← All articles GEOGRAPHY · 21 October 2026

35 geography facts that sound wrong but are true

Quick answer: 35 geography facts that sound wrong but are true, such as Africa being wider than the Moon, each with the reason why.

Facts 1–9

Use them as true-or-false questions. For more, try our 50 true-or-false questions.

#	Fact	Why it is true
1	Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.	It has hundreds of thousands of lakes, left behind by glaciers.
2	Africa is wider than the Moon.	Africa is about 7,400 km wide; the Moon is about 3,475 km across.
3	Alaska is the westernmost and the easternmost US state.	Its Aleutian Islands cross the 180° line of longitude.
4	Reno, Nevada is further west than Los Angeles.	The California coast curves east as it runs south.
5	France has more time zones than any other country.	Its overseas territories give it 12.
6	The Sahara is not the largest desert.	Antarctica is; deserts are defined by low rainfall, not heat.
7	Everest is not the point farthest from Earth’s centre.	Chimborazo in Ecuador is, because Earth bulges at the equator.
8	Istanbul sits on two continents.	The Bosphorus divides the city between Europe and Asia.
9	Australia is wider than the Moon.	Australia is about 4,000 km wide.

#	Fact	Why it is true
10	Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt.	More than 200 Nubian pyramids stand in Sudan.
11	The Dead Sea shore is more than 400 m below sea level.	It is the lowest land on Earth.
12	Vatican City would fit inside New York’s Central Park about seven times.	It covers about 0.44 km²; the park about 3.4 km².
13	China uses one time zone.	It spans about five geographic time zones.
14	Lake Baikal holds about a fifth of the world’s unfrozen surface fresh water.	It is also the deepest lake on Earth.
15	The Nile flows north.	It runs from East Africa to the Mediterranean.
16	Brazil borders every South American country except two.	Only Chile and Ecuador do not touch it.
17	At Point Nemo, the nearest people are often astronauts.	The International Space Station passes about 400 km overhead; land is about 2,700 km away.
18	Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.	Many maps stretch areas near the poles.

#	Fact	Why it is true
19	Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan are double-landlocked.	They are surrounded only by landlocked countries.
20	Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country.	It covers about 2.7 million km².
21	Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands.	It is the largest island country.
22	The Pacific Ocean is larger than all of Earth’s land combined.	It covers about 165 million km²; land about 149 million km².
23	Hawaii moves a few centimetres closer to Japan every year.	It sits on the Pacific Plate, which drifts north-west.
24	The Mediterranean Sea once almost dried up.	About 5.6 million years ago, when it was cut off from the Atlantic.
25	Russia spans 11 time zones.	It stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific.
26	Morocco is only about 14 km from Spain.	The Strait of Gibraltar is that narrow at its tightest point.
27	Saudi Arabia has no permanent rivers.	Its valleys, or wadis, fill only after rain.

#	Fact	Why it is true
28	No bridge crosses the Amazon’s main river.	It runs mostly through rainforest with few roads.
29	A giant “eye” in Mauritania is visible from space.	The Richat Structure is about 40 km across.
30	Canada has the longest coastline in the world.	It is over 200,000 km long, including its islands.
31	Antarctica holds about 70% of the world’s fresh water.	It is stored as ice.
32	The world’s largest lake is called a sea.	The Caspian Sea is the largest lake by area.
33	Egypt is in both Africa and Asia.	The Sinai Peninsula lies in Asia.
34	Jerusalem’s Old City covers less than 1 km².	It is about 0.9 km² inside its walls.
35	Some countries have more than one capital.	South Africa has three: Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein.

No, Antarctica is the largest desert.

France, with 12.