Put your general knowledge to the test with The Great Book of World Facts, Lists & Quizzes! With over 650 pages of facts and questions on everything under the sun, from History, Geography, Science & Technology to TV, Cinema and Sport, there is plenty to entertain general knowledge fans of all ages. Packed with testing questions, original facts and comprehensive lists, this is the ultimate general knowledge compendium.The Great Book of World Facts, Lists & Quizzes ISBN 1-84193-120-9 £11.99 9 781841 931203 Capella Width: 1.00 H This ebook licensed to Gigapedia.org . Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this ebook is illegal. by David Carson Capella Published by Capella, an imprint of Arcturus Publishing Limited For Bookmart Limited Registered Number 2372865 Desford Road, Enderby, Leicester LE9 5AD ISBN 1-84193-120-9 This edition published 2002 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission or in accordance with the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person or persons who do any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. Edited by Paul Whittle Cover design by Alex Ingr Book design by Kevin Ancient Printed in Italy ©Arcturus Publishing Limited 1–7 Shand Street, London SE1 2ES CONTENTS 1. GEOGRAPHY & TRAVEL 7 2. HISTORY 143 3. LITERATURE 261 4. MYTHOLOGY 297 5. MUSIC 319 6. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 365 7. ENTERTAINMENT 431 8. FAMOUS PERSONALITIES 499 9. SPORT 563 10. LANGUAGE 643 1 GEOGRAPHY & TRAVEL 7 Countries of the World World Capitals Afghanistan Kabul, 2,450,000 Albania Tirana, 300,000 Algeria Algiers Andorra Andorra la Vella, 22,390 Angola Luanda, 2,000,000 Antigua and Barbuda St. John's, 21,514; Codrington (capital of Barbuda), est. pop. 1,000 Argentina Buenos Aires, 13,250,000 (metro. area) Armenia Yerevan, 1,226,000 Australia Canberra, 307,700 Austria Vienna, 1,600,000 Azerbaijan Baku, 1,713,300, a port on the Caspian Sea Bahamas Nassau, 171,542 Bahrain Al-Manámah, 140,401 Bangladesh Dhaka, 9,600,000 (metro. area) Barbados Bridgetown, 6,700 Belarus Mensk (Minsk), 1,666,000 Belgium Brussels, 949,070 (metro area) Belize Belmopan, 5,845 Benin Porto-Novo (official), 177,660; Cotonou (de facto capital) 33,212 Bhutan Thimphu (official), 30,340 Bolivia Sucre, 131,800;Administrative capital and largest city (1997 est.): La Paz, 713,400 Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, 387,876 (unofficial) Botswana Gaborone, 138,000 Brazil Brasília, 1,800,000 Brunei Darussalam Bandar Seri Begawan, 52,300 Bulgaria Sofia, 1,113,674 Burkina Faso Ouagadougou, 500,000 Burundi Bujumbura, 300,000 Cambodia Phnom Penh, 900,000 Cameroon Yaoundé Canada Ottawa, Ontario Cape Verde Praia, 61,797 Central African Republic Bangui, 706,000 World Capitals Chad N'Djamena, 529,555 Chile Santiago, 5,400,000 (metro. area) China Beijing, 8,450,000 (metro. area) Colombia Santafé de Bogotá, 7,350,000 (metro. area) Comoros Moroni (on Grande Comoro), 23,432 Congo Brazzaville, 937,580 Congo, Democratic Kinshasa, 6,050,000 (metro. area) Republic of the Costa Rica San José, 315,909 Côte d'Ivoire Yamoussoukro (official), 120,000;Abidjan (adminis trative) Croatia Zagreb, 930,753 Cuba Havana, 2,241,000 Cyprus Lefkosia (Nicosia) (in government-controlled area), 186,400 Czech Republic Prague, 1,215,771 Denmark Copenhagen, 1,339,395 Djibouti Djibouti, 395,000 Dominica Roseau, 15,853 Dominican Republic Santo Domingo, 2,100,000 Ecuador Quito, 1,500,000 Egypt Cairo, 14,350,000 (metro. area) El Salvador San Salvador, 972,810 Equatorial Guinea Malabo, 30,418 Eritrea Asmara, 400,000 Estonia Tallinn, 471,608 Ethiopia Addis Ababa, 2,200,186 Fiji Suva (on Viti Levu), 200,000 Finland Helsinki, 515,765 France Paris, 10,150,000 (metro. area) Gabon Libreville, 419,596 Gambia,The Banjul, 44,188 Georgia Tbilisi, 1,279,000 Germany Berlin (capital since Oct. 3, 1990), 3,471,418 Ghana Accra Greece Athens Grenada St. George's, 4,439 Guatemala Guatemala City, 1,150,452 Guinea Conakry, 1,508,000 Guinea-Bissau Bissau, 200,000 Guyana Georgetown, 248,500 Haiti Port-au-Prince, 1.5 million Honduras Tegucigalpa, 1,500,000 Hungary Budapest, 2,008,546 Iceland Reykjavik, 103,036 9 World Capitals India Delhi, 11,500,000 (metro. area) Indonesia Jakarta, 12,300,000 (metro. area) Iran Teheran, 10,400,000 (metro. area) Iraq Baghdad, 4,850,000 (metro. area) Ireland Dublin Israel Jerusalem, 550,500 Italy Rome, 2,693,383 Jamaica Kingston, 104,000 Japan Tokyo, 34,750,000 (metro. area) Jordan Amman, 963,490 Kazakhstan Astana, 280,200 (formerly Aqmola; capital since 1997) Kenya Nairobi, 2,000,000 Kiribati Tarawa, 25,154 Korea, North Pyongyang, 2,741,260 Korea, South Seoul, 19,850,000 (metro. area) Kuwait Kuwait, 151,060 Kyrgyzstan Bishkek (formerly Frunze), 631,000 Laos Vientiane, 442,000 Latvia Riga, 874,000 Lebanon Beirut, 1,100,000 Lesotho Maseru (1992), 170,000 Liberia Monrovia, 1,000,000 Libya Tripoli Liechtenstein Vaduz, 5,067 Lithuania Vilnius, 590,100 Luxembourg Luxembourg, 75,622 Macedonia Skopje, 444,229 Madagascar Antananarivo, 1,000,000 Malawi Lilongwe, 260,000 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, 1,145,000 Maldives Malé, 62,973 Mali Bamako, 746,000 Malta Valletta, 9,183 Marshall Islands Majuro, 20,000 Mauritania Nouakchott, 480,000 Mauritius Port Louis, 134,516 Mexico Mexico City, 19,750,000 (metro. area) Micronesia Palikir Moldova Chisinau, 676,700 Monaco Monaco, 30,400 Mongolia Ulan Bator, 619,000 Morocco Rabat, 1,220,000 Mozambique Maputo, 1,095,300 Myanmar Rangoon (Yangon) Namibia Windhoek, 161,000 World Capitals Nauru Yaren, 559 Nepal Kathmandu, 535,000 The Netherlands Amsterdam (official), 724,096;The Hague (adminis trative capital), 445,279 New Zealand Wellington Nicaragua Managua, 974,000 Niger Niamey, 398,265 Nigeria Abuja, 339,000 Norway Oslo, 483,401 Oman Muscat, 350,000 Pakistan Islamabad, 201,000 Palau Koror, 12,299 Palestinian State (proposed) Undetermined Panama Panama City, 450,668 Papua New Guinea Port Moresby, 250,000 Paraguay Asunción, 502,426 Peru Lima, 7,450,000 (metro. area) The Philippines Manila, 13,450,000 (metro. area) Poland Warsaw, 1,642,700 Portugal Lisbon, 677,790 Qatar Doha, 300,000 Romania Bucharest, 2,351,000 Russia Moscow, 13,200,000 (metro. area) Rwanda Kigali, 232,733 St. Kitts and Nevis Basseterre (on St. Kitts), 19,000 St. Lucia Castries, 13,600 St.Vincent and The Kingstown, 15,466 Grenadines Samoa Apia, 32,859 San Marino San Marino, 2,397 São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé, 43,420 Saudi Arabia Riyadh Senegal Dakar, 1,729,823 Seychelles Victoria, 25,000 Sierra Leone Freetown, 1,300,000 Singapore Singapore, 3,044,000 Slovakia Bratislava, 446,600 Slovenia Ljubljana, 330,000 Solomon Islands Honiara (on Guadalcanal), 35,288 Somalia Mogadishu, 900,000 South Africa Pretoria; Legislative capital: Cape Town; Judicial capital: Bloemfontein. No decision has been made to relocate the seat of government. South Africa is demarcated into nine provinces, consisting of the Gauteng, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, North West, KwaZulu/Natal, Eastern Cape,Western Cape, 11 World Capitals Northern Cape, and Free State. Each province has its own capital Spain Madrid, 5,050,000 (metro. area) Sri Lanka Colombo (official) 1,994,000; Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial), 107,000 (1988 est.) Sudan Khartoum, 924,505 Suriname Paramaribo, 200,970 Swaziland Mbabane 47,020 Sweden Stockholm, 703,627 Switzerland Bern, 129,423 Syria Damascus, 1,549,932 Taiwan Taipei, 7,700,000 (metro. area) Tajikistan Dushanbe, 524,000 Tanzania Dar es Salaam (administrative), 1,360,850; Dodoma (official), 45,807 (1978) Thailand Bangkok, 7,200,000 (metro. area) Togo Lomé, 366,476 Tonga Nuku'alofa, 34,000 Trinidad and Tobago Port-of-Spain, 52,451 Tunisia Tunis, 887,800 Turkey Ankara, 2,890,025 Turkmenistan Ashgabat, 518,000 Tuvalu Funafuti, 3,839 Uganda Kampala, 773,463 Ukraine Kyiv (Kiev), 2,637,000 United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi, 363,432 United Kingdom London, 11,800,000 (metro. area) United States Washington, DC, 572,059 Uruguay Montevideo, 1,330,440 Uzbekistan Tashkent, 2,106,000 Vanuatu Port Vila, 26,100 Venezuela Caracas Vietnam Hanoi Western Sahara El Aaiun (20,010) Yemen Sanaá, 972,011 Yugoslavia Belgrade, 1,168,454 Zambia Lusaka Zimbabwe Harare, 1,184,169 World Currencies Afghanistan Afghani Albania Lek Algeria Dinar Andorra French franc and Spanish peseta Angola Kwanza Antigua and Barbuda East Caribbean dollar Argentina Peso Armenia Dram Australia Australian dollar Austria Euro (formerly schilling) Azerbaijan Manat Bahamas Bahamian dollar Bahrain Bahrain dinar Bangladesh Taka Barbados Barbados dollar Belarus Belorussian ruble Belgium Euro (formerly Belgian franc) Belize Belize dollar Benin Franc CFA Bhutan Ngultrum Bolivia Boliviano Bosnia and Herzegovina Dinar Botswana Pula Brazil Real Brunei Darussalam Brunei dollar Bulgaria Lev Burkina Faso Franc CFA Burundi Burundi franc Cambodia Riel Cameroon Franc CFA Canada Canadian dollar Cape Verde Cape Verdean escudo Central African Republic Franc CFA Chad Franc CFA Chile Peso China Yuan Colombia Peso Comoros Franc CFA Congo Franc CFA Congo, Democratic Congolese franc Republic of the Costa Rica Colón 13 World Currencies Côte d'Ivoire Franc CFA Croatia Kuna (May 1994) Cuba Peso Cyprus Cyprus pound Czech Republic Koruna Denmark Krone Djibouti Djibouti franc Dominica East Caribbean dollar Dominican Republic Peso Ecuador U.S. dollar Egypt Egyptian pound El Salvador Colón Equatorial Guinea CFA Franc Eritrea Nakfa