Geography trivia

Geography is the category people expect to be good at and then get humbled by. Twivial's questions cover capital cities, the world's big rivers and mountain ranges, oceans and seas, famous landmarks and which country they are in, and a handful of US states.

Capitals that catch people out

Many of the capital questions are there because the biggest or best-known city isn't the capital. Australia's capital is Canberra, Canada's is Ottawa, Brazil's is Brasília, Turkey's is Ankara and New Zealand's is Wellington. If a question asks for a capital and the obvious answer is the country's most famous city, slow down and think again.

What we leave out

Populations, "largest city" rankings and anything that depends on a recent census are out, because the numbers shift. So are border disputes and questions where the answer depends on which country you ask. Every question here has one answer that an atlas from any recent decade would agree on.

How to get better at it

Rivers are worth learning in pairs with the cities on them: the Nile and Cairo, the Thames and London, the Danube and Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade. Then learn where a few big rivers end, since "flows into which sea" is a favorite question style. For mountains, the useful three are Everest (highest above sea level), the Andes (the long range down South America's west side) and the Urals (the Europe and Asia line).