I Love an "L" Land! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Luxembourg

Landlocked Luxembourg consists of two regions. First is the Oesling, a hilly region of the Ardennes with mixed arboreal forests in the north. Second is the Gutland ("good land") of the southern two-thirds, more urbanized than the north, Underneath the capital, also called Luxembourg, are an extensive system of tunnels built when the "Little Fortress" (Lucilinburhuc), as it was called then, was known as the "Gibraltar of the North" for its strategic position between Germanic and Frankish territories. The three languages of Luxembourg reflect that history: Luxembourgish, French, and German.

The population in 2020 was 625,978 within an area of 2,586 square kilometers (998.6 sq mi).

Lorraine (French) or Lothingren (German) is an historical region along the Moselle, Meuse, and Rhine rivers. It was once a kingdom and later a province in NE France. Near the German border, it was once the subject of disputes between France and Germany.

Answer: Lithuania

Lithuania has sandy beaches but less coastline on the open sea than Latvia and Estonia, for much of the coast is on the Curonian (Courish) Spit which separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. About a third of Lithuania is forested, with pine in the west and south, oak and birch in the north, and spruce in the hilly east. Two-third of the population live in cities, where factories make tools, motors, electronics, petroleum products, cloth, chemicals, ships, and furniture. The capital Vilnius, Lithuania's educational and cultural center, is not a port city but rather sits well toward the border with Belarus. It boasts eight nature reserves.

Around 2.7 million people occupied the entire 65,200 square kilometers (25,200 sq mi) of Lithuania in 2020.

Answer: Liberia

The Republic of Liberia was created by the privately-funded American Colonization Society in 1822 to settle free Blacks in Africa as a solution to America's "race question", making it Africa's oldest republic.

Warm and humid year-round, there are still distinct wet and dry seasons. The mangroves and swamps of the coastal lowlands give way to plateaus, hills, and finally mountains in the northeast. The mining of iron ore, diamonds, and gold and the harvesting of timber (esp. teak and mahogany) and cacao are the prime movers of the economy. Unfortunately, slash-and-burn agriculture and illegal logging have damaged the environment; likewise, hunting for bushmeat has endangered many of Liberia's diverse animal species. The Nimba Mountain range on the border with Guinea remains a Nature Reserve.

In 2020 over 5 million Liberians inhabited the country's 111,369 square kilometers (43,000 sq mi).

Answer: Lebanon

Mount Lebanon is not one mountain but actually a range in Lebanon, with the highest point at Qurnat as Sawda'. Along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean sea, Lebanon has a narrow plain. Down the middle of the country run the Lebanon Mountains which surround the high Bekaa Valley, a fertile region as Lebanon receives more rain than much of the rest of the Middle East. On the coast the summers are mild and the winters rainy; in the valley the summers are hot and dry and the winters cool. Lebanon was the ancient home to Semitic Canaanites, whom the Greeks called the Phoenicians but who called themselves the "men of Sidon". Deer, wildcats, hedgehogs, and even flamingos and pelicans may be found in the wild. The cedars which made Lebanon famous are now confined to protected mountain groves; still, there are pine, oak, cypress, juniper, fir, and carob trees.

A little over 6.8 million people lived within the 10,452 square meters (4,036 square miles) of Lebanon in 2020.

Answer: Loango

The Kingdom of Loango (c.1485-c.1883) developed at the mouths of the Kouilou and Niari rivers, in the larger Congo Basin. It was one of three significant states in the southern Congo Basin, a region also called simply "the Congo" -- the other two being the Kingdom of Kongo (c.1390-1914) and the Kingdom of Orungu (c.1700-1927). At its height in the 17th century, Loango extended from Cape St. Catherine in the north to the mouth of the Congo River. It was a major exporter of copper and cloth and an importer of slaves and ivory. A long interregnum weakened the once strong kingdom, and by the middle 1880s, Loango had been absorbed into the French Congo, today part of the Republic of the Congo, the smaller of the two nation-states bearing the name "Congo".

The Congo Basin or "the Congo", named for Africa's second-longest river, is an area of about 500 million acres, spanning across six countries. Even larger than Alaska, it is full of rivers, forests, savannas, swamps, and flooded jungles. In 2002, a moratorium was placed on logging in the Congo Basin, regarded as part of the "lungs" of the Earth, made more significant as a carbon sink by the dwindling of the Amazon rainforest.

Answer: Laos

Laos occupies the middle strip of the Indochinese peninsula (Southeast Asia), landlocked by Vietnam on the east, Cambodia on the south, Thailand on the west, Myanmar on the northwest, and China on the north. About 80 percent of Laos's rain falls during the monsoon season of May-October. The main mountain range is the Annamese Cordillera, along the Vietnamese border. In the fertile, reddish soils of the Bolovens Plateau, a southeastern region of volcanic basalt, grow plantation crops like rubber. In the lowlands on the eastern bank of the Mekong River are floodpains where more than half of the population resides and where rice grows. The forests are broadleaf evergreens in the north and mixed evergreens and deciduous trees in the south, along with rough, tall grass called tranh and wild banana plants.

The Republic of Laos extends across 237,955 square kilometers (91,875 sq mi) of land. Its population, growing sharply since the late 1960s, had achieved 7.3 million by 2020.

Answer: Libya

The Libyan Desert (the eastern and northern sections of the vast Sahara) is harsh and remote, with temperatures up to 50°C (122°F); it is known to go for decades without rainfall. The Mediterranean coast, in contrast, has a cool and rainy winter. The waterways of Libya are mostly wadis -- riverbeds, streambeds, or gullies that are utterly dry except during the rainy season. Despite efforts like the Great Manmade River Project, at the time the world's largest irrigation project with 1750 miles of underground pipes, Libya must import 75-80% of its food. Fortunately, the petroleum industry provides the wealth to do this. Near the border with Chad stands Libya's tallest mountain, Bette Peak (Bikku Bitti), a largely inaccessible summit that was first climbed only in 2005. The Mediterranean city of Cyrene, now called Shahhat, was once a center of philosophy and education in Ancient Greek civilization.

Some 6.8 million people populated Libya's 1.8 million square kilometers (679,363 sq mi) in 2020.

Answer: Latvia

Over half of Latvia is blanketed with forests of pine, birch, spruce, aspen, or alder (a deciduous tree whose wood is used for bridges because it resists underwater rot). The many rivers of Latvia provide hydroelectric power. Like fellow Baltic states, Latvia was also flattened by glaciers, and its tallest point, Gaizinkalns, rises only 1,022 feet (311.6 m). Founded in 1912, the Moricsala reserve around Usma Lake is the second-oldest wildlife reserve in Europe.

Latvia is also known for ad hoc wildlife reserves that developed on farms abandoned during industrialization. Most people live in the capital Riga, the republic's major port city on the Gulf of Riga, or in the adjoining urban areas. The total population began to decline a bit in the 1990s, hitting 1.9 million in the country's 64,589 square kilometers (24,938 sq mi) by 2020.

Answer: Lesotho

Summers are hot and winters are cold in the little but lofty Kingdom of Lesotho. About two-thirds of Lesotho is mountainous, with a plateau to the west. The base altitude is 1,400 meters (3,280 ft); no other nation's is greater, and indeed about 80% of the country rises 1,800 meters (5,906 ft) above sea level. The highest point is Thabana Ntlenyana, which stretches up to 3,482 meters (11,424 ft).

From the Maloti mountains come the Orange and Tugela rivers, the two main waterways through Lesotho. The Orange River particularly provides the hydropowered electricity, a significant source of revenue, that is sold to South Africa. Unfortunately, erosion and grazing have destroyed Lesotho's grasslands, and hunting and deforestation have extinguished the big-game animals, but there are still plenty of wild olive and Cape willow trees and aloe vera plants, and you might find small antelope, hares, and bearded vultures.

Covering only 30,000 square kilometers (11,583 sq mi) horizontally, lofty Lesotho's population reached 2.1 million in 2020.

Answer: Liechtenstein

With no access to the sea, Liechtenstein is surrounded by Austria to the north and Switzerland to the south and west -- both of which are themselves landlocked. The only other doubly-landlocked nation-state on earth is Uzbekistan. The sandy-peaty-clayey floor of the Rhine Valley covers about half the country, while much of the rest is rougher alpine terrain, in particular the rugged foothills of the Rhätikon Mountains.

Switzerland accidentally invaded this tiny country in 2007, when armed soldiers aimlessly wandered over the unmarked and undefended border. Liechtenstein wisely decided not to retaliate against normally neutral Switzerland.

About 37,000 people were crammed into little Liechtenstein in 2020, all 62 square miles of it. Despite close quarters, Liechtenstein is relatively crime-free; most residents don't even lock their doors.