01 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 150
Why the EU flag still has just 12 stars
The EU flag's 12 stars were never a member count. Fixed as a symbol of perfection in 1955, they stayed unchanged as membership grew to 27 countries.
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The issue archive
Follow The Meridian backwards through daily places, moving maps and facts worth carrying into conversation.
02 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 151
How India's flag swapped Gandhi's wheel for Ashoka's
India's flag wheel is often read as Gandhi's charkha, but the emblem swapped in for it in 1947 is the Ashoka Chakra, an ancient 24-spoke Buddhist dharma-wheel.
Read issue →03 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 152
Baffin Island is 2.4 times the size of Great Britain
Baffin Island is 2.4 times the size of Great Britain, Devon Island is Earth's largest uninhabited landmass, and Reno sits farther west than Los Angeles.
Read issue →04 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 153
Why Wales has no symbol on the Union Jack
Why the Union Jack has never carried a symbol for Wales, plus the tiny Pacific island once richer than almost anywhere on Earth, and Europe's real low point.
Read issue →05 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 154
Why the Dutch flag is red, white and blue, not orange
The Dutch flag has no orange in it, the result of a 300-year colour swap made official in 1937. Plus a sea with no coast and a country wider than the Moon.
Read issue →06 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 155
Why the bikini is named after a nuclear test site
The bikini swimsuit is named after Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It was unveiled in Paris four days after the US tested an atomic bomb there in 1946.
Read issue →07 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 156
Kiribati's Line Islands see the new year first
Kiribati's Line Islands sit at UTC+14, the world's most forward time zone and a full hour ahead of New Zealand, so they are first to greet each new year.
Read issue →08 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 157
Spain runs on the wrong time zone
Why peninsular Spain, mostly west of Greenwich, keeps Central European Time. Plus the Netherlands' real sea-level share and the world's oldest living culture.
Read issue →09 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 158
Why maps make Greenland look bigger than Algeria
On the Mercator map, Greenland looks two to three times the size of Algeria, but Algeria has about 10% more land. Plus the pyramids of Sudan.
Read issue →10 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 159
Tokyo Tower, modelled on the Eiffel Tower, is taller
Tokyo Tower was modelled on the Eiffel Tower and measures 332.9 metres, about 3 metres more than its model. Plus the largest church in the world.
Read issue →11 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 160
The equator misses all of Equatorial Guinea's land
Equatorial Guinea's name points to the equator, but the line crosses only its waters, between the mainland and Annobón. Plus how Wellington became a capital.
Read issue →12 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 161
Djibouti's Lake Assal is Africa's lowest point
Lake Assal, a salt lake in Djibouti, sits about 155 metres below sea level, lower than Egypt's Qattara Depression and the true lowest point on land in Africa.
Read issue →13 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 162
New Zealand was the last large landmass people settled
New Zealand, far out in the South Pacific, was the last large landmass on Earth people settled, reached by Polynesian voyagers only around the year 1280.
Read issue →14 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 163
London is north of the whole contiguous United States
London sits at 51.5 degrees north, above every point in the contiguous United States, even though its mild, sea-warmed climate makes it feel farther south.
Read issue →15 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 164
Jakarta sinks 75 times faster than Venice
Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is subsiding up to 15 centimetres a year in its worst-hit areas, far outpacing Venice, the city most associated with sinking.
Read issue →16 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 165
The Congo is the world's deepest river
Not the Amazon: soundings found the Congo River reaches about 220 metres deep, far more than the Amazon, because its water is squeezed so narrowly.
Read issue →17 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 166
India's true southernmost point is Indira Point
Kanyakumari is often called India's southernmost point, but the true southernmost point is Indira Point, on Great Nicobar Island near Indonesia.
Read issue →18 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 167
Naoero, not Tuvalu, is the smallest island country
Most people guess Tuvalu, but Naoero (formerly Nauru), a single 21 square kilometre island, narrowly beats it, making Naoero the world's third-smallest sovereign state overall.
Read issue →19 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 168
South America's largest desert is not the Atacama
Argentina's Patagonian Desert covers about 673,000 square kilometres, more than six times the size of the Atacama, making it South America's largest desert.
Read issue →20 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 169
Santiago, Chile lies east of New York City
Santiago sits further east than New York City, since South America is shifted eastward. Plus Tasmania, the Pacific Ocean's size, and more.
Read issue →21 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 170
Ireland's northernmost point is in the Republic
Ireland's northern tip, Malin Head in County Donegal, lies in the Republic, not Northern Ireland, about 15 kilometres further north than Antrim's coast.
Read issue →22 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 171
Melbourne was Australia's capital for 26 years
Australia's constitution named Melbourne, not Sydney, as the seat of government until Canberra was ready. Parliament sat there for 26 years, from 1901 to 1927.
Read issue →23 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 172
The top of Everest is made of ancient seabed
The rock at Mount Everest's summit is marine limestone, formed on a warm, shallow sea floor roughly 450 million years ago, long before the mountain rose.
Read issue →24 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 174
Auckland has more Polynesians than any Pacific nation
Auckland's Pacific peoples community outnumbers the population of Samoa, the most populous independent Polynesian country, by the 2023 census.
Read issue →25 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 173
Part of Canada lies south of Chicago
Canada's southernmost point, Middle Island in Lake Erie, sits south of Chicago and below the parallel that forms California's and Nevada's northern border.
Read issue →26 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 175
Tugela Falls is nine times taller than Victoria Falls
South Africa's Tugela Falls drops 948 metres, nine times the height of Victoria Falls, which is wider rather than taller, at 1,708 metres across.
Read issue →27 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 176
Panama Canal's Pacific end lies east of Atlantic end
The Panama Canal runs northwest to southeast, so its Pacific terminus at Balboa sits east of its Atlantic terminus at Colon, not west as most assume.
Read issue →28 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 177
Italy's longest border is with Switzerland, not France
Italy shares more border length with Switzerland than with France, because mountain shape matters more than a neighbour's size. Also: a medieval Pacific city.
Read issue →29 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 178
Myanmar's capital is Nay Pyi Taw, not Yangon
Myanmar moved its entire government to a newly built city, Nay Pyi Taw, in November 2005. It remains the capital today, though Yangon is still far larger.
Read issue →30 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 179
The Netherlands' highest point is a Caribbean volcano
Mount Scenery, a volcano on the Dutch Caribbean island of Saba, stands about 870 metres, nearly three times the height of the Netherlands' European high point.
Read issue →31 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 180
Chimborazo is farther from Earth's centre than Everest
Earth's equatorial bulge means Ecuador's Mount Chimborazo sits about 2,072 metres farther from the planet's centre than Mount Everest's summit does.
Read issue →32 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 182
Africa's northernmost point is north of Sicily
Africa's northern tip, in Tunisia, sits north of the southern tip of Sicily and the whole of Malta, upending how most people picture the two continents.
Read issue →33 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 183
Santa Fe is America's highest state capital
Santa Fe, New Mexico, sits higher above sea level than any other US state capital, including Denver, the self-styled Mile High City, which ranks only third.
Read issue →34 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 184
Malta's flag has a British medal, not a Maltese cross
Malta's national flag shows no Maltese cross at all. The symbol in its corner is the George Cross, a British award for bravery given to the island in 1942.
Read issue →35 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 185
Blond hair in the Solomon Islands has no European link
Scientists found that natural blond hair among dark-skinned Solomon Islanders comes from a local gene change, with no European ancestry involved at all.
Read issue →36 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 186
New Guinea is the world's second largest island
New Guinea, shared by Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, covers more land than Borneo, making it the world's second largest island after Greenland.
Read issue →37 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 187
The Arabian Desert is Asia's largest desert
Most people name the Gobi as Asia's biggest desert, but the Arabian Desert covers about 2.3 million square kilometres, nearly twice the Gobi's size.
Read issue →38 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 188
Andorra la Vella is Europe's highest capital city
Andorra la Vella, high in the Pyrenees mountains, sits 1,023 metres above sea level, higher than Madrid, the tallest capital in the European Union.
Read issue →39 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 189
Some of the Danube's water reaches the North Sea
Near its source in Germany, the Danube sinks into limestone and resurfaces 12 kilometres away, flowing on to the North Sea instead of the Black Sea.
Read issue →40 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 190
Tuvalu's land area has grown, not shrunk
Tuvalu is widely described as sinking beneath rising seas, but measurements show its land area actually grew by about 74 hectares between 1971 and 2014.
Read issue →41 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 191
The Rwenzori Mountains hold Africa's third glacier
The Rwenzori Mountains, on the Uganda-Congo border, are one of only three African ranges still holding glaciers, alongside Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya.
Read issue →42 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 192
Lesotho's lowest point is 1,400 metres above sea level
Lesotho sits entirely above 1,000 metres and has no lowland. It is the country with the highest low point on Earth, plus a mosque in Mali and a hidden peak.
Read issue →43 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 197
Point Roberts is reachable only through Canada
Point Roberts, Washington, sits below the Canadian border, so reaching the rest of the United States means driving through Canada and back across twice.
Read issue →44 ·
DAILY GEOGRAPHY BRIEF · NO. 198
Seattle lies 435 km farther north than Toronto
Seattle, on the US Pacific coast, sits about 435 kilometres farther north than Toronto, Canada, because the border dips south near the Great Lakes.
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