Superlative African Geography Trivia Quiz

Answer: Khartoum

The White Nile flows north from Lake Victoria, while the Blue Nile flows west from Lake Tana, in the Ethiopian Highlands. The two rivers meet at a location called al-Muqran ("The Confluence"), just north of the centre of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The photo shows the El Mek Nimr Bridge across the Blue Nile, linking downtown Khartoum with the satellite city of Khartoum North.

The White Nile gets its name from the pale-coloured clay carried in the water; the Blue Nile, on the other hand, is named from the dark silt caused by erosion of the fertile soil of the Ethiopian Highlands. Though the White Nile is longer, the Blue Nile carries about 60% of the water that will reach Egypt, and over 80% during the rainy season.

About 6,650 km (4,130 mi) long, the Nile has long been considered the world's longest river. However, research has suggested that the Amazon River - which is the world's largest river by discharge - may be slightly longer.

Answer: it is a dormant volcano

Both Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Elbrus are dormant volcanoes. Mount Kilimanjaro, which is also the world's highest free-standing mountain, has three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira: of these, only Kibo (which is also the highest of the three peaks) might erupt again, though its most recent volcanic activity dates from over 150,000 years ago. Mount Elbrus, on the other hand, has two volcanic domes, and its most recent eruptive activity is estimated to have occurred around 50 AD.

Neither of these mountains is higher than 6,000 m (19,685 ft): Kilimanjaro stands at an elevation of 5,895 m (19,341 ft), and Elbrus at 5,642 m (18,510 ft). Kilimanjaro is located south of the Equator, in East Africa (Tanzania), while Elbrus lies in the western part of the Caucasus. Though Kilimanjaro may have been known in antiquity, it does not appear in Greek myth, while Elbrus is likely to have been the mountain to which the Titan Prometheus was chained.

Answer: Danakil

Lake Assal is a crater lake located in central-western Djibouti, in the geological depression known as the Afar Triangle. Its name means "honey", a rather odd fact considering that its waters have a very high level of salinity, about ten times that of the sea. This fact, which makes the lake the world's largest salt reserve, is due to high evaporation, as well as the lack of an outflow. With an elevation of 155 m (509 ft) below sea level, Lake Assal is not only the lowest point of the African continent, but also one of the world's three lowest points on dry land.

Shared by Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, the Danakil Desert is a region characterized by volcanic activity and extremely high temperatures: daytime temperatures of 50 ºC (122 ºF) and over are common, and rainfall is exceedingly scarce.

Of the three deserts listed as incorrect answers, the Negev is located in Asia (Israel), not in Africa.

Answer: Indonesia

Since Madagascar is the world's fourth-largest island, it is not surprising that it is also one of the largest island countries. With an area of 587,041 km² (226,658 sq mi), it is second only to Indonesia, which is over three times as big (1,904,569 km²/735,358 sq mi). Of the other three countries listed as incorrect choices, Papua New Guinea comes third after Indonesia and Madagascar, while the Philippines and New Zealand occupy sixth and seventh place.

As a country, Madagascar comprises the main island - located in the Indian Ocean, and separated from the mainland by the Mozambique Channel - and a number of smaller islands. The island separated from the Indian subcontinent after the breakup of the supercontinent of Gondwana, about 88 million years ago: this accounts for its unique flora and fauna, and also for its language (Malagasy), related to Southeast Asian languages such as Malay and Tagalog. The photo shows one of Madagascar's most famous places, the Avenue of Baobabs near Morondava, in the western part of the country.

Answer: it is a saltwater lake

With a surface area of about 59,947 km² (23,146 sq mi), Lake Victoria is the world's second-largest freshwater lake after Lake Superior, and the largest tropical lake. This huge expanse of water is divided among Kenya to the east, Tanzania to the southeast, and Uganda to the north and west. About 80% of the lake's water comes from rainfall; the rest comes from a number of rivers, the largest of which is the Kagera. The White Nile (Q. 1) is the only river flowing out of Lake Victoria: the photo shows the mighty river's headwaters, near the town on Jinja (Uganda), on the northern shore.

Lake Victoria was named after Queen Victoria by famed British explorer John Hanning Speke in 1858, during his first expedition with Richard Burton (another renowned explorer and scholar) in search of the source of the Nile. Speke was also the first person to map the lake.

Answer: Eritrea

At the time of writing, Africa comprises a staggering 63 sovereign countries. The landlocked African countries are no fewer than 16: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, eSwatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Some of these countries (such as Uganda, as mentioned in Q. 6) have coastlines on lakes, though no direct access to the sea. In addition, the Democratic Republic of the Congo - Africa's second-largest country - has an extremely short coastline (37 km/23 mi) on the Atlantic Ocean. All these countries taken together occupy a large share of the continent, as some of them are quite vast.

Eritrea has an extensive coastline on the Red Sea: when the country became independent in 1993, it left Ethiopia without access to the sea. The photo shows a detail of the mountains near Asmara, Eritrea's capital city.

Europe also has 16 landlocked countries, though the number goes up if Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and the partially recognized state of South Ossetia are considered part of Europe rather than Asia.

Answer: Sardinia

Located near the historic city of Bizerte, Cape Angela (Ras Enjela in Arabic) is a rocky headland on the Mediterranean Sea whose tip, Ras ben Sakka, was officially declared Africa's northernmost point in 2014. A lighthouse stands on the headland, as well as the monument shown in the photo - an outline of the African continent with Tunisia highlighted in bronze. Previously, the distinction of northernmost point of Africa was held by Cap Blanc (Ras al-Abyad), located less than 1 km (0.62 mi) east of Ras ben Sakka, which reaches about 30 m (98 ft) further north.

The designation of this site as northernmost point of Africa has boosted tourism to the area, which offers beautiful beaches with a warm Mediterranean climate. The two largest Mediterranean islands, Sicily and Sardinia, are located at a relatively short distance from the cape. The Sardinia Canal separates the island from the Tunisian mainland: the distance between the Tunisian coast and Cape Teulada, the southernmost point of Sardinia, is about 185 km (115 mi). Sicily lies to the north-east of the Tunisian coast, across the Strait of Sicily.

Answer: Cape Agulhas

Named "Cabo das Agulhas" (Cape of Needles - a likely reference to the magnetic fields that affected compass needles in the area) by the Portuguese, Cape Agulhas is located in the South African province of Western Cape. It lies about 150 km (93 mi) to the southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, which in the past was believed to be the southern tip of Africa, the point where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans divide. Though the region around the Cape is renowned for its pleasant Mediterranean climate and its abundant fishing grounds, the sea off the Cape is prone to violent winter storms and rogue waves that pose a serious hazard to navigation. The meeting of the warm Agulhas Current and the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current is largely responsible for these conditions.

Cape Matapan is the southernmost point of the European mainland, while Cape Farewell is the southernmost point of Greenland, and Cape Dezhnev the easternmost point of mainland Asia.

Answer: Addis Ababa

With an elevation of 2,355 m (7,726 ft) above sea level, Addis Ababa is the fourth-highest national capital after La Paz, Quito and Bogotá. The capital of Ethiopia since 1886, the city lies at the foot of Mount Entoto, the highest peak of the Entoto Mountains, a region of the Ethiopian highlands. The predecessor of Addis Ababa as capital of the Ethiopian Empire, established by emperor Menelik II, is located on Mount Entoto; the photo shows the 19th-century Maryam Church.

Asmara, the capital of Eritrea (Q. 6), and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, are also among the ten highest capitals in the world. Another twelve African capitals sit at elevations higher than 1,000 m (3,281 ft); however, none of the three cities listed as wrong answers are among them, as they all lie at sea level.

Answer: Lesotho

One of Africa's sixteen landlocked countries (Q. 6), Lesotho is completely surrounded by the territory of South Africa - sharing the same situation as the much smaller San Marino and Vatican City, both located within Italy. Because of its status as an enclave, Lesotho relies on South Africa for much of its livelihood. The country is divided into three regions: the highlands, the lowlands, and the foothills in between. Given Lesotho's average elevation, even the lowlands would be high for the standards of many other countries: Lesotho's lowest point stands at an impressive 1,400 m (4,593 ft) above sea level. Though located just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, Lesotho has a temperate climate; snow is common during the winter in the lower-lying areas, while the higher peaks receive significant year-round snowfall.

The photo shows a group of traditional round-shaped houses with thatched roofs, called "mokhoro" ("rondavel" in South Africa), made of large stones held together with mortar mixed with cow dung.