Spooky Geographic Outlines Trivia Quiz

Scorched into each of the two large pumpkins in this image is an outline of the largest of America's fifty states, Alaska. The state known as "The Last Frontier" is so large and contains so many islands (approximately 2,600) that its coastline is longer than all other US states combined (though this is aided somewhat by the fact that twenty-seven of the fifty states are landlocked!).

One of the more iconic features of the Alaskan map is the chain of islands that extends from North America to just shy of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. This archipelago - the Aleutian Islands or Unangam Tanangin - is so expansive that it is broken down into smaller island groups that include the likes of the Fox Islands, Andreanof Islands and the rather unflatteringly named Rat Islands (named in dubious honour of the accidental importation of rats to the islands in the late 18th century).

The outline of the sixth-largest country in the world, Australia, has a number of distinctive features including the island of Tasmania (capital at Hobart) south of Victoria and the pointed peninsula in the northeast that is home to many national parks, Cape York Peninsula. The peninsula is named after its most northerly point at Cape York where visitors are welcomed by a somewhat understated sign that declares, "You are standing at the northernmost point of the Australian continent".

For some reason the AI engine wished to include the flag of Australia as a backdrop to the carved outline of the nation - who am I to say no?

Iceland - the volcanic island nation in the North Atlantic - has a distinctive coastline characterised by cliffs, fjords and black sands that make it a popular destination for nature lovers. Despite being located very much toward the north of the Northern Hemisphere, the vast majority of Iceland actually sits just below the Arctic Circle (~ 66° 34' N); only the very northern tip of Grímsey Island sits inside the Arctic Circle.

Due to the oscillations of the Earth's axis experienced over time (the tilt of the axis is becoming ever more vertical and the polar circles are slowly receding toward the poles), it is anticipated that all of Grímsey Island - and therefore all of Iceland - will be south of the Arctic Circle in the years leading up to 2050.

As an infrastructure and transport nerd, The Netherlands is one of my "go-to" destinations. The coastline of this industrious nation is as much shaped by its people as it is by the relentless assault of the water that surrounds it.

Towards the south of the country, the geography is dominated by rivers and their associated estuaries whereas the north - the northwest in particular - is typified by lakes or "meren". One of the most famous of the Dutch lakes internationally is the IJmeer ("ij" is a letter in the Dutch alphabet with both the "i" and "j" capitalised when required) which is situated east of Amsterdam. The IJmeer is connected to the North Sea by the IJ, a body of water that separates the north (noord) from the south (zuid) of the city of Amsterdam.

The great state of Texas has a distinctive shape dominated in the north by the Texas Panhandle. The panhandle region is bordered to the west by New Mexico and to the north and east by Oklahoma, a state with its very own panhandle formerly known as No Man's Land!

The most populous settlement in the Texas Panhandle is Amarillo, a city with the nickname of "The Yellow Rose of Texas"; this moniker reflects the Spanish influence on the city, not least the fact that amarillo is the Spanish word for yellow.

Japan consists of over 14,000 islands, of which approximately 400 to 420 are inhabited (online sources cannot appear to agree on a specific number). Japan is often at the forefront of technology and through the use of digital mapping, the "Land of the Rising Sun" expanded its estate from 6,852 islands (Japan Coast Guard count of 1987) to 14,125 in 2023.

It is worth mentioning that the methodology of the 1987 count would only countenance accepting islands with a coastline greater than or equal to one hundred metres.

This particular pumpkin is another that contains a carving of a country that is well-known for its numerous islands, Greece. This European nation is home to island groups such as the Cyclades, Dodecanese, Ionian and North Aegean. The largest of all the Greek islands is Crete which has its capital city at Heraklion.

The two largest Greek cities by population - Athens and Thessaloniki - are however situated on the mainland in their respective regions of Attica and Central Macedonia.

Thailand is one of the most populated nations on the planet with 64 million people living in the country according to the 2010 census. Of those, approximately 8.3 million lived in the country's capital city of Bangkok (Krung Thep) and 17.4 million in the wider metropolitan area.

With such a concentration of the population living in the capital city, Bangkok is designated a "primate city" which is a concept defined by the geographer Mark Jefferson as a city that is "at least twice as large as the next largest city and more than twice as significant". Bangkok is considered one of the most primate of all cities in the world with the Thai capital being around nine-times larger than Chiang Mai (Thailand's second largest city according to 2022 estimates) in terms of population.

The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland have a longstanding intertwined history that has often led to periods of conflict. Irish Home Rule was a highly significant sociopolitical topic towards the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century. In very broad terms, after four Home Rule Bills, the curtailing of the power of the House of Lords via the Parliament Act of 1911, the Great War (1914-1918), the Easter Uprising (1916) and the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921), the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland emerged in 1922.

Whilst all of the above is largely in the domain of history, it is indisputable that the geography of Great Britain and the island of Ireland (Éire) is - and remains - of great significance to the histories of both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

I am still baffled by how Italy looks so much like a boot; even the geography of Italy is fashionable! The heel ("tacco") of the boot is occupied by the region of Puglia or Apulia, which has its capital at the port of Bari. To the southeast of Bari is the wonderfully-named town of Monopoli (no connection to the board game) that is home to a large expanse of the Via Traiana, a road deviating from the Via Appia (Appian Way) between Benevento and Brindisi that was constructed by order of the Roman emperor, Trajan.

This jack-o'-lantern features the outlines of two countries, India and Sri Lanka. Taking up the majority of the face of the pumpkin is India, a melting pot of cultures, languages, traditions and religions. Towards the east of the country are states such as Assam, West Bengal and Meghalaya that - together with Mizoram and Tripura - form the majority of the land border of neighbouring Bangladesh.

Situated within the Indian Ocean, to the south of India, is the island nation of Sri Lanka which has nicknames such as the "Pearl of the Indian Ocean" and the "Teardrop of India". Sri Lanka is separated from India by the Palk Strait, a body of water that is named after Englishman, Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet.

Continuing the theme of zoning in on distinctive features of a country or state's geography, our attention now turns to the Florida Panhandle which is the strip of land in the northwest of the state that extends west toward the neighbouring state of Alabama. Defining the Florida Panhandle region is not an exact science but typically any Floridian county that sits west of the Apalachicola River is uncontroversially considered a part of the panhandle. Things become vague east of the river with the Big Bend region being included in or excluded from the panhandle - to varying degrees - depending upon the source.

When it comes to Florida's capital city, Tallahassee, Wikipedia hedges its bets by stating that the city is the largest in the Big Bend *and* Panhandle regions. Now, that is one way around the problem!