Places Beginning with 'B' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Berlin

The exception is Berlin, which stands on the rivers Havel and Spree. The Danube runs well south of Berlin, rising in the Black Forest of southwestern Germany and flowing through or touching the borders of ten countries on its way to the Black Sea. On the way, it passes through four capital cities, Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest and Vienna.
The other European 'B' capitals are Berne, Bucharest and Brussels.
The photo shows the coat of arms of Berlin.

Answer: Botswana

With an area of 225,000 square miles, Botswana is more than twice the size of any of the alternatives. The world's 48th-largest country, it is very similar is size to other African nations, Kenya and Madagascar. For our American viewers, that is slightly bigger than the 5th-largest state, New Mexico.

Of the alternatives, the former French colony of Upper Volta now called Burkina Faso covers 105,393 sq miles, which is very similar in size to New Zealand and the US state of Colorado. With an area of 43,484 sq miles Benin is the same size as Honduras in Central America and slightly smaller than Ohio. The relatively tiny Burundi has an area of just 10,747 sq miles, similar to Haiti and the US state of Massachusetts.
The photo is the flag of Botswana.

Answer: Idaho

Situated on the Boise River near its confluence with the Snake River, Boise, the capital of Idaho, straddled a junction of the Oregon Trail and a main road to the silver-mining regions that were booming in the mid-1800s. With a population of just over 200,000 at the 2010 census, it is now the largest city between Portland OR and Salt Lake City UT.

Of the alternatives, Bismark ND was founded in 1872 and has been state capital since statehood was achieved in 1889. Although home to only 60,000, it is the second-largest city in North Dakota, after Fargo. At 230,000, Baton Rouge is still significantly smaller than Louisiana's largest city, New Orleans. Founded in 1719, it was incorporated in 1817 and became the state capital in 1849. With a population of over 600,000, Boston is the largest city in New England. One of the oldest cities in the U.S., it dates back to 1630, founded by Puritan colonists from England.
The photo shows the State Capitol in downtown Boise ID.

Answer: Brahmaputra-Tsangpo

None of the world's longest 25 rivers start with 'B', but the Brahmaputra-Tsangpo is easily the longest of those that do, weighing in at 1,832 miles in length which is 29th on the world list. What the Brahmaputra-Tsangpo loses in length, it certainly makes up for in the volume of water it carries -- discharging 19,200 cubic meters of water per second, it is the world's eighth largest river in this respect. It begins as a glacier on the northern side of the Himalayas in Tibet and then it passes through India and into Bangladesh where it feeds into the mighty Ganges River.

Of the alternatives, the Blue Nile begins in Lake Tana in Ethiopia. 994 miles later, it meets the Nile at Khartoum in Sudan. The Beni River (or Rio Beni in Spanish) is a major river in Bolivia. Rising north of La Paz, it crosses the pampas and then flows through the Amazon rainforest for nearly 1,000 miles before uniting with the Mamoré River at the Brazilian border to form the Madeira River, a major tributary of the Amazon. The Brazos River is the longest river in Texas and the 11th-longest in the U.S. It starts its 1,280-mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico in Curry County, New Mexico.
The photo shows the flooded plains along the Brahmaputra River in Assam province.

Answer: Barisan Mountains

The Barisan Mountain Range is a 1,050-mile long chain of 35 active volcanoes covered with dense jungle. They run along the western edge of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Kerinci is also the highest point in Sumatra, although not in Indonesia (that is Puncak Jaya in Papua which rises 16,024 feet).

None of the alternatives are in Asia. The Bakossi Mountains are also volcanic, but they are to be found in Cameroon in Africa. Their highest peak is Mount Kupe at 6,772 feet. The Belasica Mountains are to be found in Europe, specifically in Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria. Their highest point is Radomir Peak at 6,657 feet. The Bendeleben Mountains are named for their highest peak, the 3,730 foot high Mount Bendeleben. They are located in the U.S., on the Seward Peninsula near Nome, Alaska.

Answer: Bhutan

The odd one out is Bhutan, whose capital and largest city is Thimphu. The city became the capital of the landlocked Himalayan state 1961 and in 2005 had a population just under 80,000 (about 15% of the country's total).

Of the alternatives, which all follow alliterative rules: Belmopan is the capital of Belize, the only country in Central America with English as its official language. Bujumbura is the capital of Burundi which was formerly the Belgian colony of Ruanda-Urundi. The impressively-named but impossible to remember Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital of the "Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace", which is a sovereign state on the north coast of the island of Borneo.

The other alliterative 'B' countries are Belgium (capital: Brussels), Brazil (capital: Brasilia) and Barbados (capital: Bridgetown).
The photo shows the Bhutan capital, Thimphu, with the Himalayan Mountains in the background.

Answer: Bananal Island

Bananal Island is the world's largest fluvial island (i.e. a land mass within a river). In fact, it is hundreds of miles from the nearest sea, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest in Tocantins Province in central Brazil. The island is formed by a fork in a flat section of the Araguaia Rive, but it's no dimple -- with an area of 7,400 square miles Bananal Island is almost twice the size of Jamaica.

Of the alternatives: located in the Northwest Territories, Banks Island is Canada's second largest after Baffin Island. Hardly a mere dot in the water, with an area of 27,000 square miles, it is slightly larger than Sri Lanka. Home to 175,000 and slightly larger than Cyprus, Bougainville Island is the main island of the autonomous Bougainville region of Papua New Guinea. Also known as the North Solomons, it is part of the Solomon Islands chain, but the Solomon Islands themselves are a separate, independent state. Bathurst Island is a 1,000 square mile island off the north coast of Australia's Northern Territory. There is also a larger Bathurst Island within the Queen Elizabeth Islands which are part of Canada's Nunavut Territory. Both were named after Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, an early 19th-century British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies.
The photo shows the Araguaia River in central Brazil.

Answer: Bellingshausen Sea

All four options have a Russian connection but geographically this one is not a close judgement call as to which is further south -- the Bellingshausen Sea is in Antarctica whilst the other three all have physical borders with Russia. Named for the Russian explorer Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshausen, who visited Antarctic waters in 1821, the Bellingshausen Sea is an area of some 188,000 square miles (almost the size of Spain) on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The alternatives are all very much in the northern hemisphere. Known as the Murman Sea in the Middle Ages, the Barents Sea was renamed after Dutch navigator Willem Barents. Part of the Arctic Ocean, it lies to the north of Norway and western Russia. Named after Danish navigator Vitus Bering, the Bering Sea separates Alaska on the east from Russia's Siberia and Kamchatka Peninsulas in the west. Called the "'Hospitable Sea" by the Greeks and Romans, the Black Sea has coastlines in Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Turkey. It is much further south than the other two, but still not close to Antarctica.
The photo shows a NASA picture of ice covering the Bellingshausen Sea.

Answer: Baltimore MD

My guess is that if I had asked for the smallest of the four, a high proportion of people would have opted for Bakersfield, CA but, perhaps surprisingly, it is actually the second largest of them. The largest is Baltimore, Maryland, its 620,000 population making it the country's 26th-largest city, only slightly smaller than its neighbor, Washington DC. Former US Vice-President Spiro Agnew, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, novelist Leon Uris, singer 'Mama' Cass Elliot, actor David Hasselhoff and baseball legend Babe Ruth were all born in Baltimore, MD.

Of the alternatives: with a population of 358,000 Bakersfield, CA, is the country's 56th-largest city but only the 9th-largest in California. It is located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Buffalo is smaller than Anchorage, AK, but is still the 2nd-largest city in New York state. It is the only city in the state in which you can watch NFL football, since both the New York Jets and the New York Giants play their home games on the west side of the Hudson River in New Jersey. Birmingham, Alabama, just makes it into the 200,000+ club as America's 100th-largest city. Major iron and steel industries earned Birmingham the nickname "The Pittsburgh of the South".
The photo shows a view of downtown Baltimore.

Answer: Basseterre

Basseterre is the odd one out -- it is the capital and largest city of the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis which is also known as St Kitts & Nevis. Located in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean, this is a former British dependency of Anguilla. With a total area of just 104 square miles, about two-thirds the size of the Isle of Wight, it is the smallest sovereign state in the whole of the Americas. About one third of the country's total population of 50,000 live in the capital.
Of the alternatives: Bangui is the capital the Central African Republic, which was the French Congo prior to independence. Banjul (formerly called Bathurst) is the capital of the former British colony of The Gambia. Brazzaville is the capital of the former French colony of Equatorial Africa now known as the Republic of Congo. It is sometimes called Congo-Brazzaville to differentiate it from the Democratic Republic of Congo aka Congo-Kinshasa.
Other African 'B' capitals are Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, Bamako the capital of Mali and Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi.
The photo shows the flag of St Kitts & Nevis.