Geography

Flows through Rome

Tiber River

This is the eastern of the two rivers that define the historic region Mesopotamia (meaning "the Land Between Two Rivers"), which was home to the ancient civilizations 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 empties into the Persian Gulf.

Tigris River

This is the tallest mountain in Antarctica

Vinson Massif

This is the longest river in the world to flow entirely in one country. 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 a third of Chinese citizens. The river is dammed by the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, which reduced flooding but displaced 1.5 million people and buried over 1,300 known archaeological sites. It empties into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It

Yangtze River

The source of this river is in the Bayan Har Mountains in the Qinghai province near the eastern edge of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The source tributaries drain into Gyaring Lake and Ngoring Lake on the western edge of Golog Prefecture high in the Bayan Har Mountains. It is the second largest river in its country, and where an ancient civilization developed. It 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, rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty, that links it to the Yangtze.

Yellow River

Weaving across southern Africa, this 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 to it. The Cabora Bassa and Kariba Dams form large lakes of the same name. Its most spectacular feature 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 it separates Zambia and Zimbabwe is a classic trivia question.

Zambezi River

This is the third largest river in Australia and is located in New South Wales. It's sources are the Culgoa River and the Barwon River, and it's mouth again is the Murray River. The river flows through extensive saltbush pastures and often evaporates in areas due high temperatures and the low level of rain fall which is roughly 250 mm annually

Darling River

This is a historically significant river of the eastern United States. From its source in the Catskills, it flows 301 miles, forming the border between Delaware and New Jersey. It flows past Trenton, New Jersey and Philadelphia, where it receives the Schuylkill River before emptying into the Atlantic. George Washington crossed this river on Christmas night in 1776 to surprise the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton.

Delaware River

The Euphrates 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 these rivers have changed courses several times, leaving ruins in the desert where cities have been abandoned.

Euphrates River

This desert is part of the Western Desert, and the ninth largest in the world.

Great Sandy Desert, Australia

This mountain is on the border between Switzerland and Italy, near the Swiss town Zermatt.- It was first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper

Matterhorn

Yamanaka and Kawaguchi are two lakes found along the slopes of this mountain, the tallest in Japan. It is only about an hour's drive from Tokyo, and 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 it, drawn by Hokusai.

Mt. Fuji

This is a stratovolcano on the Gulf of Naples in Campania in south-central Italy. It last erupted in 1944, and is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. The most notable eruption was in AD 79 when it buried the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. The only surviving eyewitness accounts of that eruption are a pair of letters written by Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. The 1908 Summer Olympics were relocated from Rome to London after a surprise eruption of it.

Mt. Vesuvius

This triangular desert covers the southern half of Israel.

Negev Desert

The area around it is a fertile valley that produces a large amount of wheat and is also an important source of minerals, including salt. Its tributaries include the Oka and Sura Rivers, and cities along it include Samara, Kazan, and Yaroslavi. For ten points, name this longest river in Europe, widely considered to be the national river of Russia.

Volga River

This river's source is the head waters of the Mantaro River. The Mantaro and Apurímac rivers join, and with other tributaries form the Ucayali River, which in turn meets the Marañón River, forming the "joining of the waters" of this river. It empties into the Atlantic near Belem and Macapa

Amazon River

This desert's tallest mountain is Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains; its active volcano Mount Erebus; the surrounding Ross and Weddell Seas; and the Ross Ice Shelf. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole (1911); a month later, Robert Scott reached it, but Scott died on the return trip. Ernest Shackleton had to abandon his ship, the Endurance, during an attempt to cross it on foot.

Antarctica

This 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 defeated Peru and Bolivia) that sought to control its nitrate resources, which were necessary for the production of explosives.

Atacama Desert, Chile

This city is the starting point of the artificial Grand Canal. Rem Koolhaas designed a television building in this city, where Shichahai Lake runs past an eighteenth-century mansion built for Prince Gong. This city also features Beihai Park and the Old Summer Palace, whose gardens were ravaged by British soldiers during the Opium Wars. The Temple of (*) Heaven is found in this city, where, in 1989, "Tank Man" stood up to the army removing protesters from Tiananmen Square. For 10 points, name this city that the Qing Dynasty established as the capital of China

Beijing

This country's "flying men" deliver packages by zip line in a region where a deadly hillside road to its town of Coroico claims over 200 lives a year. This home of the eastern Yungas valley is home to the Oruro carnival. Towns like Huanuni in this country declined along with its still-existent tin industry in the 80s, and a quarter of its population is of the Aymara ethnicity. The Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat, is north of Lake Poopó within this country's share of the altiplano. This country's government encourages coca cultivation. For 10 points, name this landlocked South American nation with two capital cities, La Paz and Sucre

Bolivia

This river 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.

Brahmaputra River

In medieval times, this city was the site of al-Azhar University, and it was refounded in the tenth century by the Fatimid Dynasty under the Arabic name "the victorious." This city's landmarks include the Mosque and Madrasa of Sultan Hassan and a cemetery home to millions known as the City of the Dead. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets," this most (*) populous city in Africa is located on the delta of the Nile. For 10 points, name this location found near the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids of Giza, the capital of Egypt

Cairo

Some islands near this feature include Wollaston, Deceit, and Hermite, while the much larger island of Navarino lies to its north.This feature was named for the Dutch birthplace of Willem Schouten, who sailed past it in 1616. As a part of a province of which Puerto Williams is the capital, its most famous point is located at approximately fifty-six degrees south latitude. This piece of land is located in [*] Chilean waters, immediately north of the Drake Passage, and its discovery was delayed due to predominant use of the Strait of Magellan. For 10 points, name this point south of the Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost point of the South American mainland

Cape Horn

It is bordered in the south by the Mazandaran, Golestan, and Gilan provinces and in the northwest by the Dagestan and Kalmykia Oblasts. It forms the shallow Garabogaz Bay in the east, while the Asperon Peninsula jutting into it is a major source of oil and the location of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. It is connected to the Sea of Azov via a canal between the Don and Volga Rivers, the latter of which is its major feeder. Bordered by Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia as well as by Iran, this is, For 10 points, what "sea" is actually the world's largest lakes?

Caspian Sea

This river begins in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, and runs southwest for 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico. Known for many significant dams, such as Hoover Dam

Colorado River

This river passes near the city of Kettle Falls, although the rapids that give the city its name no longer exist. Tributaries of this river include the Okanogan River, and this river passes through the artificial Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake. In 1979, the Chief Joseph Dam opened on this river. The 1915 opening of the Celilo Canal provided access to (+) Lewiston from this river, although the Celilo Falls were eventually flooded by the construction of The Dalles Dam on this river. An important source of power in the region comes from the Grand (*) Coulee Dam on this river. It is the largest North American river to flow into the Pacific Ocean. For 10 points, name this river that provides much of the border between Oregon and Washington

Columbia River

The source of this river is in the highlands and mountains of the East African Rift, as well as Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru, which feed the Lualaba River, which then becomes this river below Boyoma Falls. The Chambeshi River in Zambia is also taken as the source This is the worlds deepest river and the second longest in Africa. Forming the Malebo Pool near the world capitals of Kinshasa and Brazzaville, the Lower part of this river flows past Angola's Cabinda exclave as it enters the ocean. The river narrows and falls through a number of cataracts in deep canyons (collectively known as the Livingstone Falls), running by Matadi and Boma, and into the Atlantic Ocean at Muanda. Heart of Darkness takes place on this river.

Congo River

| This nation's westernmost province is Pinar del Río. Other notable provinces include Cienfuegos, Camagüey, and Matanzas. Its only major mountains are the Sierra Maestra, in the south. There is a large swamp on its Zapata peninsula, to the southwest of which is the Isla de la Juventud. This island nation is separated from Hispaniola by the Windward Passage. Its easternmost province, Guantánamo, is home to a U.S. naval station. For 10 points, identify this Caribbean country with a capital of Havana

Cuba

Most of this river is in Eastern Europe, but it begins in Germany's Black Forest (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 four 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.

Danube River

Rising in the Krkonose Mountains of the Sudetenland in the Czech Republic, this river flows near Prague, then enters eastern Germany and flows northwest to the North Sea. It receives the Vltava (or Moldau), the Saale, and the Havel/Spree, and the many large cities on its course include Dresden, Dessau, Magdeburg, Wittenberg, and Hamburg. Like the Oder, this river has been a key transportation route for many centuries.

Elbe River

This river 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 this river Basin, a population density that is rapidly polluting the river; a significant source of that pollution is cremated remains.

Ganges River

This is 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.

Gobi Desert, China and Mongolia

The town of Wallace, located in this state, proclaims itself to be the center of the universe, since no one can prove it's not. Lava flows are found in Craters of the Moon National Monument in this state, which also contains a part of a national park in which, because of a legal loophole, one could technically get away with murder. This state, whose eastern border is the Bitterroot Mountains, has a northern (*) panhandle in a different time zone from the rest of the state. This state is also home to cities such as Coeur d'Alene and Pocatello, which is located near the state's Potato Museum. For 10 points, name this western U.S. state with capital at Boise

Idaho

This is the chief river of Pakistan and the 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 the Indus — 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." It is the cradle of the namesake Valley Civilization, one of the world's earliest urban areas, whose main cities were Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.

Indus River

This River is the chief river of Myanmar (also known as Burma). 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."

Irawwaddy River

This city's "Soccer City" stadium hosted the final match of the 2010 World Cup. In the 1950s this city's majority-Black suburb of Sophiatown was destroyed and rebuilt as "Triomf" [TREE-ahmf]. It is the most-populous city in the Witwatersrand [VIT-vah-turz-rahnd] region. In 1976 this city's suburb of (*) Soweto [soh-WAY-toh] was the site of an uprising protesting the use of Afrikaans [af-rih-KAHNZ] in education. For 10 points—what is the most-populous city in South Africa?

Johannesburg

This 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 is 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 Jesus by 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.

Jordan River

This is the second-tallest mountain in the world and most dangerous) Qogir, Ketu, and Mount Godwin-Austen are other names for this mountain, whose most common names come from the fact that it is the second-tallest mountain in the world. It is in a mountain range in Pakistan and China in which The House's Chimney and the Black Pyramid are features of this mountain, which also possesses a different second-place record, behind the Annapurna Massif: it boasts the second-highest fatality rate among attempted climbers of any mountains above 8,000 meters.

K2 (Karakoram 2, Karakoram is the mountain range)

This 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). Its San Bushmen speak a click language.

Kalahari Desert, Botswana, Namibia, S. Africa

This modern country is home to Fort Jesus, built in 1596 by the Portuguese. An early president of this country advocated unity through working together, or harambee. The well-preserved skeleton of a hominid boy from a million and a half years ago was named for this country's Lake Turkana. Its capital is home to a 2.5 million-person slum called Kibera, and its namesake (*) mountain is the second-highest in Africa. This country is home to the Luo and Kikuyu peoples. This country's southern neighbor, Tanzania, is also home to its Maasai people. For 10 points, name this East African country whose cities include Mombasa and Nairobi

Kenya

This is a shield volcano that is the most active of the five volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii. The name means "spewing" or "spreading" in the Hawaiian language. In Hawaiian mythology, the volcano is the home of the fire goddess Pele. The three primary craters of it are Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, Puʻu Crater, and Puʻu ʻOʻo Crater. In addition, part of the volcano is covered by the Kaʻu Desert, a plain of dried lava and volcanic ash. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is on the rim of its caldera.

Kilauea

This is a stratovolcanic island in the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. Prior to its massive 1883 eruption, there were three separate volcanic peaks: Perboewatan (completely destroyed by the eruption), Rakata (extant), and Danan (almost completely destroyed). The 1883 eruption of it killed more than 35,000 people and is believed to have produced the loudest sound ever. It is one of the largest volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. The continued activity of this volcano formed a new island, Anak namesake (or "Child of namesake") in 1927.

Krakatoa

Formerly Africa's fourth-largest lake, its 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. This lake is very shallow and has no outlet, so seasonal rainfall causes large fluctuations in its area.

Lake Chad

Also known as Kati Thanda, this is the largest lake in Australia. It is in the desert, and it is a salt lake. It is divided into two sections which are joined by the Goyder Channel.

Lake Eyre

This is Africa's third-largest lake by area and the southernmost of the Great Rift Valley lakes, it 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.

Lake Malawi

Africa's second-largest lake by area, it 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 Africa's largest by area. 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.

Lake Tanganyika

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

Lake Victoria

This is the largest man-made lake (by area) in the world. It 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 branches of the namesake river 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 Volta

This river rises as the Crocodile (or Krokodil) River in South Africa's Witwatersrand region, forms the Transvaal's border with Botswana and Zimbabwe, and then crosses through Mozambique. Deforestation in Mozambique contributed to massive flooding of it in 2000. Perhaps the most famous description of this river 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".

Limpopo River

This is France's longest river. It 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. Its Valley is particularly known for its vineyards and for its châteaux, a collection of over 300 castles dating to the 16th and 17th centuries.

Loire River

This is the longest river of 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 a scottish explorer, who crossed Canada to the Pacific ten years before Lewis and Clark.

MacKenzie River

This is a shield volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii that is the most massive above-sea volcano on Earth. It should not be confused with another dormant volcano that is the tallest mountain in Hawaii. Both these mountains are taller than Mount Everest when measuring from base-to-summit rather than from sea level. This volcano is part of the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, which was established in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson. When it erupted in 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government gagged the press from reporting on the eruption.

Mauna Loa

This river rises as the Za Qu and soon becomes known as the Lancang. It originates in the "three rivers source area" on the Tibetan Plateau in the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve, where two other large rivers' sources are. This river then flows becomes the border of China and Myanmar, and later the border of Myanmar and Laos, and then Laos and Thailand. It then flows through the capital of Cambodia, and empties into the South China Sea in Vietnam.

Mekong River

The source of this river is at Lake Itasca in Minnesota. It has a number of natural and artificial lakes, with its widest point being Lake Winnibigoshish, near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, over 11 miles wide. It is the second largest drainage system in its continent, and the third largest in the world. It is the border between 10 states. Abraham Lincoln referred to it as the "father of waters."

Mississippi River

The Jefferson (Beaverhead + Big Fork Rivers), Gallatin, and Madison River (Firehole + Gibbon Rivers) join in Montana to form this longest river in North America. It is regulated by a number of major dams, including Fort Peck in Montana and Oahe Dam in South Dakota

Missouri River

This desert is bounded by the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges along the San Andreas and Garlock Faults. It is between the Great Basin and the Sonoran Desert, and it contains the lowest and driest point of North America, Death Valley. It is most strongly associated with the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia).

Mojave Desert, CA, NV, AZ, UT

Reservoira formed in Indiana by damming up the Salt Creek

Monroe Lake

This is the highest mountain in Western Europe, and is between France and Italy. It is 15,774 feet tall, and It is a part of a namesake Massif which straddles the borders of France, Italy, and Switzerland. It is located on the watershed between the Rhone and the Po rivers. It was the highest mountain in the Frankish Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire until 1792.

Mont Blanc

This is the highest peak in Europe as well as Russia. It is located in the Caucasus range and has two summits, which are dormant volcano domes. It gives rise to the Baksan rivers: Kuban and Malka. During WW2, a Nazi flag was placed on its summit during the battle of the Caucasus.

Mount Elbrus

The subduction of the Nazca Plate formed this mountain, the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere. It is near the city Mendoza in Argentina, and straddles the Polish Glacier, which provides a popular route for climbers looking to summit it.

Mt. Aconcagua

The West Buttress route is considered the best path to ascend this mountain. 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.

Mt. Denali

This stratovolcano is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (but tallest active one) and the southernmost active volcano in the world. It sits on Ross Island. It took its name from the primordial personification of darkness in Greek mythology. The northeast slope of Mount Erebus is known as "Fang Ridge," and the volcano's underground magma produces unique pieces of feldspar known as "namesake crystals." In 1979 an Air New Zealand jet crashed into the side of this mountain, killing 257 people.

Mt. Erebus

This is a stratovolcano in eastern Sicily that plays a significant role in ancient Greek myths. Zeus trapped the monster Typhon under this mountain, and the volcano is also the site of Hephaestus's forges. It overlooks the Sicilian town of Catania. It most recently erupted in 2015. Earlier eruptions occurred in 1928 (destroying the village of Mascali) and in 1669, after which the volcano was thought to have gone dormant. There is a large depression on the side of it known as Valle del Bove, or "Valley of the Ox."

Mt. Etna

The border between Nepal and China straddles the summit of this 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 of this mountain. It was first summited 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 16 of them were killed in an avalanche.

Mt. Everest

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

Mt. Kenya

Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira are the three summits of this tallest mountain 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 top of the mountain in "The Snows of this mountain," 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.

Mt. Killimanjaro

This mountain shares the name of a Polish commander who fought in the American Revolutionary War, and was appended to the tallest mountain in Australia by European explorers in the 19th century. When it was discovered that Mount Townsend was actually taller, the names were switched so that it 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."

Mt. Kosciuszko

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

Mt. Mitchell

This is a stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains on the eastern coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. In the aftermath of its 1991 eruption, the global temperature briefly decreased by almost a full degree Fahrenheit due to the ejection of aerosols and sulfuric acid. That eruption was ten times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens; it killed at least 800 people and forced the evacuation of some 20,000 people. In its aftermath, monsoon rains created Lake namesake in the resulting crater. In 2010, the indigenous Aeta people were formally granted domain over the volcano.

Mt. Pinatubo

The three principal peaks of this mountain are Columbia Crest (the tallest), Point Success, and Liberty Cap; the Little Tahoma Peak is a remnant of an older, much larger Mountain that has since eroded away. This volcano has not erupted since the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The Nisqually Glacier, on its southwestern slope, is used to track climate change. The Emmons Glacier on is the largest glacier by area in the contiguous U.S., while the Carbon Glacier is the largest by volume. The entirety of it is in its National Park, the fifth national park established in the U.S. It is a stratovolcano that is the highest peak in the Cascades and in the state of Washington. It is located about 50 miles southeast of Seattle.

Mt. Ranier

This is a stratovolcano in the Cascades of Washington state. It is about 100 miles south of Seattle and about 50 miles north of Portland. It last erupted in May 1980, killing 57 people in the most devastating volcanic eruption in U.S. history. Perhaps the most famous casualty of that eruption was an innkeeper named Harry Truman (no relation to the president of the same name) who refused to evacuate from the mountain. Because of an avalanche of volcanic debris during that eruption, it lost about 1300 feet in height; lahars (mudflows of pyroclastic material) reached all the way to the Columbia River. The volcano is surrounded by Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Mt. St. Helens

This river is Australia's longest river and is located in the south-eastern region of Australia. Its source is in the Australian Alps and it's mouth is at the Southern Ocean. It flows through South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, and supports some major settlements including Albury, Wodonga, Mildura, Merbein and Murray Bridge amongst others. Its main tributaries are the Murrumbidgee River, the Lachlan, and the Darling.

Murray River

This desert is known for its bizarre Welwitschia and medicinal Hoodia plants. It is thought to be the oldest desert in the world.

Namib Desert, Namibia and Angola

This 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 it, 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.

Niger River

One ancient culture from this present-day country is the Nok culture, which existed in what is now the Jos Plateau. The second-largest city in this country is Kano. The southwest corner of Lake Chad is part of this country, which is bordered by Benin to the west and Cameroon to the east. It is home to the Ibo [EE-bow], who formed the breakaway Republic of Biafra in 1967. In 1991, its capital was moved to Abuja [ah-BOO-dja]. For 10 points, name this most populous country in Africa, whose largest city is Lagos

Nigeria

The headwaters of this river are in Burundi. A fork of this river starts at Lake Victoria and flows through Lake Kyoga and Lake Albert, while another fork starts at Lake Tana. These forks meet in Khartoum. This river's delta forms around Cairo. It flows in a generally south-to-north direction from its headwaters. At the first of its six cataracts is the Aswan High Dam, which forms Lake Nasser and greatly reduces the annual floods.

Nile River, White Fork- Lake Victoria

Along with the Neisse, this 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.

Oder river

This River is formed at Point State Park by the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers in Pittsburgh.

Ohio River

It 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.

Okvango River

This state is near the hydrothermal vent chimney nicknamed Godzilla. It also contains Blue Basin, which is part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. This state also contains Broken Top, which is near the Three Sisters and contains Bend Glacier. Many of its cities, such as Lake Oswego and Corvallis, lie along the Willamette River. This state also contains Sacajawea Peak and Mount Hood. Name this home of Crater Lake National Park whose capital is Salem, located north of California

Oregon

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

Painted Desert, Northern AZ

the source of this river is at the confluence of the Paranaiba and Rio Grande rivers in southern Brazil. It flows south through Brazil, and becomes the border between Paraguay, and Argentina, eventually meeting up with the Uruguay River to form the Rio de la plata.

Parana River

This is Italy's longest river at 405 miles, it 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.

Po River

This river rises at Fairfax Stone in West Virginia, and it runs 405 miles, forming the border between Virginia and Maryland. Washington, D.C. was sited on it at its confluence with the Anacostia River.

Potomac River

This river is a major river of the southern Great Plains. It forms most of the border between Oklahoma and Texas along its 1,360-mile length. That border formed part of the border between Mexico (and later the Republic of Texas) and the United States after the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty. It runs through the Louisiana cities Shreveport and Alexandria before emptying into the Mississippi south of Natchez, Mississippi.

Red River

This 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. It 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.

Rhine River

This is one of Europe's few major rivers to flow directly into the Mediterranean (via the Gulf of Lion), it originates in the Swiss Alps and flows into Lake Geneva. It emerges from 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 that encircle the island Camargue. The river's valley is famous for its red wine, and because it is navigable for 300 miles, this river is the key access route of southern France.

Rhone river

This river's headwaters are located in its namesake national forest. It is formed by the joining of several streams at the base of Canby Mountain, in the San Juan Mountains, due east of the Continental Divide of the Americas. From the Continental Divide, it flows through the San Luis Valley, then south into New Mexico, and passes through its namesake Gorge, near Taos, then toward Española, afterwards collecting additional waters from the San Juan-Chama Diversion Project and from the Rio Chama.

Rio Grande

This desert's name means "Empty Quarter" in English, and it is sometimes 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.

Rub' al Khali Desert, Arabian Peninsula

This is the world's second largest desert, but its largest hot desert. The Atlas Mountains bound the western desert on the north, and the Sahel — a savannah-like strip — 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. The Berber and Tuareg peoples are native to the this desert

Sahara Desert

This river is of key importance, as it flows through Paris. Starting on the Plateau de Langres near Dijon, it weaves northwest for 485 miles to enter the English Channel near Le Havre. Along the way, it passes through Troyes, Fontainebleau, and Rouen. It is France's chief transport waterway, along with its tributaries the Marne and Oise

Seine River

At 230 miles, this 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.

Shannon River

This is a major river of the northwestern United States. Rising in Yellowstone National Park, it bisects southern Idaho along its 1,078-mile route. Flowing through Pocatello and Boise, this river River forms much of the border between Idaho and Oregon, including the famous Hells Canyon. This River was a vital route for travelers headed west on the Oregon Trail, who followed the river most of the way to its mouth on the Columbia River.

Snake River

This river was first explored and named by Jacques Cartier in the early 16th century, it emerges from the northeastern corner of Lake Ontario in the Thousand Islands archipelago, forming the border between Ontario and New York. It receives the Ottawa and Saguenay Rivers and flows through Montreal and Quebec City. At its mouth, the Gulf is one of the world's largest estuaries.

St Lawrence River

This country contains the namesake type site of the Iron Age La Tène ["ten"] culture, which is along the coast of its Lake Neuchâtel [noo-shah-TELL]. This country's land corresponds to most of the ancient homeland of the Helvetii [hel-VEE-shee-"eye"] people. With its western neighbor, this country owns the (*) Jura [JOO-rah] Mountains, the namesake of the Jurassic Period and of this country's canton of Jura. Bern ["burn"] and Zurich [ZOO-rik] are cities in—for 10 points—what Alpine country

Switzerland

This 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 the this river, and hydroelectric dams on the river produce huge artificial lakes, including the Sea of Castile.

Tagus River

This 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.

Taklamakan Desert, China

The largest city of this nation is the site of the Askari Monument. The region of Arusha in this country contains Mount Meru and the Ngorongoro (ENG-guh-RAHN-guh-ro) Crater, as well as the Olduvai Gorge. This country is the site of the highest peak in Africa, Mount (*) Kilimanjaro. Along with its western neighbors Burndi and Rwanda, it made up the colony of German East Africa. For 10 points, what country, whose capital is Dodoma and economic center is Dar es Salaam, was formed by the union of Zanzibar and Taganyik

Tanzania

One city in this state contains the Batman building, named due to its resemblance to Batman's mask, as well as a replica of the Parthenon. A river named after this state is formed from the confluence of the French Broad and Holston Rivers. That river, along with the (*) Cumberland River, forms the boundaries of the Land Between the Lakes, which this state shares with its northern neighbor. Gatlinburg and Clingmans Dome lie in the Great Smoky Mountains of this state which is home to Civil War battlegrounds at Murfreesboro and Shiloh, and whose other attractions include the Grand Ole Opry and Graceland. For ten points, identify this state with cities like Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Memphis

Tennessee

Running from its namesake Head near Cirencester to an estuary near Southend in Essex, this river is the principal river of England and flows through central London. The Houses of Parliament and the London Eye overlook the it, 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.

Thames River