Uncarted Lands Trivia Quiz

Answer: Russia

You have no idea how big Russia is - and how uninhabited and flat it is - until you fly over it! For the entire flight from Japan to England, the only lights we saw were those as we approached its capital city, Moscow. There were just endless coniferous forests (taiga) and grassy plains (steppes) from go to whoa on our northern flight path! Of course, in the southern parts of Russia there are mountain ranges - the Caucasus, Urals, Pamirs and Tien Shan - and in the western parts of Russia, where the climate is milder, the population is denser. For a country with 17.1 million square kilometres, Russia appears to be vastly undeveloped, but it does make beautiful Matryoshka dolls that I just can't wait to get my hands on!

Answer: China

With an area of 9,600,000 square kilometres, China has moved away from being a 'closed' land to one where tourism abounds and beautiful landscapes - depicted delicately on silk-screens hanging on the walls of many western homes - are now being pervaded by dams, power stations and industrial and residential complexes. Cities we once never knew existed now roll off our tongues like Paris, Rome and Berlin - Tiensin, Yunang, Chungkin! Of course, traditional China still exists and while it does I want to visit the silk farming areas and cart away as much of that exquisite material as I can!

Answer: Canada

Oh Canada! I was so close to carting things around in your land, but I was already overloaded with American stuff and had to head home. With a total area of 9,984,671 square kilometres it would probably take at least a year to travel this vast land which spans from the North Pacific Ocean to the North Atlantic Ocean and claims the magnetic North Pole within its Arctic territory. As maple syrup is a high energy food, I'd need to cart tons of it around in order to sustain me!

Answer: Uganda

The Nile River, near Jinja in Uganda on the lake's northern shore, is the primary outflow draining Lake Victoria. At the point where it flows out of Lake Victoria, the Nile is known as the Victoria Nile. Its catchment area covers 184,000 square kilometres from the basins of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, and its surface area covers 68,800 square kilometres making it the world's largest tropical lake. Named after Queen Victoria, the lake was discovered in 1858 by the explorers John Hanning Speke and Richard Francis on an expedition to locate the source of the Nile River.

The Top Gear gang recreated this expedition but turned it into a side-splitting comedy by carting around an armchair (attached to the roof of one of their vehicles) in order to provide comfort during rest stops!

Answer: Israel

Israel has lured me since I was a little girl, begging me to cart things around in it - especially souvenirs of the Holy Land - but due to the never-ending risk of unfriendly fire it's no longer at the top of my bucket list of 'uncarted' lands to visit. From the pictures I've seen of Israel, the transformation of parts of its 20,770 square kilometres from a pre-WW2 barren desert to an oasis of fertile irrigated land growing everything imaginable has been a miracle befitting this land of historical miracles! Of course, the Negev desert, covering about 16,000 square kilometres, still dominates much of Southern Israel.

At the Jordan border - north of the Negev in the Judean Desert - is the Dead Sea (the lowest point on Earth); and at its northern border with Lebanon are snow-capped mountains.

Answer: Norway

Ever since seeing a picture of an inebriated friend wearing a Sami hat while posing next to a fjord I've not only wanted to visit Norway but to get my hands on one of those Sami hats too! With a total land area of 385,199 square kilometres, Norway is a long, skinny, rugged land located on the western and northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula.

It borders the North Sea, the Skagerrak inlet, the North Atlantic Ocean (also known as the Norwegian Sea) and the Barents Sea to the northeast; and its neighbours are Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Its highest point is the Galdhøpiggen (2469 metres); its longest river is the Glomma (604 kilometres); its largest lake is the Mjøsa (362 square kilometres); and it has about 50,000 small islands off its coastline.

Its landscape is often likened to Scotland's and that's because the two lands were once joined. Ice movement during the Earth's Ice Ages has carved out deep valleys, creating Norway's fjords and Scotland's lochs.

Answer: Greece

Located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Greece is the birthplace of western civilisation and is steeped in deep history. With a total area of 131,957 square kilometres, Greece consists of a large mainland and two peninsulas (the Chalkidice and the Peloponnese) projecting from it, separated by the Isthmus of Corinth.

Its largest islands are Crete, Euboea and Rhodes; and, because of its vast number of islands, it boasts the largest coastline in the Mediterranean Basin (13,676 kilometres).

It's a largely mountainous land and Mount Olympus, the home of the ancient Greek Gods, is its highest peak at 2,919 metres above sea level. Providing a natural border with Bulgaria are the Rhodope Mountains, and the Pindus range crosses the centre of the country, extending across the Peloponnese, under the Aegean and joining up with the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey. Greece's climate zones include Mediterranean, Temperate and Alpine, so it sounds like a land in which I'll be carting around of lot of luggage full of seasonal clothing even before I've bought the souvenirs!

Answer: Peru

Being on the western coast of the South American continent, Peru is not as well travelled as Brazil and Argentina on the eastern coast but its history is fascinating and its landscape is breathtaking (from the pictures I've seen). With Lima as its capital city, Peru was the home of the fabulous Inca Empire before Spain invaded in the 16th century.

Its independence from Spain was formally proclaimed in 1821, but it was not until after the battle of Ayacucho, three years later, that independence was ensured. With a total area of 1,285,216 square kilometres, Peru has an extensive area of rainforest in its north-eastern parts on the Amazon River which is separated by the Andes Mountains from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region.

The most famous tourist attraction in Peru, of course, is the citadel of Machu Picchu, an iconic Inca landmark which everyone must visit and cart things around in before they shake off their mortal coils!

Answer: Philippines

With a total area of 300,000 square kilometres, the Philippine archipelago of 7,107 islands is divided into three island groups - Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao - which are identified by the three stars on the Philippine flag. Its highest point is Mount Apo (2,954 metres); its lowest point is the Galathea Depth (10,540 metres below sea level); its longest river is the Cagayan River; and its largest lake is Laguna de Bay.

As part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippine islands are in an active volcano region prone to earthquakes. Mount Pinatubo on Luzon erupted in 1991 and Mount Mayon has had a violent history of eruptions since 1616 during the time when the Philippine islands were colonies of Spain.

A revolutionary period between 1896-98 (followed by the Spanish-American War of 1898) made the islands American colonies until 1946, and I can't wait to visit this 'uncarted' land and stuff as many stylish shoes into my luggage as I can!

Answer: Cuba

It's probably politically incorrect to express admiration for a country that has been under the rule of a dictator for more than half a century and has more people trying to leave it than travel to it, but it has a very romantic history of dance and literature that prevails despite its political upheavals and one day it will return to its former glory. With a total area of 110,860 square kilometres, Cuba lies in the Caribbean Sea, west of the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Gulf of Mexico and south of the Straits of Florida. Guantanamo Bay, of course, is where an American Naval Base is located and is classified as United States territory. Cuba has several mountain ranges - the Sierra Cristal and the Sierra Maestra in the southeast, the Escambray Mountains in the centre of the island, and the Sierra del Rosario in the northwest - but the overall terrain is mostly flat.

The highest peak is Pico Turquino at 1,974 metres in the Sierra Maestra range. What you may not know about Cuba is that it has limited fresh water, so visitors should cart as much bottled water into the country as the cigars they cart out of it!