The Union of the Comoros Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mozambique Channel

The 1,000-mile long Mozambique Channel separates Mozambique from Madagascar. It is almost 600 miles across at its widest point. It is 286 miles across at its narrowest, between Angoche in Mozambique and Tambohorano on the Madagascar side. The Comoros Archipelago is at the northern end of the channel.

The alternatives are all bodies of water within the Indian Ocean: the Kardiva Channel separates the northern and central atolls within the Maldives; the Geographe Channel is the northern part of Shark Bay, off the coast of Western Australia; and the Ten Degree Channel runs between the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Answer: About half the size of Rhode Island

At 719 square miles, only two African countries (both also island nations) are smaller... With an area of 372 square miles, São Tomé and Príncipe is about half the size of the Comoros; with an area of just 175 square miles, the Seychelles would fit just over four times into the Comoros.

The smallest U.S. state, Rhode Island, has a total area of 1,545 square miles (almost a third of which is water), so the Comoros are just less than half of its size. Delaware is much larger, 2,489 sq miles, so the Comoros would fit more than three times into that state. Washington DC has an area of 68 square miles, so would actually fit more than ten times into the Comoros rather than just twice. Guam has an area of 571 square miles, so it only about 80% of the size of the Comoros.

Answer: Moon

The Arabic word "qamar" means "moon".

Answer: Mayotte

The southern island of Mayotte is not officially part of the Union of the Comoros even though it is geographically in the archipelago. It has remained an overseas department of France since voting against independence in 1974. There have been numerous United Nations resolutions to give the Comoros sovereignty over the island, but all have been vetoed by France.

A referendum held in 2009 saw the people of Mayotte vote overwhelmingly to remain part of France.

Answer: Mount Karthala

Mount Karthala is the southernmost and the larger of the two shield volcanoes that formed the largest of the Comoros islands, Grande Comore. One of the world's most active volcanoes, Mount Karthala has erupted more than 20 times since the start of the 19th Century.

The alternatives are three more active volcanoes: Mount Iraya is a 3,300-foot volcano on Batan Island in the Philippines; Mount Dempo is the highest strato-volcano in South Sumatra Province in Indonesia; Mount Eniwa is a 4,300-foot active volcano in the Shikotsu-Toya National Park in Hokkaidô, Japan.

Answer: Bat

Livingstone's Fruit Bat, discovered in Comoros by the Scottish explorer in 1863, is the world's largest bat, with a wingspan of around six feet. Common when discovered in the 19th century, they have become critically endangered with their numbers down to around 120 individual animals exclusively on one of the Comoros islands (2012 data).

More than 20 species of bird are also unique to the Comoros, including the Karthala Scops-Owl, the Anjouan Scops-Owl and the Humblot's Flycatcher. The Mongoose Lemur, originally introduced from Madagascar is also now found only on two islands in the Comoros.

Answer: Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport

Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport is located in Hahaia, ten miles north of the capital, which is why its IATA airport code is "HAH".

The alternatives are three more international airports in East Africa: Yohannes IV International Airport (aka Asmara International) is the airport serving the Eritrean capital, Asmmara. Bole International Airport is the main airport for Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Bujumbura International Airport is the major route into Burundi, located on the outskirts of the capital, Bujumbura.

Answer: Portuguese

Comorian, which is also known as "Shikomor" (meaning "language of the islands"), is a based on Swahili dialects but with stronger Arabic influence than normal. It is part of the Niger-Congo family of languages. The country's national anthem, "Udzima wa ya Masiwa" (meaning "The Union of the Great Islands" in English) is written and sung in Comorian. The other two official languages of the Comoros are Arabic and French. The islands were never colonized by Portugal so there are no native speakers of that language in the archipelago.

Answer: km

The Union of Comoros is "Udzima wa Komori" in the Comorian language. Consequently, Comoros uses the Internet TLD (Top Level Directory) 'km'. Similarly, the ISO (International Standards Organization) Code that identifies the world's currencies uses "KMF" for the Comoros Franc.

Of the alternatives: "co" is used by Colombia, "cm" by Cameroon, and "cs" was originally allocated to Czechoslovakia prior to that country's breakup.

Answer: Green

The "crescent and four stars" design, which represents Islam, has featured on Comoros flags since independence in 1975. The modern flag was adopted in 2002 and features the design in white within a green triangle. (The various designs of flag used between 1978 and 2002 were all green with a white design.) The outer portion of the new flag has four equal-sized horizontal stripes of yellow, white red and blue (descending), each color representing one of the four islands of the archipelago.