Geography Study Guide

Antarctica

(5.4 million sq. mi.) Because it is covered with (solid) water, it is somewhat surprising that _____ is considered a desert, but it is classified as such due to its lack of precipitation. Players should be familiar with its tallest mountain (Vinson Massif, in the Ellsworth Mountains), its active volcano Mount Erebus, the surrounding Ross and Weddell Seas, and the Ross Ice Shelf. Norwegian Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole (1911), while Englishman Robert Scott died trying to reach it. Ernest Shackleton had to abandon his ship, the Endurance, during an attempt to cross it on foot.

Rub' al-Khali

(Arabian Peninsula; 250,000 sq. mi.) The ____ ____ Desert's name means "Empty Quarter" in English and is considered the most inhospitable place on earth. It is known for the world's largest oil field, the Ghawar, and for once being part of the frankincense trade.

Mount Aconcagua

(Argentina) The subduction of the Nazca Plate formed ____ ____, the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere. Found near the city of Mendoza in Argentina, the peak straddles the Polish Glacier, which provides a popular route for climbers looking to ascend to the summit.

Mount Kosciuszko

(Australia) The name of Tadeusz _____, the Polish commander who fought in the American Revolutionary War, was appended to the tallest mountain in Australia by European explorers in the 19th Century. When it was discovered that a nearby mountain was actually taller, the names were switched so that _____ would remain the highest peak on the continent. The peak's name in Aboriginal languages, such as Jagungal or Tackingal, translates to "table-top mountain."

Kalahari

(Botswana, Namibia, South Africa; 360,000 sq. mi.) The _____ Desert is a large region, not all of which is arid enough to qualify as a desert. It is known for its red sand, large game reserves (meerkats, gemsbok, springbok, steenbok), and mineral deposits (notably uranium). Most famous are its San Bushmen and their click language.

Atacama

(Chile; 70,000 sq. mi.) The _____ Desert's chief claim to fame is the rain shadow of the Andes which makes it the driest (hot) desert in the world. The desert was the primary bone of contention in the War of the Pacific (1879-1883, Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia) that sought to control its nitrate resources (which were necessary for the production of explosives).

Gobi

(China and Mongolia; 500,000 sq. mi.) The _____ Desert, Asia's second largest desert (after the Arabian Desert), is bounded on the north by the Altai Mountains. It is known for its role in the Silk Road trading route and the Nemegt Basin, where fossilized dinosaur eggs and human artifacts have been found.

Mount Everest

(China and Nepal) The border between Nepal and China straddles the summit of the Himalayan peak _____, which, at a height of over 29,000 feet, is the tallest mountain in the world. The Khumbu Icefall and the cliff-like Three Steps are hazards faced by potential climbers, a feat first accomplished by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Local "Sherpas" act as guides for mountaineers in the area, though they walked out of the job over dangerous working conditions in 2014 after sixteen Sherpas were killed in an avalanche.

Taklamakan

(China; 105,000 sq. mi.) The _____ Desert is an extremely cold, sandy desert known for splitting the Silk Road into branches running north and south of it. It is bounded by the Kunlun, Pamir, and Tian Shan mountain ranges.

Negev

(Israel; 4,700 sq. mi.) The triangular _____ Desert covers the southern half of Israel.

Mount Fuji

(Japan) Yamanaka and Kawaguchi are two lakes found along the slopes of ____ ____, the tallest mountain in Japan. Found only about an hour's drive from Tokyo, the peak has significance in the Shinto religion, being sacred to the goddess Sengen-Sama. The mountain was also depicted in the series of prints Thirty-Six Views of ____ ____, drawn by Hokusai.

Mount Kenya

(Kenya) The second tallest mountain in Africa is ____ ____, which shares its name with the country in which it is located. British geographer and political theorist Halford Mackinder led the group that was the first to ascend the peak, which bypassed the Darwin Glacier and proceeded up the Diamond Glacier. Like a nearby mountain, it was formed by a now-dormant volcano, and, like the nearby mountain, part of its notoriety rests on a book. Facing ____ ____, an anthropological study of the Kikuyu by Jomo Kenyatta, was one of the first such texts by an African ethnographer to gain fame.

Namib

(Namibia and Angola; 30,000 sq. mi.) The _____ Desert, a coastal desert, is known for its bizarre Welwitschia and medicinal Hoodia plants. It is thought to be the oldest desert in the world.

Sahara

(Northern Africa; 3.5 million sq. mi.) The _____ is the world's second largest desert, but its largest hot desert. Players should know the Atlas Mountains (which bound the western Sahara on the north) and the Sahel, a savannah-like strip that bounds it on the south. It is dominated by rocky regions (hamada), sand seas (ergs), and salt flats (shatt) and dry river valleys (wadi) that are subject to flash floods. Its most asked-about inhabitants are the Berbers and Tuaregs.

K2

(Pakistan and China) Qogir, Ketu, and Mount Godwin-Austen are other names for _____, which gains its most common name from its distinction of being the second-tallest mountain in the world. The "K" in _____ stands for Karakoram, the mountain range in Pakistan and China in which the peak is found. The House's Chimney and the Black Pyramid are features of _____, which also possesses a different second-place record: behind the Annapurna Massif, it boasts the next-highest fatality rate among attempted climbers of any mountains above 8,000 meters.

Mount Kilimanjaro

(Tanzania) Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira are the three summits of ____ ____, which is the tallest peak in Africa. It is notable for also being the tallest mountain that is not part of a mountain range, having been formed by a now-extinct volcano. A corpse of a leopard is found on the top the mountain in "The Snows of _____," a short story by Ernest Hemingway that uses the mountain as the backdrop for the memories, and ultimately the death, of a writer suffering from gangrene.

Mojave

(U.S.; 25,000 sq. mi.) The _____ Desert is bounded by the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges along the San Andreas and Garlock Faults. It lies between the Great Basin and the Sonoran Desert and it contains the lowest and driest point in North America, Death Valley. It is most strongly associated with the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia).

Mount Mitchell

(United States) The Black Mountain subrange of the Appalachians is the location of ____ ____, the tallest peak in the United States found east of the Mississippi. This mountain, found in North Carolina, was the subject of a debate over its altitude between its namesake and Thomas Clingman, leading Elisha _____ to attempt another ascent in which he fell to his death.

Mount McKinley (Denali)

(United States) The highest mountain in North America, _____ (formerly and often called ____ ____) is located in south-central Alaska. It is the highlight of _____ National Park. The West Buttress route is considered the best path to ascend. Frederick Cook, a man notorious for having faked the discovery of the North Pole, is now believed to have also faked his ascent of the mountain in 1906 as well, leaving a climbing party seven years later with the honor. Its name means "The High One" in various native languages.

Great Sandy

(Western Australia; 140,000 sq. mi.) The ____ ____ Desert is part of the Western Desert, and the ninth largest in the world.

Tagus

(or Tajo or Tejo) The _____ River is the principal river of the Iberian Peninsula. Rising in east-central Spain, it flows west for roughly 645 miles to the Atlantic, passing through Lisbon, Portugal on the way. The cities of Toledo and Santarém are on this river, and hydroelectric dams on the river produce huge artificial lakes including the Sea of Castile.

Oddly, half of the world's ten largest deserts don't make this frequency-based list: the Arabian Desert (#3, which includes the Rub' al-Khali), the Patagonian Desert (#5), the Great Victoria Desert (#6), the Great Basin (#7), and the Chihuahuan (#8).

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Lake Tanganyika

Africa's second-largest lake by area, ____ ____ is also the second-deepest in the world, surpassed only by Lake Baikal. Due its extreme depth (over 4,700 feet), it contains seven times as much water as Lake Victoria. A source of the Lualaba River, it is shared by Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Zambia. On its Tanzanian shore is the town of Ujiji, at which Henry Morton Stanley "found" Dr. David Livingstone in 1871.

Congo

Africa's second-longest, the _____ River flows in a counterclockwise arc some 2,900 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. The principal sources of the upper river are the Lualaba, which rises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Katanga province, and Zambia's Chambeshi River. Boyoma Falls (formerly Stanley Falls), a section of seven cataracts near Kisangani, marks the beginning of this river proper. Forming the Malebo Pool near the world capitals of Kinshasa and Brazzaville, the lower portion of the river flows past Angola's Cabinda exclave as it enters the ocean. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness depicts the often cruel conditions the Namesake basin endured as a Belgian colony.

Lake Malawi (or Lake Nyasa)

Africa's third-largest lake by area and the southernmost of the Great Rift Valley lakes, ____ ____ is wedged between the nations of Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique. Fed by the Ruhuhu River, its lone outlet is the Shire River, a tributary of the Zambezi. It contains hundreds of species of endemic fish, especially cichlids.

Niger

Africa's third-longest river, the _____ River, flows in a great clockwise arc through Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria before entering the Gulf of Guinea. The medieval Mali and Songhai Empires were centered on this river, whose course was mapped by Scottish explorer Mungo Park in the 1790s. In Nigeria, it receives the Benue River, its main tributary. The massive Namesake Delta, known for its fisheries, wildlife, and petroleum, is an area of increasing social unrest.

Oder

Along with the Neisse, the _____ River forms the Germany-Poland border, as dictated at the Potsdam Conference in July and August of 1945. One of the largest rivers to enter the Baltic, it has been a major transport route for centuries. Ostrava in the Czech Republic and Breslau in Poland are on the river. Near its mouth is Stettin, which Churchill used as the northern terminus of his "Iron Curtain" (Trieste, in the South, is an Adriatic port not near a major river). At the mouth of this river are Usedom Island, Swinemuende, and Peenemuende, which were primary test sites for the German V-2 rocket in the 1940s.

Shannon

At 230 miles, the _____ River is Ireland's longest river. It flows from Lough Allen, and Loughs Ree and Derg are also on its course. At Limerick, the river widens into its namesake estuary and runs for 50 more miles before it enters the Atlantic. Peat bogs and marshes line the river for much of its course, and it is considered a dividing line between Ireland's more cultivated east and wild west. A chief tributary is the Suck River. This river does not pass through Dublin, although the Liffey does.

Lake Chad

Formerly Africa's fourth-largest lake, ____ ____'s surface area has been reduced by over 90% since the 1960s due to droughts and diversion of water from such sources as the Chari River. The lake is at the intersection of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, but most of the remaining water is in Chad and Cameroon. It is very shallow and has no outlet, so seasonal rainfall causes large fluctuations in its area.

Loire

France's longest river, the _____ River begins in the Cevennes range of southern France, flows north to the center of the country, then flows due west to the Bay of Biscay. Many notable cities are on the river, including Nevers, Orleans, Blois, Tours, and Nantes. This river is sometimes called the "last wild river in Western Europe," and many proposed dams on the river have not been built because of opposition to the flooding of land and to interference with Atlantic salmon. The Namesake Valley is particularly known for its vineyards and for its châteaux, a collection of over 300 castles dating to the 16th and 17th centuries.

Po

Italy's longest river at 405 miles, the _____ River passes through Piedmont and Lombardy before entering the Adriatic 30 miles south of Venice. It flows through Turin and Cremona, and it passes near Milan, Padua, Pavia, and Mantua. The river has a long history of floods, and the manmade levees called argini which protect towns and crops can exacerbate the floods. Pollution, especially from Milan, is becoming a major environmental concern.

Danube

Most of the _____ River is in Eastern Europe, but it begins in Germany's Black Forest (or Schwarzwald) near Freiburg, crossing Bavaria before it enters Austria. In all, it passes through (or touches the borders of) 10 nations on its 1,785-mile course ending at the Black Sea. Chief tributaries include the Drava and Sava, and it passes through 4 national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade. Formerly known as the Ister, this river was often used to define a northern border for the Roman Empire.

Rhone

One of Europe's few major rivers to flow directly into the Mediterranean (via the Gulf of Lion), the _____ River originates in the Swiss Alps and flows into Lake Geneva. It emerges at Geneva and flows south, passes through Lyon, Avignon, and Arles, and enters the sea just west of Marseille. At Arles, the river splits into "grand" and "petit" branches which encircle the island of Camargue. The river's valley is famous for its red wine, and because it is navigable for 300 miles, it is the key access route of southern France.

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Other notable features include the Orange, Senegal, and Gambia Rivers, Lakes Albert and Rudolf, and the Suez Canal. Notable bodies of water off the African coast include the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Bights of Biafra and Benin, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Gulf of Sidra.

Thames

Running from the Namesake Head near Cirencester to an estuary near Southend in Essex, the _____ River is the principal river of England and flows through central London. The Houses of Parliament and the London Eye overlook this river, as does Big Ben. Flowing through Reading, Oxford, and Swindon, this river is prevented from flooding London by its namesake Barrier near the Isle of Dogs. Though it is the longest river entirely in England, it trails the Severn (which also flows into Wales) as the longest river in the United Kingdom.

Delaware

The ____ River drains into its namesake bay that forms the boundary between New Jersey and the state of the same name, as well as the boundaries between Pennsylvania and the states of New York and New Jersey. It was famously crossed by the army of George Washington during the Battle of Trenton (Revolutionary War).

Ohio

The ____ River flows 981 miles through a significant industrial region of the central United States. Historically seen as the border between the northern and southern United States, this river is formed in downtown Pittsburgh by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, flowing past Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Evansville, forming borders of five states before emptying into the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. Other major tributaries of this river include the Kanawha, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wabash, and Cumberland Rivers.

Hudson

The ____ River has been a historically significant American river since the early 17th century. Named for English explorer Henry ____, it flows 315 miles through eastern New York state. After receiving the Mohawk River, this river flows past New York's capital of Albany and West Point before forming the boundary between Manhattan and New Jersey. It is also culturally significant as an inspiration for Washington Irving and the ____ River School of American landscape painters.

Missouri

The ____ River is North America's longest, at 2,341 miles. This river is formed in western Montana by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers. It flows past Bismarck, North Dakota and Kansas City before emptying into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis. Lewis and Clark used it as a route for exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. This river is regulated by a number of major dams, including Fort Peck in Montana and Oahe Dam in South Dakota.

Columbia

The ____ River is a vital waterway of the Pacific Northwest. Rising in the Rockies of British Columbia, this river flows through Lake Revelstoke before entering Washington state. Grand Coulee Dam along this river in Washington forms Lake Roosevelt. When it was completed in 1943, Grand Coulee was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world; it is still America's largest electric power plant. This river receives the Yakima and Snake Rivers before forming much of the Washington-Oregon border, receiving the Willamette River in Portland before emptying into the Pacific where Lewis and Clark sighted the ocean.

Potomac

The ____ River is one of America's most historic waterways. Rising at Fairfax Stone in West Virginia, this river runs 405 miles, forming the border between Virginia and Maryland. Washington, D.C. was sited on this river at its confluence with the Anacostia River. George Washington's plantation Mount Vernon was on this river, while Robert E. Lee's two invasions north of it were major events of the Civil War.

Mackenzie

The ____ River is the longest river in Canada. Flowing 1,080 miles out of the Great Slave Lake, the river flows past Fort Providence and Fort Simpson in Canada's Northwest Territories, emptying into a vast delta on the Beaufort Sea. This river is the largest river flowing into the Arctic Ocean from North America. The river was named for Scottish explorer Alexander _____, who crossed Canada to the Pacific ten years before Lewis and Clark.

Colorado

The ____ River is the most significant river of the southwestern United States. Beginning in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, it runs southwest for 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico. It formed numerous canyons along much of its length, most notably the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It also has significant dams such as Hoover Dam near Las Vegas (forming Lake Mead) and Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona (forming Lake Powell).

Mississippi

The ____ River is the second-longest river in North America. Referred to by Abraham Lincoln as "the father of waters," this river begins at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and flows 2,340 miles to a vast delta on the Gulf of Mexico, forming portions of ten state borders and the world's third-largest drainage basin. This river picks up numerous major tributaries including the Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, and Red Rivers and flows past numerous major cities including Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans.

Jordan

The ____ River rises in Syria from springs near Mount Hermon. It flows south to Lake Merom, through the Sea of Galilee, and into the Dead Sea, which lies 1,300 feet below sea level. The river forms the nation of Jordan's boundary with the West Bank and northern Israel. In the New Testament, the river was the site of the baptism of John the Baptist. In modern times, about 80% of its water is diverted for human use, a figure that has led to the shrinking of the Dead Sea and serious contention among bordering nations.

St. Lawrence

The ____ ____ River drains the Great Lakes and serves as a major waterway of eastern Canada. First explored and named by Jacques Cartier in the early 16th century, this river emerges from the northeastern corner of Lake Ontario in the Thousand Islands archipelago, forming the border between Ontario and New York. This river receives the Ottawa and Saguenay Rivers and flows through Montreal and Quebec City. At its mouth, the namesake gulf is one of the world's largest estuaries.

Rio Grande

The ____ ____ has formed the border between Texas and four Mexican states since 1848. It flows south out of Colorado through New Mexico before reaching the international boundary near El Paso. Texas's Big Bend National Park is named for the sweeping curve this river cuts through the Sierra Madre Oriental. After leaving the mountains, the river flows past Laredo and Brownsville before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Painted

The _____ Desert, which is shared by Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks, is known for its colorful, banded rock formations.

Yangtze

The _____ River (or Chang Jiang or Ch'ang Chiang), is the longest river in China and Asia and the third longest in the world. It rises in the Kunlun Mountains, flows across the Tibetan Plateau, passes the cities of Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai, and empties into the South China Sea. Its basin is China's granary and is home to nearly one in every three Chinese citizens. The river has been in the news for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, which will reduce flooding but displace 1.5 million people and bury more than 1,300 known archaeological sites.

Brahmaputra

The _____ River (or Tsangpo or Jamuna), runs 1,800 miles from its source in the Tibetan Himalayas; it starts eastward across the plateau, then turns south into the Indian state of Assam, and then enters Bangladesh where it merges with the Ganges to form the world's largest delta. While serving as a historical route to Tibet, the river is also prone to disastrous flooding.

Rhine

The _____ River begins in the Swiss Alps, passes through Lake Constance (in German, the Bodensee), flows west along the German-Swiss border, then turns north to form part of the German-French border. The river then flows north and joins with the Meuse and Scheldt to enter the North Sea at a delta in the Netherlands. Cities along its course include Basel, Strasbourg, Mainz, Bonn, Cologne, and Rotterdam, and tributaries include the Main, Mosel, and Ruhr. This river has played a strategic role in most German conflicts since the time of the Gallic Wars, but was not established as an international waterway until the Namesake Commission of 1815. German myth tells of the Lorelei, a nymph who lured sailors on this river to their deaths.

Euphrates

The _____ River defines the western border of Mesopotamia; it also rises in the Zagros Mountains of Turkey and its shores are home to Fallujah and Babylon. It is the longer of the two rivers with a course of 1,740 miles (compared to the other's 1,180). Both this river and the other river have changed courses several times, leaving ruins in the desert where cities have been abandoned.

Nile

The _____ River flows about 4,132 miles in a generally south-to-north direction from its headwaters in Burundi to Egypt's Mediterranean Sea coast, where it forms a prototypical delta. Over 80% of this river's flow comes from the shorter Blue _____ headstream, which arises from Ethiopia's Lake Tana and meets the longer White _____, whose headwaters include Lake Victoria, at Khartoum. At the first of this river's six cataracts is the Aswan High Dam, which forms Lake Nasser and greatly reduces the annual floods.

Okavango

The _____ River flows for about 1,000 miles from central Angola, through Namibia's Caprivi Strip, and into the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. There, rather than flowing into the sea, it terminates in a massive inland swamp known as the _____ Delta, an area that, especially during the wet season, teems with wildlife in an otherwise inhospitable region.

Irrawaddy

The _____ River is the chief river of Myanmar. It flows 1,350 miles past Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and Mandalay to the Gulf of Martaban, an arm of the Bay of Bengal. Its delta is one of the world's most important rice-growing regions, and its name is thought to come from the Sanskrit word for "elephant."

Indus

The _____ River is the chief river of Pakistan as well as being the ultimate source of the name of India. It rises in Tibet and flows 1,800 miles to a delta on the Arabian Sea southeast of Karachi. The five major tributaries of this river, the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej Rivers, are the source of the name of the Punjab region, which is Persian for "Land of the Five Rivers". This river is the cradle of the _____ Valley Civilization, one of the world's earliest urban areas, whose main cities were Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.

Mekong

The _____ River is the chief river of Southeast Asia. It originates in eastern Tibet, forms much of the Laos-Thailand border, flows south through Cambodia, and enters the South China Sea in southern Vietnam just south of Ho Chi Minh City. The capital cities of Vientiane and Phnom Penh are on this river. The building of dams and clearing of rapids are a source of diplomatic conflict between China, Laos, and Cambodia.

Tigris

The _____ River is the easternmost of the two rivers that define the historic region of Mesopotamia (meaning, "The Land Between Two Rivers") that was home to the ancient civilizations of Sumer and Akkad. It rises in Turkey, then flows southeast by Mosul, Tikrit, and Baghdad before joining the other river to make the Shatt-al-Arab, which subsequently empties into the Persian Gulf.

Ganges

The _____ River is the holiest river of Hinduism. It rises in the Himalayas and flows a comparatively short 1,560 miles to the world's largest delta on the Bay of Bengal. Among that delta's distributaries are the Hooghly (on whose banks Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) may be found) and the Padma (which enters Bangladesh). Approximately one in every twelve human beings lives in the Namesake Basin, a population density that is rapidly polluting the river; a significant source of that pollution is cremated remains.

Tiber

The _____ River is the river on which Rome is built. It is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 kilometers (252 mi) through Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio, where it is joined by the river Aniene, to the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Ostia and Fiumicino.

Limpopo

The _____ River rises as the Crocodile (or Krokodil) River in South Africa's Witwatersrand region and forms the Transvaal's border with Botswana and Zimbabwe, then crosses through Mozambique. Deforestation in Mozambique contributed to massive flooding of this river in 2000. Perhaps the most famous description of it comes from Rudyard Kipling, who in "The Elephant's Child" referred to it as "the great grey-green, greasy _____ River, all set about with fever-trees".

Yellow, Huang He

The _____, or ____ ____, River is, at 3,400 miles, China's second-longest; it is also the most important to the northern half of the country. It rises in Qinghai province and flows into the Bohai Gulf of the Yellow Sea. The river's name comes from the extraordinary amount of loess silt that it carries, an average of 57 pounds for every cubic yard of water. Among its notable features is the Grand Canal, built during the Ming Dynasty, that links it to the Yangtze.

Lake Volta

The largest manmade lake, by area, in the world, ____ ____ was created by the construction of Ghana's Akosombo Dam across the Namesake River in the 1960s. The lake covers the area where the Black ______ and White _____ rivers formerly converged. The Akosombo Dam can provide over a gigawatt of power, enough to supply nearby aluminum smelters utilizing the energy-intensive Hall-Héroult process and the needs of the rest of the country.

Lake Victoria

The world's second-largest freshwater lake by area, ____ ____ lies along the Equator and is shared between Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Located on a plateau between two rift valleys, its lone outlet is the _____ Nile, a precursor of the White Nile. Named by British explorer John Hanning Speke for Queen _____, the introduction of the predatory Nile perch in the 1950s has caused environmental degradation, sending many native cichlid species into extinction.

Seine

Though only the second-longest river in France (behind the Loire), the _____ River is of key importance, as it flows through Paris. Starting on the Plateau de Langres near Dijon, this river weaves northwest for 485 miles to enter the English Channel near Le Havre. Along the way, it passes through Troyes, Fontainebleau, and Rouen. Theis river is France's chief transport waterway, along with its tributaries the Marne and Oise.

Zambezi

Weaving across southern Africa, the _____ River rises in eastern Angola, passes through Zambia, flows along the borders of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, crosses through Mozambique, and enters the Indian Ocean's Mozambique Channel near Chinde. Namibia's Caprivi Strip was created to allow access this river. The Cabora Bassa and Kariba Dams form large lakes of the same name. The most spectacular feature of the this river is Victoria Falls, or Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders"), which is over a mile wide and is the largest waterfall by flow rate in Africa. The fact that the this river separates Zambia and Zimbabwe is a classic trivia question.

The Matterhorn

____ ____ (Switzerland and Italy) Edward Compton and John Ruskin are among the artists inspired by ____ ____, which is renowned for its almost perfectly pyramidal shape. The mountain is located on the border between Switzerland and Italy, near the Swiss town of Zermatt. The 1865 ascent by Edward Whymper, which claimed the lives of four mountaineers, was the celebrated first climb of the summit.