Friday, October 26, 2007

A geography lesson inspired by the CIA Factbook and my shower curtain

Did you know Lichtenstein (which is so small it's not even on my shower curtain, although Andorra is) and Uzbekistan are the only 2 double landlocked countries on the planet?

Double landlocked means that they are surrounded by other landlocked countries. There are 41 landlocked countries in the world. Kazakhstan is the largest.

So after I figured that part out, I started wondering about seas because Uzbekistan has a sea coast (Aral Sea) and Kazakhstan does too (Caspian Sea). Now to me, that seems to negate the whole landlocked thing, but apparently not. Anyway, then from the question about the sea came the question about the bay...I think you get the picture. My mind is always on a treadmill like this. It's sort of exhausting. So...

A bay is a body of water partially enclosed by land, but with a wide mouth affording access to the sea.

A sea is defined as either a relatively large body of salt water completely or partially enclosed by land OR a relatively large landlocked body of fresh water.

My last geographical factoid didn't come from my shower curtain but from trivia night (although I did confirm it there the next time I took a shower). There are 17 countries that have a border with only one other country. For example, Portugal - the only border is with Spain. Also, Lesotho (S. Africa), Vatican City (Italy) and Ireland (UK), which I guess means that UK fits the bill too (Ireland). If you want to know the rest, I can't help you. I can't remember any more.

My brain hurts, and I think I need to go lie down. I'm an American; I'm not supposed to know these things.

In addition to my shower curtain, special thanks goes to Elly who helped me figure out what double landlocked was.

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