An ordered listing of countries by actual landmass, not simply perceived size, which is affected by mapping distortions. ”

“ A look at the occasionally ridiculous ways that countries will split islands, which sometimes just comes down to spite and national pride. ”

“ If climate change continues as projected, humanity can survive, but most of the world will have to move. Also, Russia and Canada will be in charge. ”

“ There are seven countries ending in the suffix ‘-stan’ and they all share borders. What would happen if they all became one country? ”

“ A vehicle was designed to move scientists around Antarctica in the 1930s. It performed poorly, was abandoned, re-discovered in the 50s, re-abandoned, and might now be floating around the South Pacific, encased in an iceberg. ”

“ A full-length documentary about the establishment of an airport and commercial air service on the remote island of St. Helena. ”

“ The story behind a viral photo of climbers waiting to summit Everest earlier this year. Multiple people died, and questions are being asked about the future of climbing the mountain. ”

“ This short video of a landing at Gibraltar International Airport shows the only way a tiny, narrow country can fit an airport runway – by bisecting an active city street, at which cars have to wait for the landing plane to cross (at 0:43 in the video). ”

“ A 2013 story about poverty in Appalachia. The author is a conservative, but he concedes that there are no easy solutions to what happens in the back woods. Hauntingly well-written. ”

“ A spectacular history of Asia. This is a book where I stopped tracking what page I was on, because I just wanted to keep reading it. Also a book that could have been boring, but the writing style is just effortless and wonderful. ”

“An in-depth look at the geopolitics and geo-economics of the world. The author goes around the globe and explains each country’s situation, historically, geographically, politically, and economically. What’s interesting is that a lot of the book is not actually about geography, but that’s the…”

“Tedious book. Seemed a bit scattered. The gist appears to be that the biggest reason nations fail is because of unfair, ‘extractive’ institutions, like dictatorships, that give people little incentive to work and are designed to enrich a few. The book goes on about this for 460+ pages, with example…”

“A thoroughly enjoyable book discussing the five Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark – and their supposedly unassailable credentials as the utopia of the world. The author is an Englishman, married to a Danish woman and living in Denmark. He deconstructs the myth of…”