Welcome to the SSQQ Geography Quiz!

Written by Rick Archer
First published: July 1999 /  Last Update:  August 2011

Rick's Note: This quiz is on the level... there are a few curveballs and a few attempts at levity, but this is a legitimate test equivalent to a final exam for a college level Geography course.

I have little doubt there is a mistake in here somewhere, but I have researched the answers carefully enough to make it a fair test of your ability.  I think you will enjoy using your wits!  Some of the questions are easy, but others will definitely separate the brains from the brawns. 

Yes, I have an answer sheet for you.  But first, please email your answers to Rick Archer at dance@ssqq.com    I will send you the answers immediately if you get at least half right or appear to have tried hard.

Some people ask for the answers without taking the Quiz.  Please don't bother.

INTERNET

I don't mind if you use your reference books and the Internet.  Why not?   Everyone else does!!   

I originally ran the contest in July 1999.  Not many people did very well.   About 5 people got more than 10 right out of the original 25 questions.  Then something odd happened.  When I ran the quiz again in 2001, this time I had over two dozen people with more than 20 correct answers.  Curious why there had been such an improvement, I asked a couple of my respondents how they had done so well. 

You guessed it - they admitted they had used the Internet.  That is when I realized the first group had taken the test in an era before the Internet had come into its own as a research tool.

So, yes, please use the Internet.  I have added some questions that almost can't be answered without research.  That is part of the fun of this quiz - you learn all sorts of new and interesting things.

If you would like to read the story about the event that inspired the SSQQ Geography Quiz plus read a funny article by Dave Barry, click:

   The SSQQ Geography Story and Dave Barry 

a. Balearics
b. Corsica
c. Sicily
d. Malta
e. Crete

Can you name two countries in the world that have land on two different continents divided by water?  
(Hint #1:  Russia is not one of them.  Hint #2:  Spain doesn't count.) 

(Hint: this one is easy. The name was clearly thought up by an overzealous travel agent.)

So what is the second Highest mountain?   What country is it in?
 

Bonus Question 1: As a follow-up, find another capital separated from the mainland out in the middle of a sea. This country is about 17,000 square miles and has a population of about 6 million.  Although the bulk of the country is located on the mainland, its largest city and capital is out on an island in a major sea.

Bonus Question 2: The capital of a Persian Gulf nation lies on a island separated from the mainland by about 200 yards of water.  This one shouldn't be too hard to figure out.  So, to add to the fun, name a Persian Gulf nation that actually is both an island and a country.

Here is a double question. 

I am one of the world's largest countries (Top 30), but I was completely landlocked until 1885 when I bought a tiny sliver of coastline about 20 miles wide to provide access to the sea.  Who am I?

I am one of the world's largest countries (Top 30) and I am completely landlocked.  As long as humans have walked the earth, I have had complete access to the sea but that all changed in 1991.  Who am I?

By comparison, Canada averages about 7 people a square mile and Australia about 6.  Russia, the largest country on Earth, averages about 33 people.

One country, however, gets my vote for hell on earth with the cataclysmic average of 40,000 people per square mile.  Can you name it?

Can you name the world’s only two double-landlocked countries?

(Note: "Double landlocked" means that not only are these countries landlocked, but so is every country that borders them.  In other words, these two countries are nowhere near the sea.)

What was the first city in the world to boast having a population of over 1 million? 
(Contributed by Todd Schenk)

I am a country that was named after the NBA's most famous player.  In addition, my capital was once named after another NBA city.
Would you care to guess my name and the former name of my capital?    (Contributed by Todd Schenk)

What state contains the geographic center of the United States of America?   (Contributed by Todd Schenk)

Here is a tricky one. We know the Panama Canal completely divides Panama country into two parts separated by water.

What famous Monster is partly responsible for completely separating 1/3 of an island country into two parts by a combination of rivers, lakes, and canals?

In the 1970s, an excellent movie starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine was adapted from a Rudyard Kipling novel.  The movie was about two scallywags who somehow managed to conquer an entire country all by themselves!!  Name the movie and name the fictional country. 

In this country, one of its coastal regions comprises one-sixth of the nation's territory, but over HALF of its coastline. 

In other words, one single region in a large country contains more coastline than all the other regions combined. 

Can you name the country and the political region in question? 

The answer was supposed to be Ohio, but several people who grew up next to lakes in Ohio were justifiably outraged.  After some investigation, it was revealed that the largest lake in Ohio is 345 acres in size and its name is "Aurora Pond".   That is about half of a square mile.  By comparison, Lake Tahoe in California is 190 square miles.  The Great Salt Lake in Utah comes in at 2625 square miles.  So maybe that trivia question is legitimate.

Now here is an even stranger trivia question. 

The largest lake in one of the USA's 50 states has never even been seen by the majority of the state's population.  What is the name of the state and why hasn't anybody ever seen the state's biggest lake?   Good luck figuring this one out.

Yugoslavia was created as a political idea by Europe's leaders following World War I.  Yugoslavia had quite a bit of potential.  For example, Yugoslavia had many successes at the World Basketball Championships. The national basketball team captured world titles in 1970, 1978, 1990, 1998 and 2002... more world titles than the USA won during the same period!

Unfortunately, the population of Yugoslavia consisted of many diverse ethnic groups that really did not like each other very much.  After some particularly bloody civil wars in the 1990s, Yugoslavia splintered into many separate states.

Which one of the following nations were not formed as part of the breakup of Yugoslavia?
 

With the plight of the Palestinians dominating the headlines, there is a group of 30 MILLION people who live today in one particular region of our Planet, but do not have a country.  There are so many of these people that they are spread out over four different countries.  Who are they?
(Contributed by Joan Dawkins)