Geography

No one is sure how the Red Sea got its name, but some people think it is because the water looks red during the summer when a reddish-brown algae floats on the surface. The Red Sea lies between northeastern Africa and the Arabian peninsula. The Suez Canal, at the northern end of the Red Sea, … Read more

Mecca is located in Saudi Arabia. It is the holiest city of the Islamic religion because it is where Islam’s founder, Mohammed, was born in A.D. 571. Muslims, the people who practice Islam, must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives. Muslims also must face toward Mecca while saying their daily … Read more

Jerusalem has long been considered a holy city by three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. People of each religion have been struggling for control of the city for hundreds of years. Jerusalem was founded by the Jewish king David about 3,100 years ago. About 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ was born nearby and spent much … Read more

A spot in northwestern China, near the borders of Russia and Mongolia, is more than 1,600 miles (2,575 km) from any ocean. Its latitude is 46° 17′ north, and its longitude is 86°40′ east. Located approximately 200 miles north of the city of Ürümqi, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. The spot is in … Read more

People in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand drive on the left, as they do in the United Kingdom. The practice originated when most of the countries mentioned were part of the British empire during the 19th century. Everyone else drives on the right, as … Read more

Pakistan is a relatively new country, and many believe it got its name in an unusual way. Its letters come from the first letters of the country’s homelands: Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Iran, Sindh, Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Balochistan (not for its first letter but for the last). The countries of East and West Pakistan were carved … Read more

The Khyber Pass is a mountain pass that cuts through the mountains on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and links both countries. It’s been used for hundreds of years by traders as well as by invaders. The pass is about 33 miles (53 km) long. According to some versions of the Aryan migration theory, … Read more

India has 18 official languages, but its people speak nearly 100 other languages and hundreds more dialects. Most Indians, about 40 percent, speak Hindi. The other Indian languages are largely regional. For example, most people in the Punjab state speak Punjabi. English is officially the “associate national language” and is widely used in business and … Read more

India is the world’s largest democracy in the world. About 1.18 billion people live in India in 2010. It has almost tripled in population since its independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. India is the seventh largest country in the world in land area, it’s about one-third the size of the United States, but … Read more

Although there once was a country named Prussia, it doesn’t exist anymore. Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state that had significant influence on German and European history. During the 18th century, Prussia was a powerful European kingdom under the reign of Frederick the Great. After World War II, Poland, Germany, and Russia each … Read more

The year 1989 was the beginning of the end of Communist governments in several eastern European countries. People in Poland, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, the German Democratic Republic, and elsewhere began demanding rights and freedoms that had been suppressed under Communism. In 1989, the Berlin Wall, the symbolic structure separating Communist East Germany … Read more

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all touch the Baltic Sea, and are members of the European Union. After World War I, the Baltic countries were established as independent nations, following centuries of foreign rule. These three countries declared their independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. The people living in the Baltic states have inhabited the … Read more

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia, as well as a small part of Turkey, all lie on the Balkan Peninsula. The region has a population of about 55 million people. The Balkans are sometimes referred to as Southeastern Europe. Part of Greece is also on the Balkan Peninsula but … Read more

Russia is so large that it straddles the continents of both Asia and Europe. Most of Russia’s huge land area lies in Asia, but most of its people live in the western portion of the country, which is in eastern Europe. Russia extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe. Russia has … Read more

Geographically the Middle East is a region in southwest Asia. Countries in northern Africa, in particular Egypt and Sudan, are often considered to be part of the Middle East as well. Kazakhstan, one of five central Asian states that declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, is almost four times the size of … Read more

About two-thirds of the land in the Middle East is desert. A desert is an area that receives less than 10 inches (25 cm) of precipitation a year. The world’s largest sand desert is the Sahara, in northern Africa. The largest continuous area of sand in the world, about the size of Texas, is a … Read more

Geographers sometimes disagree on this point, but most place the following countries in the Middle East: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The Middle East is often used as a synonym for Near East, as opposed to the Far … Read more

In ancient times, the fertile valley between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the area of today’s Iraq was called Mesopotamia. It is often called the cradle of civilization because the development of agriculture there meant that people could live in one place year round. This stability eventually led to the creation of cities and … Read more

Irrigation has long been necessary for farming in the Middle East. Water from the region’s two major river systems, the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates, has made agriculture possible. One unusual source of water for irrigation is the qanat system. For at least 2,000 years, people in the Middle East have dug underground tunnels that funnel … Read more

Most people, almost 9 out of 10, in the Middle East are Muslims, or followers of the Islamic religion. Most of these are Muslim Arabs. The Middle East is the birthplace of three major world religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. But in the Middle East fewer than 1 out of 10 people are Christian, and … Read more

Geographers define Arabs as people who speak the Arabic language and who usually, though not always, practice the Islamic religion. About 90 percent of the people who live in Middle Eastern countries and northern Africa are Arabic. Non-Arabs include Iranians, who speak Farsi (the ancient Persian language); Turks, who speak Turkish; and Kurds, who speak … Read more

The leading producers of oil in the world are Saudi Arabia, the United States, Russia, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela. All of these countries are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, also known as OPEC. The goals of OPEC are to ensure the stabilization of prices in international oil markets and eliminate harmful … Read more

The Middle East so important to the rest of the world because it contains most of the world’s known oil reserves and is the world’s top oil-producing region. Most of the oil produced in the Middle East is sold to countries in Asia and Europe. The countries in the Middle East that produce the most … Read more

A small part of Turkey lies in a region of southern Europe called Thrace, which also includes parts of Greece and Bulgaria. Most of Turkey is in the Middle East, on a mountainous peninsula called Anatolia. Turkey is a Eurasian country with an ancient cultural heritage. Turkey is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions … Read more

The United States imports about half of all the oil it needs. Of that amount, about one-fifth comes from the Middle Eastern countries of Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The United States is the largest consumer of oil in the world and is the 3rd largest oil producing country … Read more

Netherlands, or the Netherlands, is the proper name of the country on the North Sea that borders Belgium and Germany. “Holland” is sometimes used to mean the Netherlands, but technically it is the name of a region in the western part of the country. About one-fourth of the Netherlands lies below sea level. For nearly … Read more

Two distinct groups of people live in Belgium. The northern part of the country, closer to the Netherlands, is called Flanders. The people who live there are Flemings, and they speak a language similar to Dutch called Flemish. The southern part of Belgium, closer to France, is called Walloonia. The people who live there are … Read more

France is the third largest European country in land area, behind Russia and Ukraine. From a U.S. perspective, it’s somewhat smaller than Texas. It is the world’s fourth largest economy, after the United States, Japan, and Germany. France is the top tourist destination in the world, followed by Spain, the United States, and Italy. It … Read more

The Pillars of Hercules is the ancient name for two huge rocks that stand on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Spain from Africa. The waters of the Atlantic Ocean flow east through the strait into the Mediterranean Sea. One of those rocks is Gibraltar, a territory of the United Kingdom; the … Read more

The Eiffel Tower in Paris France is almost twice as tall as the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. It rises 985 feet (300 m) near the Seine River, while the Washington Monument stands at 555 feet (169 m) near the Potomac River. The Eiffel Tower is an 1889 iron lattice tower located on the Champ … Read more

What Was the First City In the World To Have One Million People and Where Is Rome Located In Europe? Rome is the capital of Italy, and was the first city with 1 million people, back in the first century B.C. It took nearly 2,000 years for the next world city to reach that number, … Read more

Atlantis is a legendary island that was first mentioned in Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias. In Plato’s account, Atlantis was a naval power that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa in 9600 B.C. Atlantis sank into the ocean “in a single day and night of misfortune” after a failed attempt to invade Athens. … Read more

Spain is mainly a high plateau called the Meseta that is covered with plains and a few low mountains. Nearly three-fourths of the country, which occupies the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, is almost always sunny and dry, except for some rain in the winter. Spain is separated from France by the Pyrenees Mountains to the … Read more

The tiny country of San Marino is the oldest republic in the world. It was founded on 3 September 301 by stonecutter Marinus of Rab. Legend has it that Marinus left Rab, then the Roman colony of Arba, in 257 when the future emperor, Diocletian, issued a decree calling for the reconstruction of the city … Read more

Venice is slowly sinking, or subsiding, into the marshy ground on which it was built beginning more than a thousand years ago. Some U.S. scientists believe that it has subsided about 9.3 inches (24 cm) in the past century. Frequent flooding caused by storms and high tides is causing building foundations to erode, making matters … Read more

Only about one-fifth of Greece’s land area is made up of its 2,000 or so islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, which are part of the larger Mediterranean Sea. The largest of these islands is Crete. The country’s mainland lies on the tip of the Balkan Peninsula and is surrounded on the east, south, … Read more

Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia are the major countries that lie within the 660-mile (1,060-m) crescent of the Alps mountain range, Europe’s largest. The countries of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, and Albania also have portions of the Alps, called the Dinaric Alps, within their boundaries. For thousands of years, travelers had a … Read more

Transylvania is a province of Romania that sits atop a plateau in the central part of the country. Transylvania is often associated with the legendary Count Dracula, Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler was a real Wallachian prince, and carried out his atrocities in this region in the 1400s. Transylvania … Read more

The Soviet Union, which dissolved in 1991 after the collapse of its Communist government, was officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union contained Russia and today’s independent countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The Soviet economy was the second … Read more

The Russian Federation is Russia’s offical name. The Russian Federation, which occupies about three-fourths of the land that once was the Soviet Union, is made up of 21 autonomous republics, 50 oblasts (or regions), 6 krays (or provinces), 2 federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), 1 autonomous oblast, and 10 autonomous okrugs (or autonomous territories). … Read more

Russia spreads out over such a large area that it covers 11 time zones. The Continental United States, in comparison, has 4 time zones. Russia extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, and has a wide range of climates and landscapes. It has the largest forest reserves in the world and … Read more

For many years, Europe’s, and the world’s, longest road tunnel was the 10.5-mile (16.9-km) St. Gotthard road tunnel in central Switzerland. But in 2000, Norway opened the 15.3-mile (24.5-km) Laerdal road tunnel that cuts through mountains to connect the capital, Oslo, with the port city of Bergen. Switzerland is now building what will become the … Read more

Iceland is called the Land of Ice and Fire because the island is full of glaciers, volcanoes, and hot springs. Iceland has more hot springs than any other country in the world. The English word geyser comes from the name for Iceland’s most famous hot spring, Geysir. Glaciers cover almost one-eighth of the country. Iceland … Read more

Icelanders are unusual in that they do not have family names, like Smith and Jones. To come up with a distinctive name, boys add their first name to a second name that is a combination of their father’s first name with the letters “son” added on the end. Girls combine their first names with their … Read more

Ireland has been home to the Republic of Ireland, an independent country, since 1921, when it broke away from the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland occupies about 83 percent of the whole island, which is about the size of West Virginia, while Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, takes up the … Read more

In 1900, the United Kingdom ruled an empire that covered one-fourth of the world’s land area. By 1922, the British Empire rules over a population of about 458 million people, or about one-quarter of the world’s population at the time. The empire slowly broke up, the result of two devastating world wars and the desire … Read more

Just about everyone in the United Kingdom speaks English. But several thousand people in Scotland also speak Scottish Gaelic, and some people in Northern Ireland speak Irish Gaelic. About one in five people in Wales speaks both Welsh and English, and a handful speak only Welsh. Welsh and Gaelic developed from the ancient Celtic language, … Read more

What’s left of Hadrian’s wall, originally about 73 miles (117 km) long, is in northern England, south of the Scottish border. This massive stone wall was ordered built by the Roman emperor Hadrian almost 2,000 years ago to mark the northern boundary of the Roman empire. Built in AD 122 during the rule of emperor … Read more

The Chunnel, short for Channel Tunnel, is actually three tunnels, two train tunnels and a central service tunnel, that connect England and France. It was completed in 1994 and extends for 31 miles (28 km), most of which run under the English Channel. Trains that run 100 miles per hour (161 km/hr) take just 20 … Read more

People in the 47 European countries speak about 50 languages and more than 100 dialects, which are the regional variations of a language. Within the 15 countries of the European Union, the most widely spoken language is English. About 16 percent speak English as a first language and another 31 percent speak it well enough … Read more

Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in Europe. More than half of European Christians are Roman Catholic; the rest are Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, or Anglican. Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the Bible. Christianity has three major branches: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and … Read more

The euro is a new form of official currency in 12 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. In 2002, these countries began using euro bills and coins instead of their own currencies. The three remaining European Union countries, Denmark, Sweden, and Great Britain, still use … Read more

People in Iceland do not speak Danish, they speak their own Scandinavian language called Icelandic. It’s one of the most unchanged languages in the world, thanks to Iceland’s geographic isolation. It is similar to Old Norse, which was spoken by the original settlers. According to Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874 when … Read more

The euro makes it easy to conduct business with other EU member countries and among world nations. For example, travelers visiting EU countries no longer have to carry different national currencies for each country they visit. 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union are part of the eurozone in 2010, and they … Read more

Norway is called the land of the midnight sun because the northern part of Norway is located above the Arctic Circle, where the sun shines 24 hours a day from mid-May to mid-July. In the winter months, the reverse happens, and the sun does not appear even during the daytime. Norway has a population of … Read more

Scandinavia is a region that comprises the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Finland and Iceland are sometimes considered part of Scandinavia. Scandinavia extends into the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather because of the Gulf Stream. Most of the people who live in Scandinavia are Scandinavians, and belong to the group of Germanic peoples. … Read more

The United Kingdom is almost the same as Great Britain, but not quite. Great Britain refers to the island that contains England, Wales, and Scotland. It’s the eighth largest island in the world. The United Kingdom is the short name of the country that includes those three regions, plus Northern Ireland, the northeastern corner of … Read more

The world’s largest lake, the Caspian Sea, is partly in Europe and partly in Asia. It’s a lake, not a sea, because it is completely surrounded by land. The Caspian is about 750 miles long (1,210 km) and 300 miles (483 km) wide at its widest point. The Caspian contains salt water, not freshwater. The … Read more

The winds that blow from the west into Europe are warmed by the Gulf Stream, which is a strong Atlantic Ocean current that brings warm water from the regions near the Equator north to Europe’s western coasts. Even Norway’s coast, part of which lies within the frigid Arctic Circle, is not bothered by snow and … Read more

The Black Sea, which touches the countries of Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania, apparently got its name because heavy winter fog and storms make the sea look black. The Black Sea is one of four seas named in English after common color terms. The others being the Red Sea, the White Sea and … Read more

Europe has 47 independent countries of all sizes, from the largest in the world in land area, Russia, to the smallest, Vatican City. About one of every eight people in the world lives in Europe. However, the population of Europe is slowly declining, while most of the rest of the world is growing. In 2000, … Read more

Russia has the largest population in Europe, with 142 million people in 2010, that’s about half as many people as in the United States. Covering more than a ninth of the Earth’s land area, Russia is the largest country in the world, with 10,610,162 square miles of land area. Russia also has the world’s largest … Read more

During the late 1990s, more people were dying in Europe than were being born. Women there are having fewer children than in any other part of the world. The only European country where women are having enough children to keep the population at the same level is Albania. Women in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic … Read more

The European Union, the EU for short, is made up of 27 western European countries that cooperate on certain political matters and that are working together to form a united European economy. As of 2010, the EU members are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, … Read more

Chile is only 265 miles (427 km) wide at its widest point. The country, on the Pacific coast of South America, is more than 10 times as long as it is wide. Its southern tip is Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago (a large group of islands) south of the Strait of Magellan that it shares … Read more

Easter Island is a small volcanic island of about 64 square miles (166 sq km) in the South Pacific Ocean. It is about 2,300 miles (3,700 km) west of Chile and 2,000 miles (3,220 km) east of Tahiti, making it one of the most isolated places in the world. Easter Island belongs to Chile, and … Read more

Bolivia is named after the Venezuelan general Simon Bolivar, who helped the former Spanish colony gain its independence in 1825. Simon Bolivar is considered to be a great liberator in South America, and he inspired many leaders to fight to free the continent from Spanish control. Bolivia has struggled through periods of political instability, dictatorships … Read more

Europe is considered a continent because Europe is a principal division of land, which is how geographers have traditionally defined a continent. In reality, Europe is part of one huge landmass known as Eurasia. But because the cultures of Asia and Europe are so different, geographers have historically considered Europe a separate continent. Eurasia is … Read more

Mount Elbrus, in the Caucasus Mountains in southwestern Russia, is the tallest peak in Europe, at 18,510 feet (5,642 m). Mount Elbrus is an inactive volcano that sits on a moving tectonic area, and has a deep supply of magma that resides underneath it. The name Elbrus is a metathesis of Alborz which comes from … Read more

The Volga River, which flows entirely within Russia, is the longest river in Europe. From its source in the hills northwest of Moscow, the Volga travels almost 2,300 miles (3,700 km) to the Caspian Sea. Much of Russia’s freight is carried on barges on this river. The Volga’s waters supply irrigation for the wheat farms … Read more

After World War II, the large coastal city of Rio de Janeiro became so crowded and inefficient that the government decided to create a new capital city farther inland. They also wanted to encourage people to move to the central part of the country, away from the heavily populated coastal areas. Brasilia was built from … Read more

Tropical rain forests play a major role in sustaining all the earth’s living things, both plants and animals. Trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Fewer trees mean that more carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming as well as to destruction of places for plants and animals to live. … Read more

Both extremes, the highest and lowest points in South America, are in Argentina. Mount Aconcagua in the Andes, the highest point in South America, is 22,834 feet (6,960 m) high. Located in in the Argentine province of Mendoza, Mount Aconcagua is also the highest mountain outside Asia. Many people believe that the name Aconcagua comes … Read more

Not all the countries in South America touch the ocean. Bolivia and Paraguay are landlocked, meaning they have no access to the sea. At one time, part of Bolivia did reach the Pacific, but it lost that land to Chile in a war. Prior to European colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was a part … Read more

Patagonia is not a country. Patagonia is the name of a region that covers the southern part of Argentina. It is a semiarid plateau, and farmers raise sheep there. Patagonia also has important resources, including oil fields and coal and iron ore deposits. The name Patagonia comes from the word patagón used by Magellan to … Read more

The word Porteños means “people of the port” in Spanish. Portenos are citizens of Argentina’s capital and largest city, Buenos Aires. They represent people of various cultures, including Italian, German, and Spanish. Buenos Aires is considered to be the most European city in South America, and is the second largest metropolitan area in South America, … Read more

Argentina’s name comes from the Latin word for “silver,” argentum. Silver is the precious metal that attracted Spanish settlers there in the 1500s. They didn’t find silver, but they found fertile soils that brought the citizens riches from the production of grains and cattle centuries later. Argentina is the second largest country in South America, … Read more

The Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest desert in the world. No plants grow there. Its elevation is about 8,000 feet (2,438 m), with average temperatures ranging from 32° to 75°F (0° to 25°C). It rains there about once every 100 years. This is due to its location on the eastern side of the … Read more

South America is rich in natural resources of all kinds. Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru produce petroleum products. Brazil has tin, iron ore, and manganese mines. Tin is also mined in Bolivia. Bauxite, an ore used to make aluminum, comes from mines in Brazil, Guyana, and Suriname. Chile is the world’s top producer … Read more

Logging activites are the biggest destroyer of South American forests, but mining, energy exploration, and road building are also major threats. The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and development of the land. Many environmentalists are concerned about loss of biodiversity, and the release of the carbon contained within the vegetation, … Read more

Most Peruvians are not of Spanish descent. About one-half of the Peruvian people are Indians, and most of the rest are of mixed white and Indian ancestry. Peru is home to the highest percentage of Indians of any South American country. Their ancestors were the Incas, who created an advanced civilization in Peru between 1200 … Read more

Many of the food items that people all over the world enjoy originated in South America. For example, potatoes were first cultivated about 7,000 years ago in the Andes mountains. Tomatoes were also first grown in South America, in the area of today’s Peru and Ecuador. Also native to the continent are peanuts, yams, pineapples, … Read more

Suriname, on South America’s northeast coast, is the smallest in both land area and population. Most people live in the port city of Paramaribo. Suriname was a colony of the Netherlands until 1975. Dutch is still the official language, but 10 other languages are spoken there, the most common of which is Sranan Tongo. In … Read more

Peru has two official languages: Spanish and Quechua, the native Inca language. Most Peruvian people speak Spanish. Peru’s main economic activities include agriculture, fishing, mining, and manufacturing. About 29.5 million people live in Peru and the earliest evidence of human civilizations in Peru is dated to about 10,560 B.C. The word Peru is comes from … Read more

Archaeologists aren’t sure why the Incas built this city with its terraced gardens so high (7,710 feet/2,350 m) in the Andes Mountains. But they have noted that it sits in a unique geographic location. On the days of the spring and fall equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices, the sun rises directly behind certain … Read more

Guyana, in northeastern South America, is an independent country, while French Guiana, a bit farther to the east on the continent, belongs to France. Guyana was a British possession until 1966, when its name was changed from British Guiana to Guyana. French Guiana is one of the richest places on the continent, but that is … Read more

The Amazon rain forest in Brazil is the largest forest in the world. It’s about five times the size of Texas. The Amazon represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests, and has been in existence for at least 55 million years. It is also the most species rich tract of tropical rainforest in the … Read more

The Andes in South America are not as high as the Himalayas, even though many peaks in the Andes are higher than 20,000 feet (6,100 m) above sea level. The Andes are split into several ranges, which are separated by intermediate depressions, and extend to seven countries. Many etymologists believe that the word Andes comes … Read more

The Amazon is the largest of the five river systems in South America. Its source is in the Andes mountains of Peru. From there it flows eastward for 4,000 miles (6,437 km) across Brazil and into the Atlantic Ocean. It is the second longest river in the world, after the Nile in Africa. The Amazon … Read more

The Indians living in Venezuela in the 1500s built their houses on stilts over the waters of Lake Maracaibo and elsewhere. These structures reminded an early Spanish explorer of the buildings and homes in Venice, which are perched over water. The navigator Amerigo Vespucci called the land Venezuela, which means “little Venice” in Spanish. Venezuela … Read more