Missing Vowels: Asian Countries Quiz

Answer: Tajikistan

Tajikistan, which is mainly located in the Pamir mountain range, gained its independence following the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The area had been under the control of various empires for thousands of years, spending time as part of the Achaemenid Empire around 500 BC and later on becoming part of the Kushan Empire, Hephthalite Empire, Tibetan Empire, Samanid Empire, Mongol Empire and finally the Russian Empire in the late 19th century.

The amount of historical political interest in the area probably resulted from its central location and the opportunity to control trade along the influential Silk Road, which passed through it.

The economy of modern day Tajikistan is heavily reliant on money sent back to the country by migrant workers as well as cotton and aluminium exports.

Answer: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula and is particularly noted for the wealth that it has gained from its enormous oil reserves. The lifestyle available in Saudi Arabia in the 21st century is a far cry from the situation 100 years earlier, when the country had a poor agricultural economy that was hampered by the fact that a large proportion of its land area was covered by desert. Oil was first discovered in the late 1930s and quickly transformed Saudi Arabia into one of the world's top economies and a major military power. Mecca and Medina are both located in the west of the country and are highly significant and holy sites in Islam. Mecca was the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the Hajj pilgrimage to the city is considered to be a religious duty for Muslims. Medina is home to the mosque where the Prophet Muhammad was buried.

Answer: Israel

The Negev Desert covers around 55% of the land area of the modern-day state of Israel, which was formed in the aftermath of the Second World War and declared its independence in 1948. Israel lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, bounded by Lebanon to the north and Egypt and Jordan to the south.

The largest of the country's major cities and population centres, such as Jerusalem (the capital), Tel Aviv and Haifa, are located north of the rocky desert environment of the Negev. However, the port city of Eilat, a popular tourist destination on the Red Sea, is located at the southern end of the desert.

Answer: Brunei

At nearly 750,000 square kilometres (290,000 square miles) Borneo is one of the largest islands in the world. However, the tiny country of Brunei accounts for just 0.7% of the island's land area, with Indonesia and Malaysia sharing the rest between them.

It is located on the northern coast of the island and is separated into two distinct parts by the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Hundreds of years ago, Brunei was the centre of the Brunei Empire which covered a much larger territory, including almost all of Borneo; the modern state gained its independence from Britain in 1984 and has the official name Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace.

Answer: Iran

Thanks to the Ancient Greeks, Iran has historically been known as Persia in western countries, hence the name of the body of water that separates the south-west of the country from the Arabian Peninsula. The Gulf of Oman lies to the south of the eastern side of the country and the Caspian Sea makes up the central part of its northern border.

The country is an Islamic Republic and covers around 1.65 million square kilometres (635,000 square miles). The majority of the population live in the west and north-west of the country as the eastern part is dominated by largely uninhabited salt deserts. Iran's highest point, Mount Damavand, is located in the north and is close to the capital city, Tehran.

Answer: United Arab Emirates

The five places listed in the question are probably the least well-known of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates; the other two being Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which is the largest of the seven and accounts for around 87% of the country's land area.

The seven emirates are located on the Arabian Peninsula and are bounded by Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The capital city, also called Abu Dhabi, can be found on an island in the Persian Gulf. The United Arab Emirates is a federation of absolute monarchies, with each emirate having its own royal family and ruling Sheikh.

It came into being in December 1971 following the withdrawal of British military protection from the area, when Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain accepted the invitation of Abu Dhabi and Dubai to form a union in the face of threats to their territory from larger neighbours Iran and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain, Qatar and Ras al-Khaimah were also offered the opportunity to join, but refused - although Ras al-Khaimah became the state's seventh emirate a few months later.

Answer: Indonesia

The large archipelago that makes up the country of Indonesia lies between the lines of latitude at 6 degrees north and 11 degrees south. Although you might think that the number of islands that make up a country would be a fact set in stone, the total number given for the islands that make up Indonesia varies wildly between sources depending on the definition of 'island' that is used.

Indonesia's Geospatial Information Agency put the figure at around 13,500 in 2010, while an earlier survey came up with a figure of over 18,000 when cays and reefs that appeared only at low tide were included in the count.

Not all of the islands are named and only a relatively small proportion have permanent human settlements. The city of Jakarta - Indonesia's capital - is located on the island of Java, the third largest of the islands that lie wholly within Indonesia (behind Sumatra and Sulawesi) but the one with by far the highest population.

Indonesia also has territory on the larger islands of New Guinea (shared with Papua New Guinea) and Borneo (shared with Malaysia and Brunei).

Answer: Laos

The Mekong River flows from the Tibetan Plateau in China to its delta on Vietnam's southern coastline on the South China Sea. It forms over 1,750 kilometres (1,090 miles) of the border between the landlocked nation of Laos and its neighbour Thailand. Laos is located in the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula (also known as Mainland Southeast Asia) and is also bordered by China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma).

Much of the country is mountainous and covered by dense forest, while the climate is tropical with a rainy season that lasts from May to November each year.

The city of Vientiane became the capital of Laos in 1563 and is located on the Mekong River in the north of the country.

Answer: Mongolia

Mongolia covers a large chunk of central Asia (over 1.5 million square kilometres or 930,000 square miles) and is surrounded by Russia to the north and China to the south. The country's topography explains its low population density; much of its land area is covered by two major mountain ranges - the Altai Mountains in the west and south-west and the Khangai Mountains in the north and central areas. Mongolia's highest point is Khüiten Peak in the Altai Range on the border with China, which stands at just under 4,400 metres high (14,350 feet).

The Mongol Empire, founded by Genghis Khan in 1206, stretched over the whole of central Asia from the Pacific Ocean in the east to Eastern Europe in the west by the late 13th century. However, factors such as civil war and the Black Death led to a drastic decline in the power and size of the empire as early as the 14th century.

Answer: Nepal

The world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, sits on Nepal's northern border with China and is around 8,850 metres high (29,000 feet). In fact, eight of the top ten highest mountains on Earth are located either wholly or partially within Nepal - all of them in the Himalayas. Nepal's land area can be roughly split into four zones: the Himalayas in the far north; a more general Mountain Region to the south of the Himalaya Range; the Hill Region to the south of the mountainous area; and the Terai Region in the far south, which mainly consists of flat plains used for agriculture.

The areas of Nepal with an altitude of less than 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) generally have a tropical climate; this includes the Terai, most of the Hill Region and some lower portions of the Mountain Region.

The tropical climate means that Nepal's agriculture industry includes the production of fruits such as bananas, papayas, citrus fruits and mangoes, which might be more commonly associated with countries that have less snow and ice!