You probably think you know where the world’s biggest desert is. You're thinking of the Sahara, right? It's huge. It's sandy. It's got camels. But honestly, if you're looking for the actual biggest desert on Earth, you have to pack a parka, not a swimsuit. It’s Antarctica. Most geography trivia for kids starts with the assumption that deserts have to be hot. They don't. A desert is just a place that gets almost no rain or snow. Antarctica is basically a giant, frozen wasteland that receives less than two inches of precipitation a year.
That’s the thing about geography. It’s tricky.
We spend so much time looking at flat maps that our brains get warped. We think Greenland is as big as Africa (it’s not even close) and we assume the North Pole is on a continent (it’s just floating ice). If you want to actually understand the planet, you have to look past the colorful drawings in your school textbook.
The Mountain That Isn't Actually the Tallest
Everyone knows Mount Everest. It's the "tallest" mountain. But "tallest" is a weird word. If you measure from sea level to the peak, then yes, Everest wins at 29,032 feet. But if you measure from the very bottom of the mountain—the base—to the top, Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the actual champion.
Most of Mauna Kea is underwater. If you drained the Pacific Ocean, you’d see a mountain that stands over 33,000 feet tall. That’s nearly 4,000 feet taller than Everest. It’s a volcano that grew so big it poked its head out of the waves.
Then there’s Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.
Because the Earth isn't a perfect circle—it’s actually a bit "fat" around the middle because it spins—the equator sticks out further into space. Since Chimborazo sits right on that bulge, its peak is technically the closest point on Earth to the stars. If you’re standing on top of Chimborazo, you are physically closer to the moon than anyone on Everest. Geography is basically a game of "it depends on how you measure it."
Why Your World Map Is Lying To You
Grab a Mercator projection map. That’s the one you see in almost every classroom. Notice how big Alaska looks? It looks like it could swallow the entire United States. Now look at Africa. It looks roughly the same size as Greenland.
This is a total lie.
You can fit Greenland into Africa about fourteen times. Africa is massive. You could fit the USA, China, India, and most of Europe inside Africa’s borders and still have room for dessert. The reason maps look so weird is that it’s impossible to peel a round orange and flatten the skin into a perfect rectangle without stretching it. Mapmakers chose to stretch the areas near the North and South Poles so that sailors could use straight lines to navigate. It was a tool for boats, not an accurate picture of land sizes.
If you want to see the world for real, look at a globe. Or check out the Gall-Peters projection, which looks "stretched" vertically but actually shows the correct size of the continents. It makes Europe look tiny, which, honestly, it kind of is compared to Asia or Africa.
Weird Borders and Country Oddities
Borders aren't just lines; they're often messy accidents of history. Take Diomede Islands. There are two of them in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia. They are only about two and a half miles apart. You could practically swim it if the water wasn't freezing.
But here is the wild part: Big Diomede is in Russia and Little Diomede is in the USA. Because the International Date Line runs right between them, Big Diomede is 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede. You can literally look across the water and see "tomorrow."
👉 See also: The View NYC: Why This Rotating Restaurant Times Square Staple Still Rules the Skyline
Then you have Russia. It's so big that it has 11 different time zones. When someone is eating breakfast in western Russia, someone on the eastern side is probably getting ready for bed.
And don't even get started on Istanbul. It’s the only major city in the world that sits on two continents at once. You can take a cross-town bus from Europe to Asia. Imagine commuting across two continents just to go to the grocery store.
Lakes Inside Islands Inside Lakes
Geography loves to get meta. There is a place in the Philippines called Vulcan Point. It is a tiny island. That island is inside a lake (Crater Lake). That lake is inside a volcano (Taal Volcano). That volcano is on an island (Luzon) in the ocean.
It’s like a Russian nesting doll made of dirt and water.
Canada has a similar thing going on. On Victoria Island, there’s a lake that contains a small island, which contains a smaller lake, which contains an even smaller island. It’s the world’s only "island-in-a-lake-in-an-island-in-a-lake-in-an-island." Try saying that five times fast.
The Great River Debate
If you ask a teacher what the longest river is, they’ll probably say the Nile. For a long time, that was the final answer. It’s about 4,130 miles long. But many scientists and explorers are now arguing that the Amazon is actually longer.
The problem is that it’s really hard to find exactly where a river starts. The Amazon begins in the Andes mountains, but its "source" is often hidden in shifting snows or tiny streams. Recent studies suggest the Amazon might actually be 4,345 miles long.
Even if the Nile is technically longer, the Amazon is definitely "bigger." It carries more water than the next seven largest rivers combined. It’s so powerful that it pushes fresh water miles out into the Atlantic Ocean, turning the salty sea water drinkable far from the coast.
Islands That Come and Go
The Earth isn't finished yet. It’s still being built.
In 1963, a fisherman near Iceland saw black smoke rising from the ocean. He thought a boat was on fire. It wasn't. A submarine volcano was erupting. By the time it stopped, a brand-new island called Surtsey had been born.
Scientists immediately banned everyone from going there. They wanted to see how life arrives on a brand-new piece of land. Turns out, seeds float in on the tide, and birds drop them while flying past. Now, Surtsey has plants, spiders, and even seals.
Actionable Ways to Master Geography
Stop memorizing lists of capitals. That’s boring and honestly doesn’t tell you much about the world. If you want to be a geography expert, you need to look at how people live because of the land they’re on.
- Use Google Earth, not just Maps. Zoom in on the Himalayas and then zoom in on the Netherlands. See how the Dutch had to build dams because their land is so flat and low.
- Play "The True Size Of" game. Go to thetruesize.com and drag countries around the map. Move India over Europe or the US over Africa. It will completely change how you see the world.
- Follow the water. Look at where the biggest cities are. Almost all of them are on rivers or coasts. Humans go where the water is.
- Check the labels on your stuff. Look at your shirt, your shoes, and your computer. Figure out where they were made and find those countries on a map. You’ll realize how connected the world really is.
Geography isn't about red and blue lines on a paper. It's about the fact that the ground beneath your feet is moving, the mountains are growing, and the "tomorrow" you're waiting for is already happening just a few miles away in another time zone.
Instead of looking for facts to memorize for a test, look for the weird stuff. Find the places where the borders don't make sense or where the earth is doing something impossible. That’s where the real story is.