A Pictorial Tour of the World's Lighthouses Quiz

Answer: Brazil

Cape Branco, or Ponta do Seixas, is in the Brazilian state of Paraíba. Located just five miles from the city of João Pessoa, the state capital, this is a tourist hotspot with amazing white sand beaches, excellent weather and plenty of cultural attractions too.

Answer: New Zealand

Listed in New Zealand's "Historic Places Trust Register", Bean Rock Lighthouse guards the entrance to Waitemata Harbor, south of Rangitoto Island in the Hauraki Gulf. Forming the northern and eastern coasts of the Auckland isthmus, Waitemata Harbor provides the main sea access to New Zealand's largest city (population 1.4 million).

The name comes from "Wai te Mataa", meaning 'sparkling waters' in the Maori language. Hauraki means 'north wind' in Maori. Technically part of the Pacific Ocean, the Hauraki Gulf covers an area of some 1,550 square miles (about one and a half times the size of Luxembourg). Largely protected from Pacific Ocean storms by Great Barrier island and Little Barrier Island, the majority of that area comprises the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

The coastal areas are popular with both swimmers and surfers.

Answer: Alaska

Unimak Island is both the largest and the easternmost in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. With an area of 1,571 square miles (a little less than half the size of Puerto Rico), it is the ninth-largest island in the U.S.A. The most significant feature of the island is Mount Shishaldin, one of the world's ten most active volcanoes.

The 2000 Census counted 64 people living on the island. The original 1903 lighthouse was destroyed by the after-effects of the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake. Although it was located almost 100 feet above sea level, the tsunami that followed the earthquake washed the lighthouse away, killing the five crew members in the process.

The lighthouse has been automated since 1971.

Answer: Hong Kong

Also known as Kap Sing Lighthouse, the lighthouse and the former keeper's brick cottage on Tang Lung Chau island to the west of Hong Kong was declared a national monument in 2000.
One of only five surviving pre-war lighthouses in Hong Kong, it is now automated and unmanned. For many years, though, the lighthouse keeper was Tang Lung Chau Island's only resident. The residence consisted of one living room plus a kitchen, a latrine and a store room. With no fresh water supply on the island, the lighthouse keeper used underground storage tanks to preserve rainwater collected from the roof.

Answer: Canada

The Cap-des-Rosiers Lighthouse is located at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in the Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of Quebec in eastern Canada. The 11,700 square mile peninsular (about the size of Belgium) extends along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. To its south, across Chaleur Bay and the Restigouche River lies the Maritime Province of New Brunswick.
The lighthouse itself perches at the top of a steep cliff overlooking the Saint Lawrence River where it flows into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1973.

Answer: Germany

The Pilsun Lighthouse is one of the shortest in the world: the tower is just 36 feet tall with its light only 49 feet above sea level. Situated on a dyke near the village of Pilsum in the municipality of Krummhörn in the extreme northwestern corner of Germany, it was built in 1889. For a quarter of a century it guided shipping from the North Sea south into the heart of western Germany along the narrow Emshörn channel.

In 1915, though, the light was turned off so that enemy ships during World War I could not use it to navigate the waterway.

By the time the war ended three years later, the route of the river had been altered so that it no longer flowed past Pilsun, which is why the lighthouse in the photograph appears to be surrounded by grassland -- it is!

Answer: Portugal

The Portuguese built Fort Aguada in 1613 to guard their shipping and their trade routes primarily against the Dutch and an Indian warrior caste called the Maratha. The fort complex is located in Goa, today India's smallest state. The largest city in Goa is Vasco da Gama, which acts as a reminder of the region's long association with Portugal.

Indeed, it was a colony known as Portuguese India for some 450 years, until annexed by India in 1961. Passing ships would often stop here to top up water supplies -- a nearby fresh spring gave the fort its name (Aguada meaning 'water' in Portuguese).

Answer: Cape Agulhas Point

South Africa's second-oldest still-operating lighthouse (after Green Point in Cape Town, which opened in 1824), the Cape Agulhas Lighthouse is an 89-foot high round tower. Its light rotates and flashes once every five seconds and has a range of 35 miles. Named "Cabo das Agulhas" (Cape of Needles) by the Portuguese, Cape Agulhas is a rocky headland that is the official point dividing the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.

The southernmost point in Africa, Cape Agulhas lies 105 miles southeast of Cape Town.

The relatively shallow waters surrounding the point provide excellent fishing grounds but, when combined with fierce winter storms and mammoth rogue waves they are bad news for sailors and the coast here is littered with wrecks.

Answer: Scotland

The Bell Rock Lighthouse stands in the North Sea off the east coast of Scotland, eleven miles east of the Firth of Tay.
Robert Stephenson was a Scottish civil engineer who was particularly well-known for designing and building lighthouses. Building the Bell Rock Lighthouse was his most impressive achievement -- the construction was so impressive that no improvements have been needed in more than two centuries -- and it has been described as one of the "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World".
It was estimated that by the end of the 18th Century approximately six ships a year were being lost off the coast of Angus in eastern Scotland, hence the need to undertake such a challenging engineering task. The conical white tower is built out of Aberdeen granite and is 116 feet tall. The light is visible at a distance of 30 nautical miles.

Answer: Ireland

Skellig Michael is the larger of the two Skellig Islands in the Atlantic Ocean around seven miles from County Kerry in the southwestern corner of Ireland. A Christian monastery built on the island was continuously inhabited for some 700-800 years before finally being abandoned in the 12th Century, The remains of the monastery and everything else on the island, including the Skellig Lighthouse, were designated as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.