# A For Fun Geography Game **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 8, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121 "2005-08-08T15:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![marky33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@marky33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marky33)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121/61 "2005-08-09T11:13:00Z")
Krakatoa: Once-volcanic island now under the sea around Indonesia El Dorado: Fictitious city of gold Nome: Africa The Great Rift Valley: Central Africa Land’s End: Cornwall, England The Punjab: India The Ganges: River in India The steppes: Plains in Ukriane, western Russia Siberia: NE Russia Tibet: Disputed Chinese autonomous region to the south of the mainland The Danube: River running through several countries of central Europe (incl. Germany, Austria and Hungary), emptying into the Black Sea on the border between Ukraine and Romania The Bight of Benin: Off Africa The Northwest Passage: Between India and Pakistan? Macchu Picchu: Peruvian ruins Some others (all genuine): Macau: Iron Knob: Borneo: The Po: Juneau: Norfolk (ex-US): Yangon: Fuerteventura: Cameron Highlands: Guernica: The Kuban: Cesky Krumlov: Pattaya: Mozambique: Antwerp: ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121/62 "2005-08-09T11:56:37Z")
Macau: Sounds familiar, don’t remember off the top of my head. Iron Knob: ?? Borneo: Big Island in the vicinity of New Guinea and Indonesia The Po: River in Italy, terminates in Venice, I think Juneau: Capital of Alaska Norfolk (ex-US): England Yangon: ?? Fuerteventura: ?? Cameron Highlands: In Scotland Guernica: City in Spain bombed in the 30’s. Famous Picasso painting The Kuban: ?? Cesky Krumlov: In Russia somewhere Pattaya: Mozambique: Country in Southeast Africa Antwerp: Belgium Here are some US places: The Grand Canyon of the East: The Phallus, The Fiery Furnace: Paul Bunyan’s Potty: Hell’s Half Acre: The Devil’s Golf Course: The Devil’s Post Pile: Devil’s Tower (duh): Kill Van Kull: ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121/63 "2005-08-09T16:51:21Z")
**Victoria Falls** is not a particularly high falls, but more like **Niagara Falls** known for its beauty. Lots of water flows over both and I believe like **Niagara** , **Victoria Falls** is divided into separate falls. The highest falls in the world is **Angel Falls**. It falls so far that its stream is broken up and at the bottom it is more like a heavy mist. **Yosemite Falls** without the ledge that breaks it into **The Upper** and \*\*The Lower Falls \*\*would be the highest falls in the world. **Yosemite Nat’l Park** contains at least two other falls that rate in the list of 10 highest falls in the world. I saw Yosemite Falls in 1964 and flew past Angel Falls last September. I also celebrated New Year’s Eve 2000 at Niagara Falls. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121/64 "2005-08-09T23:34:25Z")
“Yes” means close enough for folk lore, or up to spot on. Based on **KGS** , but for further detail, see **bearflag70**. **The Superstition Mountains** - a mountain range east of Phoenix, AZ (or is it south?)—Yes, east. Allegedly contains the Lost Dutchman gold mine. **Krakatoa** - Volcanic island east west of Java, Indonesia that went KABOOM in the late 19th century.—Yes **El Dorado** - This is a movie, isn’t it?—It may be. Believed in by the Spaniards exploring America. Heavily armed foreign men arrived at your town conveying the question, “Where’s all the gold?” You convey, “Over beyond there, lots of it!” **The Ready Bullion** - Sounds like a tavern somewhere during the Gold Rush.—The Alaska one. A hard-rock gold mine near Juneau, Alaska. Obscure, inserted because I like the name. **Mt. Shasta** - Big active volcano in No. California at the southern end of the Cascades mountain range. Second highest mountain in California.—Yes, dominates the area, cool to see **The Continental Divide** - The line that divides North America between the Pacific drainage basin and the Atlantic/Arctic/Gulf of Mexico drainage basin.—Yes **The jumping-off point. The California Trail, the Oregon Trail**. - St. Joseph, Missouri?—Plenty close. Jumping-off point in Independence, MO, where the CA & OR trails began, so where pioneers bound for the West Coast felt they broke with civilization. The trails diverge later. **The Back of Beyond** - not a clue…this is the fake one, right?—Fake, yes. Phrase in (British) colonial days to describe some remote little-known area of the world, cost/benefit ratio unknown. **Nome** - Small town in Alaska, on the Bering Sea. One of the most isolated towns in the U.S., you can only get there by airplane or dogsled.–Yes. Had an epidemic, needed serum. **The Great Rift Valley** - Great big valley in eastern Africa running north/south between Ethiopia and Tanzania. Formed by two continental plates slowly drifting apart. Some of the earliest human-like remains were discovered there.–Yes **Land’s End** - The far southwestern tip of Great Britain.–Yes, & a good name for that point. **Babylon** - Where modern-day Iraq is now.—Yes **The Punjab** - The chunk of India between Bangladesh and Myanmar.—Yes, great fertile valley, the Indus River and its tributaries. **The Ganges** - The main river in India.—Yes, another great fertile valley. \*\*The steppes \*\* - I think this is the area between Siberia and Afghanistan, used to be the Soviet Union but now broken up into Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and a whole bunch of other -stans. Similar to the Great Plains of the U.S., but drier and more desolate.—Yes, short-grass prairie there. **The Altai mountains** - If you meant to say “Atlas Mountains” and misspelled it, then it’s a mountain range in North Africa (Morocco & Algeria to be precise); otherwise I’ve never heard of it but I’m guessing it’s somewhere betweenthe Steppes of Asia and Siberia.—No typo, they are along the border of Russia and China/Mongolia/Kazakhstan **Siberia** - Where the Gulag prisoners were sent. Comet crashed there in 1902.—Yes **Tibet** - Predominantly Buddhist province in[disputed] southwestern China. Very, very high plateau at the base of the Himalaya mtns.—Yes. Location of Shangri-La and all kinds of mystic ideas. **The Danube** - It’s blue. River in Eastern Europe, runs through Vienna and Budapest and empties into the Black Sea.—Yes **The Bight of Benin** - sounds like an African porn star.—Got the right continent. It’s the gulf below the bulge of west Africa. “Beware, oh beware, of the Bight of Benin; for twenty come out where one hundred went in” from when Europeans were trying to gather wealth there. A lot of malaria and so forth. **The Big Muddy** - Wasn’t this a nickname for the Alcan Highway? Or the Mississippi River? I forget which.—Hey, you one-upsed me there! It’s usually the mighty Missouri, but it turns out the Big Muddy Badlands exist in Saskatchewan north of Montana. **The Northwest Passage** - Nobody ever found it.—right, and they tried, too. Wanted a sea passage through the N.Amer continent to the West Coast and Orient. **Ixtaccihuatl** - Gesundheit.—Thank you. Volcano near Popocatepetl (other volcano) near Mexico City **Macchu Picchu** - Pokemon?–Snork! Deserted stone city high in the remote Andes, built by the Incas or equivalent, not discovered until this century–oops I mean the last century, 1911. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121/65 "2005-08-09T23:37:43Z")
**Macau** : Port city in India, originally a Portuguese colony **Iron Knob** : ? **Borneo** : Big island south of Indonesia **The Po** : River in NE Italy, productive soils **Juneau** : City in Alaska, near the obscure Ready Bullion, hee hee **Norfolk** (ex-US): ? **Yangon** : ? **Fuerteventura** : ? **Cameron Highlands** : In New Zealand? In Borneo? **Guernica** : In the Basque country? **The Kuban** : ? **Cesky Krumlov** : In the former Soviet Union? **Pattaya** : ? **Mozambique** : Big island off the East coast of Africa **Antwerp** : City in Belgium ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121/66 "2005-08-09T23:47:47Z")
**The Grand Canyon of the East: The Phallus, The Fiery Furnace: Paul Bunyan’s Potty: Hell’s Half Acre: The Devil’s Golf Course: The Devil’s Post Pile: Devil’s Tower (duh): Kill Van Kull:** Dang! The Post Pile has to be a geologic formation, and isn’t a Kill a stream? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121/67 "2005-08-10T00:00:43Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > **The Danube** - It’s blue. River in Eastern Europe, runs through Vienna and Budapest and empties into the Black Sea. I’ve seen it. It’s green. Someone was probably just going for the rhyme; “Blue Danube” in German is “Blau Donau”. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121/68 "2005-08-10T06:51:01Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Hmm…is that you, Jim? 😉 Your answers are correct! I am not Jim, but he sounds like a decent fellow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-for-fun-geography-game/316121.md?page=3)