Geography

Arctic Facts

Here are some interesting facts about the Arctic, which you may not be aware of.

The Arctic is located at the northernmost part of Earth and scientists often describe the Arctic as the area above the ‘Arctic Circle’.

Some of the countries that make up the Arctic are parts of Greenland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Russia, Canada, and the USA.

There are approximately four million people who live in the Arctic, and amongst these are the indigenous people of the Arctic who are called the ‘Inuits’.

The word ‘Arctic’ derives from the Greek word meaning ‘bear arktos’. This is because of the two constellations in the northern night sky, the Ursa Major (Great Bear) and Ursa Minor (Little Bear).

These constellations contain Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star.

Temperatures of -70°c have been recorded in northern Greenland.

Due to the Earth’s tilt, once a year the Arctic has a whole day of sunshine and another day of complete darkness.

It is known that glaciers in the Arctic store about 75% of the world’s fresh water.

Today’s glaciers cover around 10% of the Earth’s total land area.

Everyone thinks that a polar bears fur is white! Actually it’s transparent with a hollow core that reflects the light. This helps the polar bear to stay camouflaged by blending in to their surroundings.

Polar bears have an excellent sense of smell, they can actually sniff out prey up to 16km (10 miles) away.

They have also been known to smell a seal which is around 3 feet beneath the ice and from a distance of 1 km (0.6 miles) away.

Polar bear cubs stay with their mother for about 2 years. She teaches them the skills they need to learn about surviving in the Arctic and hunting for food.

There is one specific species that can only be found in the Arctic and that is the narwhal, which is often referred to as the ‘unicorn of the sea’.

Male narwhals have a straight tusk at the front of their head – this tusk can grow to over 3 metres in length.

What is the longest tunnel in the world?

The world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel in the world is under the Alps in Switzerland, and is known as the Gotthard Rail Tunnel. It was officially opened in 2016, after almost two decades of construction work.

Sadly nine construction workers lost their lives during the construction project.

The 57km (35-mile) twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel provides a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe, with trains reaching speeds of between 62mph and 124mph when passing through the tunnel.

Switzerland says it revolutionises European freight transport and the very first full freight service began it’s rail journey on 11 December 2016. Goods which previously were carried by road by over a million lorries a year, will now go by train instead.

The tunnel has overtaken Japan’s 53.9km Seikan rail tunnel as the longest in the world and pushed the 50.5km Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France into third place in the longest tunnel stakes!

What is the name of the longest train station in Europe?

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllantysiliogogogoch!

It is a place on Anglesey in North Wales. It has 58 letters in it, but in the welsh language it only has 51, as ‘Ch’ and ‘Ll’ count as one letter.

The tiny Welsh village on the small island of Anglesey has approximately 3,100 inhabitants, and around 70% of the people there speak Welsh, which they would need to if they are to pronounce the name of their home village correctly!

The name of this village derived from the location of the village. The translation of the village and station name is – Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave.

Recently a UK weatherman named Liam Dutton pronounced Llanfair PG in full during a weather report and put the tiny village back on the map.

However the town has been a part of pop culture over the years when the Super Furry Animals named their debut album, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgoger-ychwyndrobwllantysil-iogogogochynygofod (in space), whilst Yeasayer referred to the village in their song “Red Cave”.

Another interesting fact is that actress Naomi Watts lived there briefly with her grandfather, and can pronounce the name of the town perfectly as she did live on American TV on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show.

Facts about Snowdon

Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and England, reaching 1,085 metres or 3,560 feet above sea level at it’s highest point, which is only second to Ben Nevis in Scotland which stands at 1,345 metres or 4412.73 feet.

There are many mountain summits within the Snowdonia National Park, around 90 summits are over 2,000 feet and Snowdon is one of the 15 peaks which exceed 3,000 feet.

The english origins of the name Snowdon derive from the Saxons, meaning “Snow Dun” or “Snow Hill”. In Welsh we call it “Yr Wyddfa” which was shortened from “Yr Wyddfa Fawr” meaning Great Throne or Tomb.

There are some mythical stories about Snowdon surrounding Arthur, the ‘once and future king’. It is said that Arthur killed a giant named Ritta on the slopes of Snowdon to avoid having his beard added to the giant’s cloak collection.

In another story Arthur’s body lies beneath a “Cairn of Stones” named Carnedd Arthur at Tregalan, whilst the bodies of his knights in full armour have been layed at a cave on “Y Lliwedd”.

Snowdon was part of Edmund Hillary’s training in preperation for his expedition to the top of Mount Everest.

There are six main pathways up to the summit of Snowdon and these are called the Llanberis Path, the Miners Track, the Pyg Track, Rhyd Ddu Path, Snowdon Ranger Path and finally Watkin Path, with approximately 350,000 visitors every year.

If you’ve ever heard of the three peak challenge, you will know that along with Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, Snowdon makes up the third mountain summit to reach.

The summit can also be reached by the Snowdon Railway Line which opened in 1896 and runs from Llanberis to the smallest mountain top cafe/restaurant in the world. The first stone shelter on the summit was built in 1820 by a guide named Lloyd, then a copper miner, named William Morris, realised it would be a great idea to sell refreshments from the shelter.

The shelter was rebuilt to incorporate more people and be environmentally friendly and on 12th June 2009 the summit building, named Hafod Eryi was officially opened by the First Minister for Wales, the Rt. Hon. Rhodri Morgan AM.

The Snowdon railway was the idea of two men, Sir Richard Moon and Mr George Assheton Smith.

Sir moon realised by using his standard gauge line he could attract more tourists to the summit and Mr Assheton Smith saw the benefit of inviting more tourism to the mountain as a way to compensate for the loss of income from his declining mines.

They imported a fully working 800mm gauge mountain railway from Switzerland and this is still the only rack and pinion railway in the United Kingdom.

The only railway accident occurred on the opening day in 1896. Ladas, Engine 1, derailed and plummeted down the slope. As the crew jumped from the engine a guard applied the hand brake and brought the carriages to a halt.

Unfortunately, a passenger panicked and jumped out of the carriage and fell onto the tracks and under the carriages wheels.

On a clear day you might be able to see around 18 different lakes and 14 other summits over 3,000 feet.

Snowdon has a lily named after it knows as “The Snowdon Lily”. It is a delicate white flower with a grass like leaf and is an arctic-alpine plant. Throughout Britain, this Lily has only ever been recorded as growing high up in the mountains of Snowdonia.

River Nile Facts

The river Nile is probably one of the most renowned rivers in the world and here are some interesting facts to reveal why.

The Nile River runs for approximately 6650 kilometres (4132 miles) and is located in Africa but also flows through parts of Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo (Kinshasa) and Kenya.

The Nile name originates from the Greek word Neilos, and this means a river valley.

The source of the Nile is believed to be from Lake Victoria, and the Ruvyironza River of Burundi is one of the main feeder rivers with its upper branches starting from the Kagera River which flows through the Rwanda-Tanzania and Uganda-Tanzania borders into Lake Victoria.

The Nile River was a great part of Ancient Egypt history and it is supposed that without the Nile river the pyramids would not have been built – as ships would carry the huge stones/bolders used to build the pyramids, hence why the pyramids are located so near to the Nile.

Back in 2004, the Expedition known as the White Nile, was the first group to navigate the entire length of the Nile River. Starting in Uganda and finishing in Rosetta, the expedition took the four months and two weeks to complete.

In Northern Egypt, the Nile Delta is the place where the Nile River runs into the Mediterranean Sea. The length at this point is around 160 kilometres (100 miles) and it continues along the coastline for over 240 kilometres (149 miles). Due to the fact that these parts are rich in agriculture the Egyptians have farmed them for thousands of years.

Around half of Egypt’s population live in the Nile Delta region – and that accounts for around 40 million people.

The famous Rosetta Stone was found in the Nile Delta back in 1787 near to the City of Rosetta. This Ancient Egyptian artifact enabled historians to have a further understanding of the original Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Due to the heavy and low flows of the Nile River, a dam was built in 1970 at Aswan to help regulate the flow of water, so that when the river featured high levels it would not wipe out crops and when it was at it’s lowest levels it did not cause famines and drought. This dam helps to control the level of the water.

As with all Ancient Egyptian they had a god for the Nile and he was known as Hapi. The Egyptians would ensure that they honour Hapi as they believed he would make the river flood which consequently brought fertility to the land.