When we look at a map of Europe, it seems simple: Europe is a continent made up of European countries. But geography is not always that straightforward. Some countries are entirely inside Europe. Others stretch across multiple continents. A few countries are politically connected to Europe but geographically located partly or completely outside it. This…
If you travel around the world, you may notice something strange. Most countries measure distance in kilometers, weight in kilograms, and temperature in Celsius. But in the United States, people still commonly use: Miles instead of kilometers Pounds instead of kilograms Feet and inches instead of meters Fahrenheit instead of Celsius Why does one country…
Look at a typical world map and you may notice something strange. Greenland appears almost as large as Africa. Europe looks enormous compared with South America. Russia stretches across a huge portion of the planet. But there is a problem: The world does not actually look like that. Many familiar world maps dramatically distort the…
Many people around the world use the words “Holland” and “the Netherlands” as if they mean exactly the same thing. You hear people say: “I’m visiting Holland.” “The Holland football team.” “Dutch people from Holland.” But technically, Holland is not the name of the entire country. The correct name of the country is: The Netherlands…
Modern Italy looks so natural on a map that it is easy to forget something remarkable: Italy as a unified country is relatively young. For most of European history, the Italian Peninsula was not governed by one national government. Instead, it was divided among kingdoms, duchies, republics, papal territories and foreign empires. There was a…
Europe may look like a continent divided into countries, but underneath its political borders lies another map entirely: a map of language families. English spoken in London is related to German in Berlin and Swedish in Stockholm. Spanish spoken in Madrid belongs to the same family branch as French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. Polish, Russian,…
Europe’s political borders are easy to see. Its water borders are almost invisible. Rain falling a few kilometers apart can begin completely different journeys. One drop may eventually reach the Atlantic Ocean. Another may flow toward the Baltic. A third could travel thousands of kilometers through the Danube system before entering the Black Sea. And…
Choosing one historical leader to represent an entire European country is almost impossible. France alone could offer Charlemagne, Louis XIV, Napoleon Bonaparte or Charles de Gaulle. Britain could choose Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill or countless others. Italy’s history stretches through ancient Rome, Renaissance city-states and modern unification, while countries such as Poland, Ukraine…
Can a computer create an “average face” for an entire country? The map above attempts something close to that—but the answer is more complicated than the portraits might suggest. It shows composite female faces associated with selected European countries, including Sweden, Finland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, Turkey and others. Each…
Look across Europe and ask one simple question: How do you say “God”? The answers range from God, Gott and Gud in the Germanic north and west to Dieu, Dio, Dios and Deus across Romance-speaking Europe. Travel east and another pattern appears: Bóg, Bůh, Boh and Bog. Farther north, Finnish gives us Jumala, while neighboring…
