Silly Geography Questions (for Kids)

Dr. Phillip M. Feldman

Introduction

Geography is often considered a dry subject, despite the fact that 71 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water. What can we do about this? (I'm referring to the attitude—not the fact that 71 percent of the surface is covered by water. Don't start up about grammar and antecedents; we're learning geography at the moment—not English). With this page, I offer a modest demonstration of one approach—introducing a bit of humor.

The following questions are ordered by difficulty, with the easiest questions appearing first. An answer can be counted as correct only if the spelling is correct; there is no partial credit except as noted. In solving these, it is fair game to use (only) the following resources:

• any encyclopedia (printed or online), and

• my online Place Name Puzzle Solver.

Most of the questions ask for the name of a city or cities. You may wish to use the Place Name Puzzle Solver, which can be employed as follows:

1. Type the name of a country or U.S. state appearing in the question into the "Country, U.S. State, or Canadian Province" field.

2. Clear the "City" field.

3. Click on the green button.

This will produce a list of cities in the Place Name Puzzle Solver's database that match the specified criteria. Most answers come from this list. Good luck!

To submit a question (and answer) to be considered for addition to this page, send me an e-mail (webmaster@phillipmfeldman.org) and indicate how you wish to be credited, e.g., "Roberta Q., age 96, Wazoo City, Alabama".

Questions

1. (1 point) Name a city in France where mean people are scarce. Give up or check your answer.

   Nice (The actual pronunciation is like the English word niece. The French are completely mixed up when it comes to pronunciation).

2. (1 point) Name the German city where the people eat primarily hot dogs. Give up or check your answer.

   Frankfurt (Frankfurter and wiener—the latter derives from the German name for the Austrian city of Vienna—are other names for the hot dog. The frankfurter / wiener / hot dog was a cultural import to the United States from Germany and Austria).

3. (1 point) Name the German city where the consumption of hot dogs is frowned upon, if not actually forbidden. Give up or check your answer.

   Hamburg

4. (2 points) In the United Kingdom, feminists were falsely accused of demanding that the name of this city be changed to begin with Person. What is the full name of this city? Give up or check your answer.

   Manchester (For more on this subject, see my article When Political Correctness Goes Too Far).

5. (1 point) What country name completes the following sentence? "_____ my brains to think of a solution for this country's myriad woes." Give up or check your answer.

   Iraq

6. (1 point) Explain why no one climbs the Eurasian Steppes. Give up or check your answer.

   The word steppe means semi-arid grassland or shrubland. Because the steppes have little topography—in plain English, they are largely flat— climbing is impossible.

7. (2 points—1 point for each city) If not careful when traveling, you might end up at city A in New Zealand instead of city B in California, or vice versa. Identify cities A and B.
   
   Click here for two free (no point penalty) hints.

   Hint #1: The names of these two cities end with the same five letters.

   Hint #2: To obtain a list of cities in New Zealand and California, use the Place Name Puzzle Solver as follows:

   1. Type  New Zealand|California  in the "Country, U.S. State, or Canadian Province" field.

   2. Clear the "City" field.

   3. Click on the green button.

   Give up or check your answer.
   
   The two cities are Auckland and Oakland. This answer is not as silly as you might think. There was an actual incident in which a student returning from Europe to Oakland arrived in Auckland by mistake.

8. (2 points—1 point for each city) Name a city in India where gamblers tend to do well and a city in France where they tend to lose. [To all children who are reading this page: I advise against playing games of chance for money.]
   
   Give up or check your answer.

   The city in India is Lucknow and the city in France is Toulouse (pronounced like to lose).

9. (2 points) In Russia, when a woman wants to have her hair curled or straightened, to what city does she go? Give up or check your answer.

   Perm

10. (3 points) What Spanish city was named after one of the main characters in J. R. R. Tolkein's classic The Hobbit?
    
    Click here for a free (no point penalty) hint.

    Hint: The name of the protagonist in this story begins with the letter B.
    Give up or check your answer.
    Bilbao (There is actually no connection to the fictional character of Bilbo Baggins).

11. (6 points possible if answered without any hints) Stanley ("Stan") likes to travel to unusual places and is somewhat heedless of personal safety. Stanley visited five countries in the former Soviet Union. The specific countries chosen might have something to do with his nickname. For five points—one point per country—name these five countries. One of these countries is larger than all of the others combined. For one point, name this country.
    
    Click here for a small hint; there is a 2-point penalty.

    Small hint: You can use the Place Name Puzzle Solver to obtain a list of all countries ending with "stan":

    1. Type *stan (an asterisk followed by "stan") into the country field.

    2. Clear the city field.

    3. Click on the green button.

    Note that two of these countries were not in the Soviet Union, although one of them was occupied by Soviet troops for several years.
    
    
    Lazy puzzle solvers may click here for a massive hint; there is a 5-point penalty.
    

    Give up or check your answer.

    The five countries are Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyistan. Kazakhstan has more land area than all of the others combined.

12. (2 points) Denizens of this country are known for their slovenly behavior. Name this country.
    
    Click here for a free (no point penalty) hint.

    Hint: This country was part of the former Yugoslavia.
    
    
    Give up or check your answer.
    
    Slovenia [Although the word Slovenia does sound like the English word slovenly, the similarity ends there. Slovenians are generally neatly dressed and clean.]

13. (2 points) When visiting this country, one may experience some flippancy. Name the country.
    
    Click here for a free (no point penalty) hint.

    Hint: This country, which consists of many islands, is located in both Southeast Asia and the western Pacific Ocean.
    
    
    Give up or check your answer.
    
    The Philippines [Contrary to anything that this answer might imply, the Filipino people are generally polite.]

14. (3 points) What Russian city is named after the fastest animal on land? Give up or check your answer.

    Chita (There is actually no connection to the cheetah).

15. (3 points for each city for a total of 6 points) Name a city in Russia and a city in one of the five countries visited by Stanley (see above) where criminal wizards are imprisoned.
    
    Click here for a free (no point penalty) hint.

    Hint: The names of these two cities are similar in sound to a place that is named in the Harry Potter stories.
    
    
    Give up or check your answer.
    
    
    The two cities are Astrakhan (in Russia) and Ashgabat (in Turkmenistan). These should not be confused with the fortunately mythical Azkaban.

16. (3 points if both names answered correctly without hints) Our friend Stanley visited a major city in Turkey. What is the name of this city, and what was its previous name?
    
    Click here for hints; there is a 1-point penalty.

    Hint #1: You can use the Place Name Puzzle Solver to obtain a list of all cities containing "stan":

    1. Clear the country field.

    2. Type *stan* into the city field.

    3. Click on the green button.

    Hint #2: You can look up the name of this city in Wikipedia to find its previous name.

    Give up or check your answer.

    The current name of this city is Istanbul. The previous name was Constantinople.

17. (3 points) Name the Polish city where the food is the least appetizing. (Hint: How would this city's English name would be pronounced if one sounded it out phonetically?) Give up or check your answer.

    Wroclaw (Think "raw claw"). The Polish spelling is "Wrocław". When a foreign word contains letters that are not present in English, or has a pronounciation that differs markedly from what a speaker/reader of English reader would expect, it is common to modify the spelling of the word so that only English letters are used, and so that the resulting spelling provides a good indication of the correct pronunciation. This process is known as transliteration. In this case, the transliteration is rather inaccurate; a more accurate but somewhat unwieldy transliteration would be "Vraht-slahf". (In Polish, as in Russian, the c is pronounced like an s in English).

18. (3 points) What city in China is named after a Japanese form of poetry characterized by brevity? Give up or check your answer.

    Haikou (The Japanese form of poetry is actually Haiku).

19. (3 points) What city in the Middle East is named after a popular comic book superhero? (Hint: The name of this city does not appear in the Place Name Puzzle Solver database, but it can be found in Google Maps). Give up or check your answer.

    Batman

    I acknowledge that there is a controversy as to whether Batman is truly a superhero. Click this link for a discussion of the subject.

Last update: 24 June, 2020