Where Can I Find...? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Canada

Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established on November 25th, 1885, originally as Banff Hot Springs Reserve. It went by many successive names until settling on the current one in 1930.

Located in the Rocky Mountains, in Alberta's border with the British Columbia, it features stunning alpine landscapes, with several mountainous ranges throughout its extension, as well as freshwater lakes and many ice fields and glaciers (including the Columbia Icefield, the largest uninterrupted glacial mass in the Rocky Mountains chain) and a vast diversity of fauna and flora.

Answer: Canada

Canada is not lacking in the natural attractions at all, but it also has this man-made structure as one of its most touristic spots.

Located in Toronto, Ontario, the CN Tower (short for "Canadian National", the railway company who built it), at 553.3 m (1,815.3 ft) of height, remains the tallest free-standing structure on land on the Western Hemisphere. It was once the tallest in the world, until surpassed in 2007 by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai - it currently ranks in 10th place.

Originally conceived as a communication platform, the CN Tower also contains a revolving restaurant, an entertainment complex, and several observation decks. It attracts over 2 million international visitors annually.

Answer: Canada

The Bay of Fundy is an arm of the Gulf of Maine and is located between the Canadian Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Although it touches a small portion of Maine's coastline, I consider it primarily located in Canada for the purpose of this quiz.

The greatest distinction held by this bay, is that it's home to the highest and more powerful tidal waves in the world. Tidal waves can rise up to an average of 16 metres (52 feet), and the total flow during a 12-hour cycle is about 100 billion tonnes or 110 billion short tons, which doubles the combined total flow of all the world's rivers during the same time period.

(Most of this info is taken from Wikipedia)

Answer: Canada

Off the northern Canada Pacific Coast, the Haida Gwaii archipelago can be found. Consisting of two main islands, Graham and Moresby, it houses a rich diversity of wildlife and remnants of Haida people's culture, such as totem poles and other cultural items.

Answer: USA

A stunning work of art, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, in South Dakota, contains a massive sculpture carved into the face of the mountain, depicting the heads of four former Presidents of the United States: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. They were chosen as a representation of the nation's birth, growth, development, and preservation, respectively.

The sculptures were designed by Gutzon Borglum, and execution began in 1927. After Borglum's death in 1941, his son Lincoln took over the project, which was stopped on October 31 due to insufficient funding.

This landmark is somewhat controversial, as it is built on land that belonged to the Sioux Nation, who still demand it to be returned to them.

Answer: USA

Probably the most famous of its kind, the Grand Canyon is a 446 km (277 mi) long, 29 km (18 mi) wide, and 1,857 mt (6,093 ft) deep gorge carved by the Colorado River. Part of the Grand Canyon National Park, it's located in the northwest part of the state of Arizona (being the source of one of the state's nicknames) and attracts around five million visitors yearly, from many parts of the world.

There is a wide variety of activities available at the Grand Canyon, including running, hiking, skydiving, helicopter tours, several viewpoints, and a few visitor centers, a geological museum and an art gallery, among others. While the North Rim of the Canyon is open only around May to October, the South Rim is open all-year long, as long as the weather allows it.

Answer: USA

No North American World Sites quiz could be complete without the first National Park in the U.S. (it is also regarded as the first National Park in the world by some sources). Located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, and reaching as far as some portions of the states of Idaho and Montana, it was established in 1872 during Ulysses S. Grant's presidency.

Part of the South Central Rockies forest ecoregion, it is dominated by subalpine forests, with a very rich wildlife and a notable geothermal activity. That includes Old Faithful geyser, the most famous attraction of the park.

Answer: USA

Balboa Park is an urban park, not far from downtown San Diego, being one of its historic landmarks. It houses several gardens, museums, and many other attractions, with the San Diego Zoo among them.

Through its center, a large boulevard, El Prado, is home to most of the park's cultural attractions, and features some buildings in the Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style, such as the Casa de Balboa and Casa del Prado.

Answer: Mexico

Mexico is home to many wonderful archaeological sites, most of them built by the Maya civilization. One of the most famous is Chichen Itza, located at the Yucatan Peninsula.

A Mayan ancient city, it is believed to have been one of the largest of the empire, and also home to a very diverse population, due to the many different architectural styles present in its ruins. It is one of Mexico's most visited archaeological sites.

The most notable features of the area are the large pyramid temple of Kukulcan (a Mayan deity akin to the Aztec's Quetzalcoatl), which is commonly referred to as "El Castillo" ("The Castle"); the "Las Monjas" ("The Nuns") building complex; the Temple of the Warriors and the Osario Group, which are also pyramidal buildings.

Answer: Mexico

Another ancient city built by the Mayas, and also located in Yucatan, not far from Chichen Itza, Uxmal is considered one of the best representations of classical Mayan architecture, with its building showcasing the "Puuc" style. Built over a firm terrain (unlike Chichen Itza, which had to be levelled prior to any constructions), it allowed for massive buildings covering major terrain extensions.

Among the most noteworthy buildings are the Governor's Palace, a long building atop a big, stepped platform, and the Pyramid of the Magician, a five-level temple sitting in the center of the city, which is notable in that the outline of the pyramid is more oval-shaped than rectangular, giving it a much "smoother" appearance than other similar Mayan temples.

Answer: Mexico

At the western side of the Sierra Tarahumara (part of the Sierra Madre Occidental), in the state of Chihuahua in north-western Mexico, there is a group of six canyons that have been carved by different rivers that merge into the Rio Fuerte and empty in the Gulf of California. They are collectively known as the Copper Canyon.

They owe its name to the coloring of the walls of the canyons, which shows shades of reddish brown and green, characteristic of pure and oxidated copper, respectively.

The canyon can be explored by several means, such as hiking, biking or by horseback, but the most popular is by the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico, a railway that runs along the main canyon of the group.

Answer: Mexico

Another of the most famous ancient Mesoamerican cities, Teotihuacan is located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, close to the modern Mexico City. Despite its location, it wasn't a part of the Aztec Empire - it is actually dated several centuries prior to its development.

Teotihuacan is considered one of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican cities thanks to its notable architecture. Among its most remarkable features are the Pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon, the Avenue of the Dead, with a series of well preserved murals, and the complex housing compounds. Back in its prime (around the first 500 years CE), it was the largest city in the Americas, with an estimated population of around 125.000.