Growing up in India, as young students, we had learnt that the two largest lakes in the world were the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. While trying to study up the lakes of the world this week, I realized that Black Sea is not considered a lake. It is an inland ocean. I wonder what is being taught in India these days.

Also, when looking up the lakes by size, I could not find one particular lake that we had learnt about in India – the Aral Sea. I have now learnt that the whole lake does not exist any more! It used to be the fourth largest lake in the world. Man made irrigation projects have diverted all the river sources and now it is a desert!

See if you know or can guess the answers to the following:

1. What is the country with most lakes? (it has more lakes than the rest of the world combined)
2. What is the highest navigable lake?
3. What is the lowest lying lake?
4. What is the largest lake in the Antarctica? (it is the 16th largest in the world)
5. What is the largest lake with salt water on one side and fresh water on the other?
6. What is the lake which has more species of fish than any other lake?
7. What is the largest lake in Europe?
8. What is the largest lake that is entirely within one country?
9. What is the longest freshwater lake?
and lastly, a weird one…
10. What is the largest alkaline lake? (it is also the largest desert lake in the world)

You can check here for your answers.

After memorizing the names of countries, their capitals and currencies (got stuck with the flags with one third done), tying to now learn about the Top 50 Rivers in the world (by length). Learnt some fascinating facts. There are about 10-12 rivers in the Top 50 that I had never heard the name of!!

See how many of these you might get. The answers are posted here.

1. Which is the country that has most number of rivers in it? (The answer might surprise you)
2. Which country has the most number of Top 50 (by length) rivers running thru it? (It is a whopping 11 of them!)
3. Which river runs thru the most number of countries?
4. Which is the largest country with no rivers at all? (It used to have one long time back)
5. Which is the longest river entirely in one country? (Hint: Second longest such river is also in the same country)
6. Which is the river that has the most number of country capitals on its banks?
7. Which river has two country capitals bang opposite to each other on the two banks?
8. Which river (in the Top 50) has a country capital on it that is an anagram of the river name itself (but two different words)?
9. The longest river is the Nile. The widest is the Amazon. Which is the deepest river?

And finally a controversial one… since Guinness Book of World Records withdrew this category. So I am going by the recorded length of all rivers in the world.

10. What is the shortest river in the world? (It is barely 18 meters – yes meters. Apparently, if there is a constant flowing water, it is considered a river. I could find at least 7 rivers that are not even 100 meters long!!)

What do you think this map is about? Green means good, Red means not good. A good way to guess might be to look at the extremes.

Answer here