Jedda Rides the Bus! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mexico

Structure 5B18 is better known as El Castilo, and the 98-foot (30-meter) structure was built sometime in the 8th-12th centuries by the Pre-Columbian Mayans at Chichen Itza in Yucatán, Mexico. The god Kulkulan that it honors is akin to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. The pyramid consists of terraces with staircases, but no tourist has been allowed to climb the pyramid since a woman fell to her death in 2006. One jaguar statue, possibly an altar, unearthed in the 1930s in the "Chamber of Sacrifices" is painted a brilliant red and has two turquoise crescents for eyes, 74 jade inlays for spots, and white-painted flint for teeth and fangs. Worshippers burned incense on a turquoise disk on the red jaguar's back. The jaguar throne guarding the entrance to the Lower Temple of the Jaguars, east of the Great Ballcourt, has lost all its paint and decoration.

Karst landscapes have limestone bedrock and underground streams. The part of the Yucatán peninsula where Chichen Itza resides is dotted with caverns and sinkholes called cenotes used to access the water below. The site is named for the mouths ('chi') to the wells ('chen') and for the Itzá, the Mayan tribe who settled there.

(If Jedda wandered out to the rainforests that are also on the Yucatán, he would find jaguars.)

Answer: Netherlands

About a fifth of the Netherlands is below sea level and protected by dikes and levees. Areas of reclaimed land are called polders. The only areas that aren't flat are the foothills of the Ardennes mountains; the highest peak is Vaalserberg at 322 m. The mill pictured is near Workum, in the province of Frisia a/k/a Friesland (spelled in the West Frisian language as Fryslân). It is a rijksmonument, meaning a national heritage site in Netherlands; in fact, many windmills are rijksmonuments, and a few still do the job of drainage.

The West Frisian language is probably the closet relative of English existing today.

Answer: Italy

The city of Matera sits in a deep ravine carved out by the Gravina River; the ancient dwellings climb up one of the slopes. It was founded by Lucius Caecilius Metellus in 251 BC (hence the older name for the region, Lucania). The 'Sassi' are carved out of the calcareous rock (that is, rock with calcium carbonate) characteristic of the Basilicata region of southern Italy. Water was collected in cisterns and delivered in a laboriously built water channels. Located on the arch of Italy's "boot", Basilicata has coastline to the south the Gulf of Taranto, and a tiny bit of shore to the west on the Tyrrhenian sea. With the 'Sassi', believed to be the first human dwellings in Italy, Matera is perhaps the only place in the world where people can boast to be still living in the same houses of their ancestors of 9,000 years ago.

Answer: Romania

Negoiu Peak at 8317 ft (2535m) is the second highest peak in Romania, Moldoveanu Peak ('Vârful Moldoveanu') being the highest at 8346 ft (2544m). Both are in the Făgăraș Mountains of Southern Carpathians, themselves the second tallest group of mountains in the overall Carpathian Mountain range, yet also among the most accessible. The Făgăraș Mountains are bordered by the Făgăraș Depression, through which the Olt river flows, and they have many glacier lakes.

Sibiu, Transylvania, was declared the European Capital of Culture in 2007. The Church Between the Fir Trees is a Romanian Orthodox church, whilst in the foreground is the spire of the Sibiu Lutheran Cathedral of St. Mary, the tallest in Transylvania.

Answer: Rwanda

Rwanda is the fourth smallest country in Africa, but also one of the highest, its lowest point being the Rusizi River at 3117 ft (950m). Besides Mt. Bisoke, the Virunga Mountains in Volcanoes Park boast Rwanda's highest peak, the inactive volcano Mt. Karisimbi, which towers at 14,790 ft (4507 m) on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mountain gorillas take refuge in the park, where primatologist Dian Fossey befriended many of these creatures (and where her tomb now resides). Visitors can get a permit to spend an hour with the gorillas.

Answer: Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

The clues were "coast" and "elephants", who grow tusks of ivory, for which Côte d'Ivoire is named, though one does not typically find elephants wandering along the beach. (And Mount Nimba is found only in the Ivory Coast, or Côte d'Ivoire). The beaches are lovely, though, with clear water. Côte d'Ivoire is the most biodiverse country in Africa, particularly in the interior. Banco National Park is an old-growth forest of mahogany and other species near Abidjan, the country's economic capital.

In the tropical evergreen forests of Taï National Park dwell warthogs, buffaloes, pangolins, chimps, the pygmy hippopotamus, and the African forest elephant, which is somewhat smaller than the African bush elephant typical of zoos in North America.

It's one of the last areas of primary rainforest in West Africa, but unfortunately it is also a reservoir for Ebola.

Answer: Republic of Guinea-Bissau

The West African nation of Guinea-Bissau is bordered by Senegal to the north and by the Republic of Guinea (formerly French Guinea) to the east and to the south. To the west lies the North Atlantic Ocean (it's "North Atlantic" because Guinea-Bissau is above the equator).

The coastal plains form swamps of Guinean mangroves before rising to the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic, which actually covers several nations including Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Basically all of inland Guinea-Bissau is part of this ecoregion. Along the border with the Republic of Guinea are mountains that peak at about 984 feet (300 m). Unique saltwater-adapted hippopotamuses may be found on Orango Island, among the Bijagós Archipelago about 38 miles (60 km) off Guinea-Bissau's coast--an important part of the nation's tourism industry.

Answer: Egypt

The Qattara Depression, or Munḫafaḍ al-Qaṭṭārah, in the Western Desert of Egypt is a teardrop-shaped sunken area below sea level with sand dunes, salt pans, and marshes. The dry lake beds flood occasionally, and the name Qattara means "dripping" in Arabic.

It's the second lowest point in Africa, after Lake Assal in Djibouti. The Depression was formed by a combination of wind erosion, fluvial erosion (rivers & streams), and salt weathering. The Qara Oasis is found here, inhabited mostly by Berbers, while roving Bedouins (or Bedu) and their flocks of sheep inhabit much of the rest of the Depression.

Answer: Belize

Tiny Belize (about the size of Massachusetts) is the only country in Central America with no coastline on the Pacific Ocean. It is part, however of one of the largest coral reef systems in the world, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which stretches from Cancún, on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, down to Honduras. A part of this system is the The Great Blue Hole, a sinkhole surrounded by an atoll (Lighthouse Reef) near Belize City. The popular scuba-diving attraction is a great example of karst topography, which is to say, irregular limestone formations with fissures, sinkholes, and rivers flowing through caverns.

Belize, formerly known as British Honduras, is also the only Central American country to have English as its official language, although the everyday language is Belizian Creole (Kriol).

Answer: Kenya

The Maasai live mainly in Kenya and Tanzania. Kenya's coastal lowlands along the Indian Ocean rise to highlands, which are divided by the Great Rift Valley. In the fertile highlands are farms of tea and coffee, the two major cash crops, as well as sisal, wheat, and corn. Kapsowar sits between the Kerio Valley and the Cherangani Hills, and the surrounding countryside is especially fertile; the elevation gives it a mild climate.

One of Africa's smaller parks, Nairobi National Park covers about 45 square miles (117 sq km) of the Athi-Kapiti and is mostly grassland with scattered Acacia bushes, though its western uplands have some dry forest. Though small, its wildlife population is diverse and includes lions, leopards, rhinos, impalas, cheetahs, zebras, giraffes, ostriches, and hippos. The park is only a little over 4 miles (7 km) from the capital city of Nairobi!