Some of the Danube's water reaches the North Sea

Good morning

On 22 October 1797, André-Jacques Garnerin stepped out of a hot air balloon high above Paris, France, and floated safely to the ground under a canopy he had designed himself. It is remembered as the first parachute descent from such a height, landing him in a field on the edge of the city.

Today's issue follows water, lightning and land to places that rarely sit still. A river vanishes underground, a lake holds the record for storms, and a country grows its own coastline.

In today's edition

Danube · Fact of the day

Some of the Danube's water reaches the North Sea, not the Black Sea

Most people picture the Danube as one river that flows all the way from Germany to the Black Sea without a break.

Near its source at Immendingen, Germany, the riverbed runs completely dry for about 150 days a year. The water has not vanished. It sinks into cracked limestone rock, called karst, and travels underground. Within about two and a half days it rises again 12 kilometres away, at the Aachtopf, Germany's largest spring. From there it flows into the Rhine and reaches the North Sea instead.

This happens because limestone slowly dissolves, leaving tunnels wide enough for a river to pass through unseen, underneath the ridge that is meant to separate the two drainage basins.

10.62° N, 71.62° W · Place of the day

Lake Maracaibo

Lake Maracaibo is a large lake in northwestern Venezuela, a country in South America. A narrow strait links it to the Caribbean Sea.

It holds a distinction no other place on Earth can claim: it is the most lightning-struck spot on the planet. NASA satellite data gathered from 1998 to 2013 measured this. The lake sees about 233 lightning flashes per square kilometre every year, ahead of the closest rival, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On most nights, lightning lights up the sky above the lake. Scientists counted roughly 297 thunderstorms a year there, which works out to about four nights in every five.

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↻ Also on the map

Every Thursday · 30 questions

Thursday Thirty is live.

It's quiz day. Today's thirty questions take you from coastlines and capitals to rivers and borders around the world. Have a go below and see how your score compares with other readers.

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Between issues

Fancy a different kind of map puzzle? In GeoGrid, you fill a 3 by 3 grid with countries, where each row and column has its own rule to satisfy. It rewards both broad knowledge and careful thinking about each square.

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Locate the country

Today's mystery shape · 22 October 2026

Today's silhouette is waiting for your guess. Look at the outline, think about its coastline and shape, and see if you can place it on the map. We reveal the answer tomorrow.

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Yesterday, revealed

Yesterday, 21 October 2026

43.74° N, 7.42° E · By the numbers

Monaco's size, before and after it added land in 2024

Monaco is the world's second-smallest country, at only 208 hectares. For comparison, New York's Central Park covers about 341 hectares, bigger than the whole country. In 2024, Monaco opened a district called Mareterra. It added 6 hectares of land reclaimed from the Mediterranean Sea. That is a small patch, but it grew the country's total area by about 3%. Reclaimed land now makes up more than a quarter of Monaco. For a country this short on space, every hectare counts.