Civilisation/World Geography - North America

United States

Flag of United States contains 13 stripes representing the Thirteen Colonies and 50 stars representing the 50 states. Known as the Stars and Stripes, the Star-Spangled Banner, and Old Glory

Capital	Washington, D.C.
Largest cities	New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix
Currency	Dollar
Highest point	Denali (Mount McKinley)

The United States is the world's fourth-largest country by total area and third most populous (320 million). The U.S. population almost quadrupled during the 20th century, from about 76 million in 1900

In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

Alabama (AL)

Capital – Montgomery

Largest city – Birmingham

Alaska (AK)

Capital – Juneau

Largest city – Anchorage

Alaska is the least densely populated state

Alaska Highway was constructed as an emergency supply route in WWII and connects the contiguous U.S. to Alaska through Canada. It runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Faribanks, Alaska. Completed in 1943, it is 1,390 miles long

Dalton Highway is a 414-mile road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields

Barrow is the northernmost settlement on the North American mainland and in the United States. Nearby Point Barrow is the northernmost point of the United States

Disenchantment Bay is in Alaska

Alexander Archipelago is in Alaska

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is in Alaska

Attu is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska. The island is currently uninhabited. The island was the site of the only World War II land battle fought on an incorporated territory of the United States

Unalaska is an island in the Fox Islands group of the Aleutian Islands

Yakutat City in Alaska is the largest city by area in USA

Mount Aniakchak is a volcanic caldera located in the Aleutian Range of Alaska

Kodiak Island – second largest island in USA, behind Big Island, Hawaii

Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is an annual long-distance sled dog race run in March from Anchorage to Nome

Arizona (AZ)

Capital and largest city – Phoenix

Painted Desert is in Arizona. The desert is composed of stratified layers of easily erodible siltstone, mudstone, and shale. These fine grained rock layers contain abundant iron and manganese compounds which provide the pigments for the various colours of the region

The Wave is a spectacular sandstone formation on the slopes of the Coyote Buttes in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, located in Arizona

Meteor crater is in Arizona. Scientists refer to the crater as Barringer Crater in honour of Daniel Barringer who was first to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact

Petrified Forest National Park is in Arizona

London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, is the reconstruction of the 1831 London Bridge designed by John Rennie until it was dismantled in 1967. The bridge was bought by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London

Arkansas (AR)

Capital and largest city – Little Rock

Mississippi River forms most of the eastern border of Arkansas

Hot Springs National Park is in Arkansas

California (CA)

Capital – Sacramento

Largest city – Los Angeles

Los Angeles Aqueduct system comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct delivers water from the Owens River in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains into the city of Los Angeles. Designed by William Mulholland. Completed in 1913

St. Francis Dam was a gravity dam built as a large reservoir near the city of Los Angeles. The dam was built between 1924 and 1926 under the supervision of William Mulholland, an engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. In 1928, the dam catastrophically failed

La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits located in Hancock Park in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Over many centuries, animals that came to drink the water fell in, sank in the tar, and were preserved as bones. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there

Los Angeles is known as ‘the big orange’

Griffith Observatory is in Los Angeles. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin

Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theatre located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is located along the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame. From 1973 through 2001, the theatre was known as Mann's Chinese Theatre

The Hollywood sign originally read ‘HOLLYWOODLAND’, and its purpose was to advertise a new housing development

Sunset Strip is the name given to the 2.4 km stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood

Crystal Cathedral campus is a Christian megachurch in the city of Garden Grove, within Orange County in Southern California

John Wayne airport is in Orange County

John Paul Getty museum is in Malibu

San Francisco cable cars are the world’s only mobile National Monument

Golden Gate Bridge designed by Joseph Strauss in 1937

The eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is currently scheduled to open to traffic in 2013

Yerba Buena Island connects the western and eastern spans of the Bay Bridge

The Immigration Station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay processed approximately one million Asian immigrants and has been designated a National Historic Landmark

San Diego International Airport is on the site of a municipal airport named Lindbergh Field

San Diego has one of the world’s largest zoos

John Sutter founded the city of Sacramento, first naming it New Helvetia, the ancient name of Switzerland

Neverland, formerly the Sycamore Valley Ranch, is in Santa Barbara County

Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark mansion. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951

Lassen Volcanic National Park is in central northern California. The dominant feature of the park is Lassen Peak; the largest plug dome volcano in the world and the southern-most volcano in the Cascade Range. Lassen Volcanic National Park started as two separate national monuments designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907: Cinder Cone National Monument and Lassen Peak National Monument

El Capitan is a 1000m vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers

Mono Lake, California contains bacteria that grow in high concentrations of arsenic

Sutter Buttes in California are sometimes referred to as the world's smallest mountain range

Point Reyes is a prominent cape and popular tourist destination on the Pacific coast of northern California. It is located in Marin County

Largest county by area – San Bernadino County, California

Colorado (CO)

Capital and largest city – Denver

Mount Elbert is highest mountain in Rockies

Colorado is known as the Centennial state because it was admitted to the Union in 1876

Colorado River was known as the Grand River until 1921

Colorado River drains into the Gulf of California

Mesa Verde National Park is a U.S. National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park features numerous ruins of homes and villages built by the ancient Pueblo people known as the Anasazi. The Anasazi made this stone village their home in the 1200s, before being killed off by drought in 13th century

Monarch Pass is in Colorado

Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude

Connecticut (CT)

Capital – Hartford

Largest city – Bridgeport

Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum is in Connecticut

Delaware (DE)

Flag of Delaware has the date 7 December 1787, the day on which Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution

Capital – Dover

Largest city – Wilmington

Delaware is divided into three counties, named New Castle, Kent, and Sussex

Florida (FL)

Capital – Tallahassee

Largest city – Jacksonville

Florida is the US state most affected by lightning

Miami has the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world

St Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States

Fort Lauderdale is known as the ‘Venice of America’

Lake Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in Florida

St. Petersburg is the second largest city in the Tampa Bay Area

Orlando is nicknamed ‘The City Beautiful’ and its symbol is the fountain at Lake Eola

Orlando attracts over 51 million tourists a year (3.6 million of them are international tourists)

Epcot is a theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, located near Orlando

Spaceship Earth is a structure of Epcot. One of the most recognizable structures at the Walt Disney World Resort, it is not only the centerpiece and main focal point of Epcot, but also the name of the attraction housed within the 18-story geodesic sphere that takes guests on a time machine themed experience using the Omnimover system

Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida destroyed in 1980 when hit by a ship

Three counties in the Tampa region are known as “sinkhole alley”

Florida's peninsula is made up of porous carbonate rocks such as limestone that store and help move groundwater. Dirt, sand and clay sit on top of the carbonate rock. Over time, these rocks can dissolve from an acid created from oxygen in water, creating a void underneath the limestone roof. When the dirt, clay or sand gets too heavy for the limestone roof, it can collapse and form a sinkhole

Georgia (GA)

Capital and largest city – Atlanta

Peachtree Street is the main north-south Street of Atlanta

Stone Mountain is a quartz dome monadnock. Stone Mountain is well-known not only for its geology, but also for the enormous bas-relief on its north face, the largest bas-relief in the world. Three figures of the Confederate States of America are carved there: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis

Savannah was first state capital of Georgia

Hawaii (HI)

Capital and largest city – Honolulu

Mount Kilauea is the most active volcano in Hawaii. Kilauea emits large quantities of sulphur dioxide

Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands

Pearl Harbour is on the island of Oahu

Honolulu is on Oahu

Mauna Kea is taller than Everest when measured from its base; it rises over 10,203 m when measured from its base on the mid-ocean floor, but only attains 4205 m above sea level. Means ‘white mountain’

Mauna Loa is the largest volcano on earth in terms of area covered

Kauai the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands

Mauna Kea observatory is on Big Island, the largest Hawaiian island

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) is a volcano observatory located at Uwekahuna Bluff on the rim of Kilauea Caldera on the Island of Hawaii

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park encompasses two active volcanoes: Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the world's most massive volcano

Hilo is the main town on The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island

Lanai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also known as the Pineapple Island

The Hawaiian Islands were (and continue to be) continuously formed from volcanic activity initiated at an undersea magma source called a hotspot. As the tectonic plate beneath much of the Pacific Ocean moves to the northwest, the hot spot remains stationary, slowly creating new volcanoes

Haleakala is a massive shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the island of Maui

Idaho (ID)

Capital and largest city – Boise

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a national monument and national preserve located in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho

Illinois (IL)

Capital – Springfield

Largest city – Chicago

The Wrigley Building is a skyscraper located directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago

Fort Dearborn, named in honor of Henry Dearborn, was a United States fort built on the Chicago River in 1803 by troops under Captain John Whistler. The site of the fort is now a Chicago Landmark, part of the Michigan–Wacker Historic District

The loop is the downtown area of Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in Illinois

Chicago is called the “windy city” due to politicians being full of hot air

O’Hare airport in Chicago has the code ORD, as it was previously known as Orchard Field

Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic building in Chicago. It is the home of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company

Home Insurance Building in Chicago was built in 1884. It was the first building to use structural steel

Sears Tower was designed by Bruce Graham and Fazlur Khan. In 2009, Sears Tower was renamed Willis Tower

LaSalle Street is a major street in Chicago named for Sieur de La Salle, an early explorer of Illinois. The portion that runs through the Chicago Loop is considered to be Chicago's financial district

Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield contains Lincoln’s Tomb

Indiana (IN)

Capital and largest city – Indianapolis

Fort Wayne is the second largest city in Indiana

Iowa (IA)

Capital and largest city – Des Moines

Maharishi Vedic City is a city in Jefferson County, Iowa

Kansas (KS)

Capital – Topeka

Largest city – Wichita

Lebanon is the centre of the 48 contiguous states

Boot Hill Museum is in Dodge City

Kentucky (KY)

Capital – Frankfort

Largest city – Louisville

The Bethlehem, Kentucky post office offers a special postmark during the Christmas season

Louisiana (LA)

Capital – Baton Rouge

Largest city – New Orleans

Angola Penitentiary is the State Penitentiary in Louisiana, the largest prison in the US, housing 5,000 inmates, and was set up by Isaac Franklin with profits from slave trading

New Orleans is known as “crescent city”

Louis Armstrong airport serves New Orleans

Storyville was the red-light district of New Orleans from 1897 to 1917

Maine (ME)

Capital – Augusta

Largest city – Portland

Maine is the lobster capital of USA

Hundred-Mile Wilderness is a section of the Appalachian Trail

Mount Katahdin is the highest mountain in Maine

Portland was the former capital of Maine

Maryland (MD)

Flag of Maryland consists of the heraldic banner of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore. It is the only state flag in the United States to be based on English heraldry

Capital – Annapolis

Largest city – Baltimore

Andrews air force base is in Maryland

Goddard Space Flight Centre was established in 1959

Massachusetts (MA)

Capital and largest city – Boston

Boston is known as the ‘Athens of the Americas’

Boston has the oldest subway system in US, operational from 1897

The Massachusetts State House is the state capitol of Massachusetts. Located in the state capital of Boston in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, the building has a dome gilded with gold leaf. It was designed by Charles Bulfinch

Leonard P Zakin Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge is in Boston

Boston is known as “Beantown”

Breed's Hill is a glacial drumlin located in the Charlestown section of Boston. It is best known as the location where in 1775, early in the American Revolutionary War, most of the fighting in the Battle of Bunker Hill took place

Tanglewood in Massachusetts is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937

Michigan (MI)

Capital – Lansing

Largest city – Detroit

Detroit was founded by Antoine Cadillac in 1701

Highland Park Ford Plant in Detroit was designed by Albert Kahn in 1908 and was opened in 1910

Davison freeway in Detroit was the first US freeway

Kalamazoo is in Michigan

Grand Rapids, Michigan was first town to have fluoride added to the water supply

Straits of Mackinac is the narrow waterway separating Michigan's Lower Peninsula from its Upper Peninsula. It connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron

Mackinac Island is an island and resort area located in Lake Huron

Minnesota (MN)

Capital – St. Paul

Largest city – Minneapolis

Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes"

Lake Itasca is a small glacial lake in Minnesota. It is the source of the Mississippi River

Minneapolis bridge collapse in 2007 was on the I-35W

Mall of America located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Opened in 1992, the mall receives over 40 million visitors annually, the most of any mall in the world

Mississippi (MS)

Flag of Mississippi was adopted on 11 January 2021. It replaces the previous flag that displayed the Confederate battle insignia in the upper left hand corner

Capital and largest city – Jackson

Tupelo is in Mississippi

Missouri (MO)

Capital – Jefferson City

Largest city – Kansas City

Independence in Missouri is known as the ‘Queen City of the Trails’ because it was a point of departure of the California, Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. Independence is also noted as the hometown of President Harry S. Truman

Montana (MT)

Capital – Helena

Largest city – Billings

Glacier National Park is on the border with the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. The park encompasses over 1 million acres (4,000 km²)

Lake Missoula was a prehistoric proglacial lake in western Montana that existed periodically at the end of the last ice age between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago

Egg Mountain is a dinosaur site in Montana. Findings demonstrated for the first time that at least some dinosaurs cared for their young

Nebraska (NE)

Capital – Lincoln

Largest city – Omaha

Carhenge is a replica of Stonehenge located near the city of Alliance, Nebraska on the High Plains. Carhenge is formed from vintage American automobiles, all covered with gray spray paint. Built by Jim Reinders

Nevada (NV)

Capital – Carson City

Largest city – Las Vegas

Area 51 is a military base located in the southern portion of Nevada. It is a focus of modern UFO and conspiracy theories

Great Basin is a desert in Nevada

Boulder City was originally built in 1931 by the Bureau of Reclamation and Six Companies, Inc. as housing for workers who were building Hoover Dam

New Hampshire (NH)

Capital – Concord

Largest city – Manchester

”Live Free or Die” is the motto of New Hampshire

Bretton Woods is in New Hampshire

Dixville Notch is a village in New Hampshire. The population of the township, all of whom live in the village, was 12 at the 2010 census. The village is known for being one of the first places to declare its results during United States presidential elections

New Jersey (NJ)

Capital – Trenton

Largest city – Newark

New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state, but the most densely populated

To honour the victims that died in the 9/11 attacks, Newark International Airport was renamed Newark Liberty International Airport in 2002

New Mexico (NM)

Capital – Santa Fe

Largest city – Albequerque

Acoma Pueblo, also known as “Sky City”, is a Native American pueblo built on top of a 112 m sandstone mesa in New Mexico. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States

Sante Fe was formally founded and made a capital in 1610, making it the oldest capital city in what is today the United States

Santa Fe’s full name when founded was “The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi”

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is in Santa Fe

Albuquerque is on the Rio Grande

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History (formerly named National Atomic Museum) is located in Albuquerque

Chaco Culture National Historical Park is in New Mexico. Evidence of archaeoastronomy at Chaco has been proposed, with the Sun Dagger petroglyph at Fajada Butte a popular example

Bisti Badlands are in New Mexico

New York (NY)

Capital – Albany

Largest city – New York City

New York City is built on a bedrock of schist

New Amsterdam became New York in 1664

Carnegie Hall is located at 881 Seventh Avenue and was designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891

Madison Avenue is associated with advertising

Wall Street extends from Broadway to the East River

The Hotel Chelsea is a well-known residence for artists, musicians, and writers in the neighbourhood of Chelsea in Manhattan

Times Square is used to be called Longacre Square. Renamed in honour of the New York Times

St. Patrick’s is a gothic-style Catholic cathedral in New York

St. John the Divine is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York

The Russian Tea Room is a restaurant in New York, located at 150 West 57th Street between Carnegie Hall Tower and Metropolitan Tower

Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan opened in 1902, and was designed by architect Goldwin Starrett

Sixth Avenue is the Avenue of the Americas

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st Streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. The centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (‘30 Rock’), formerly known as the RCA Building

The Bowery is in the southern portion of Manhattan. Home of many music halls in the 19th century, the Bowery later became notable for its economic depression

After the destruction of the World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building was again the second-tallest building in New York City until December 2007, when the spire was raised on the 1,200 foot Bank of America Tower, pushing the Chrysler Building into third position. In addition, The New York Times Building, which opened in 2007, is exactly level with the Chrysler Building in height

4 World Trade Center (also known by its street address, 150 Greenwich Street) will be 978 feet tall

One World Trade Center (formerly known as the Freedom Tower) occupies the former location of the original 6 World Trade Center. The spire reaches 1776 feet. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Tallest building in the western hemisphere

Exchange Place is the subway station at Ground Zero

Times Square Ball is a time ball located atop the One Times Square building, primarily utilized as part of New Year's Eve celebrations held in Times Square

Brill Building in Manhattan is famous for housing music industry offices and studios where some of the most popular American music tunes were written

John D Rockefeller financed the building of the United Nations headquarters

Park51, originally named Cordoba House, is a planned $100 million, 13-story, glass and steel Islamic community centre and mosque in Lower Manhattan

Flatiron Building was originally called the Fuller Building. Located at 175 Fifth Avenue

In 1857 a landscape design contest was held for the design of Central Park. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux developed what came to be known as the Greensward Plan, which was selected as the winning design

Harlem is a district in Manhattan

Gracie Mansion – home of New York mayor

The Morgan Library & Museum (formerly The Pierpont Morgan Library) is a museum and research library in New York City. It was founded to house the private library of JP Morgan in 1906

TriBeCa is a neighborhood in downtown Manhattan. The name is a syllabic abbreviation of ‘Triangle Below Canal Street.’ It runs roughly from Canal Street south to Park Place, and from the Hudson River east to Broadway

Hell’s Kitchen is a district of New York

The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge) is a steel arch railroad bridge between Astoria in the borough of Queens and Randalls and Wards Islands (which are now joined into one island and are politically parts of Manhattan) in New York City, over a portion of the East River known as Hell Gate. Designed by Gustav Lindenthal

JFK Airport is on Long Island. Known as Idlewild until 1963, one month after the assassination of JFK

Statue of Liberty is made of steel and copper, and was transported on the French frigate Isere. It was designed by Bartholdi and Eiffel, who supervised the inner framework. It was erected in 1886. A ceremony of dedication was held on the afternoon of October 28, 1886. President Grover Cleveland, the former New York governor, presided over the event. Full name –‘Liberty Enlightening the World’

The first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was Annie Moore, a 15-year-old girl from Cork, Ireland, on 1 January 1892. The last person to pass through Ellis Island was a Norwegian merchant seaman by the name of Arne Peterssen in 1954. Since 1990, restored buildings on the island host a museum of immigration run by the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument

Ellis Island was sometimes known as The Island of Tears or Heartbreak Island because of those 2% who were not admitted after the long transatlantic voyage

Staten Island is connected to Brooklyn by Verrazano Narrows Bridge, over the Hudson River. Opened in 1964

The west end of Long Island has the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn (Kings County) and Queens (Queens County)

New York City is often referred to collectively as The Five Boroughs – Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island

High Line is a linear park built on a section of the former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan

New York subway opened in 1904

Washington Arch is a marble triumphal arch in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, celebrating the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration

Pearl Street Station was the first central power plant in the United States. It was located at 255-257 Pearl Street in Manhattan. it started generating electricity in 1882

George Washington Bridge, connecting Manhattan to New Jersey, carries approximately 102 million vehicles per year, making it the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge

Empire State Building completed in 1931.1250’ high. Designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon

Brooklyn Bridge crosses the East river. Designed by John Roebling. Opened in 1883

Levittown on Long Island was founded by William Levitt, who built the district as a planned community between 1947 and 1951. William Levitt is considered the father of modern suburbia. Levittown was the first truly mass-produced suburb and is widely regarded as the archetype for postwar suburbs throughout the country

Staten Island was named in honor of the Dutch parliament known as the Staten-Generaal

Long Island is the most populated island in any U.S. state or territory, and the 17th-most populous island in the world. Both the longest and the largest island in the contiguous United States, Long Island extends 190 km eastward from New York Harbor to Montauk Point

Yonkers – city in New York. Name derived from Adriaen van der Donck

Lake Placid is in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York (the biggest national park in the US outside Alaska)

Erie Canal – a man-made waterway in New York that runs about 363 miles from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. First proposed in 1808, it was under officially opened in1825

North Carolina (NC)

The flag of North Carolina bears the dates of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (May 20, 1775) and of the Halifax Resolves (April 12, 1776)

Capital – Raleigh

Largest city – Charlotte

Roanoke Island is best known for its historical significance as the site of Sir Walter Raleigh's attempt to establish a permanent English settlement with his Roanoke Colony in 1585 and 1587. The fate of the final group of colonists has never been determined, yielding persistent myths about the “Lost Colony”

Charlotte is named in honour of the German Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg, who had become queen consort of King George III

Mount Mitchell State Park includes the peak of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River

Fort Bragg is a large United States Army installation

North Dakota (ND)

Capital – Bismarck

Largest city – Fargo

Ohio (OH)

Capital and largest city – Columbus

Cleveland is the second largest city in Ohio

Cincinnati is the third largest city in Ohio

Cincinnati was named after the Roman general Cincinnatus, and is on the River Ohio

Oklahoma (OK)

Capital and largest city – Oklahoma City

Will Rogers World Airport serves Oklahoma City

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is protected as the largest tract of remaining tallgrass prairie in the world

Oregon (OR)

Flag of Oregon is a two-sided flag. On the front is the escutcheon from the state seal and on the reverse is a gold figure of a beaver, the state animal. Oregon is the only state to feature different designs on either side of its flag

Capital – Salem

Largest city – Portland

Crater Lake is a caldera lake in Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park. The lake was formed around 7,700 years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, and the second deepest lake in North America (Great Slave Lake is the deepest)

Mount Hood is the highest point in Oregon

Oregon is slightly larger than UK

Pennsylvania (PA)

Capital – Harrisburg

Largest city – Philadelphia

Dating back to 1829, the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia has housed some of America's most dangerous criminals including Al Capone

Pittsburgh was named after William Pitt the Elder

The characteristic shape of Pittsburgh's central business district is a triangular tract carved by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which form the Ohio River

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts is concert hall located in Pittsburgh

Three Mile Island is in the Susquehanna River, near Harrisburg

Rhode Island (RI)

Capital and largest city – Providence

Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the eighth least populous, but the second most densely populated of the 50 US states

In January 2021, the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations dropped "and Providence Plantations" from its full name

South Carolina (SC)

Capital and largest city – Colombia

Charleston is the oldest and second largest city in South Carolina

South Dakota (SD)

Capital – Pierre

Largest city – Sioux Falls

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument in progress in the Black Hills of South Dakota that when complete will be the world's largest sculpture. It is named after the Lakota warrior Crazy Horse. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain on land considered sacred by some Native Americans, between Custer and Hill City, roughly 8 miles away from Mount Rushmore. Crazy Horse Memorial was begun in 1948 by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski

Mount Rushmore features 60’ sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (in order from left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln

Badlands National Park is in South Dakota

Mammoth Site is a museum and paleontological site near Hot Springs, South Dakota. It contains the remains of fauna and flora preserved by entrapment in a karst sinkhole during the Pleistocene era

Tennessee (TN)

Capital – Nashville

Largest city – Memphis

Graceland is a mansion on an estate in Memphis that was home to Elvis Presley

In 1942, the United States Federal Government chose Oak Ridge, Tennessee as a site for developing materials for the Manhattan Project

Nashville is the second largest city in Tennessee, and is known as “Music City”

Texas (TX)

Capital – Austin

Largest city – Houston

Texas is the second most populous (after California) and the second largest of the 50 U.S. states (after Alaska)

Houston was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas

Austin is named after Stephen F. Austin, known as the father of Texas

Austin's official slogan is “The Live Music Capital of the World”. The city has a vibrant live music scene with more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city. Austin's music revolves around the many nightclubs on 6th Street and an annual film / music / multimedia festival known as South by Southwest

The Alamo is in San Antonio, the second largest city in Texas

Bracken Cave, San Antonio is home to 40 million bats

Dallas is the third largest city in Texas

The the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area is known as The Metroplex

Padre Island (the world's longest barrier island) is located on Texas's southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico and is famous for its white sandy beaches at the south end

Utah (UT)

Capital and largest city – Salt Lake City

Bryce Canyon National Park is a national park located in southwestern Utah. Despite its name, this is not actually a canyon, but rather a giant natural amphitheatre created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to its geological structures, called hoodoos

Moab desert is in Utah

A prominent feature of the Zion National Park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles long and up to half a mile deep, cut through the reddish and tan-coloured Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River

Arches National Park is located on the Colorado River. It is known for containing over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch

Great Salt Lake is the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere, and the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world

Vermont (VT)

Capital – Montpelier

Largest city – Burlington

Vermont is the second least populous state. Montpelier has a population of under 8,000 making it the least populous state capital in the country

Virginia (VA)

Capital – Richmond

Largest city- Virginia Beach

Rappahannock River in Virginia was considered to have been the boundary between the North and the South in the Civil War

Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water and the region of land areas which surround it in southeastern Virginia. Hampton Roads is notable for its year-round ice-free harbour, for U.S. Navy, Air Force, NASA, Marine, and Army facilities, shipyards, coal piers, and hundreds of miles of waterfront property and beaches

Mount Vernon, located near Alexandria, Virginia, was the plantation home of George Washington. The key to the Bastille hangs in the hall – it was sent to Washington by Lafayette in 1790. The remains of George and Martha Washington, as well as other family members, are entombed on the grounds

Monticello, located near Charlottesville, was the estate of Thomas Jefferson. Means “the little mountain”

Colonial Williamsburg is the historic district of the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. It consists of buildings that from 1699 to 1780 formed colonial Virginia's capital

The Native Americans called the James River the Powhatan River. The English colonists named it ‘James’ after King James I of England, as they also constructed their first permanent English settlement in the Americas in 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia, along the banks of the James River

Designed by the American architect George Bergstrom, and built by contractor John McShain, the Pentagon was dedicated on 15 January1943, after ground was broken for construction in1941. Located in Arlington County, Virginia, the Pentagon is the world's largest office building by floor area

Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia is a military cemetery, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna (Custis) Lee, a great grand-daughter of Martha Washington. The cemetery is situated directly across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington

Quantico, Virginia is the site of one of the largest U.S. Marine Corps bases in the world

Washington (WA)

Capital – Olympia

Largest city – Seattle

Washington is the only US state named after a former president

Space Needle was built for 1962 World Fair in Seattle. Designed by John Graham

Seattle is known as the “Emerald City”

Fremont, Seattle was at one time a centre of the counterculture. The neighbourhood remains home to a controversial statue of Lenin salvaged from Slovakia by a local art lover

Mount Rainier is a massive stratovolcano located 54 miles southeast of Seattle. It is the most prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc

Mount Baker is an active glaciated stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State

Grand Coulee Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam on the Columbia River in Washington. It is the largest electric power producing facility and the largest concrete structure in the United States. The reservoir is called Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake

Channeled Scablands are an erosion feature in Washington

West Virginia (WV)

Capital and largest city – Charleston

West Virginia is located entirely within the Appalachian Region, and the state is almost entirely mountainous

Wisconsin (WI)

Capital – Madison

Largest city – Milwaukee

Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline.

Wisconsin is known as “America's Dairyland” because it is one of the nation's leading dairy producers, particularly famous for cheese

Wyoming (WY)

Capital and largest city – Cheyenne

Wyoming is the least populous and the second least densely populated state

Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains. A north-south range, it is on the Wyoming side of the state's border with Idaho, just south of Yellowstone National Park. The principal summit of the central massif is Grand Teton

President Theodore Roosevelt established the first national monument, Devils Tower in Wyoming, in 1906

Ulysses S Grant made Yellowstone the first National Park in 1872

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act in 1790, approved the creation of a capital district located along the Potomac River on the country's East Coast. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, which included the pre-existing settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria. Named in honor of George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital

White House address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington. The house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia Creek sandstone in the Neoclassical style. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army

Lafayette Park is overlooked by the White House

Statue of Freedom is a 6 m high statue on top of Capitol building

Washington has no skyscrapers

Washington Monument is tallest structure in Washington

Lincoln Memorial was completed in 1922. Designed by Henry Bacon

Jefferson Memorial is a neoclassical building designed by John Russell Pope

Korean War Veterans Memorial is located in West Potomac Park, southeast of the Lincoln Memorial and just south of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. It was dedicated in 1995

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was completed in 1982, is in Constitution Gardens adjacent to the National Mall, just northeast of the Lincoln Memorial

The Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum complex in the world. It operates 19 museums and the National Zoo

The Willard InterContinental Washington is an historic luxury hotel located two blocks east of the White House

Dumbarton Oaks is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighbourhood

K Street is notorious for the density of its lobbying firms

Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. Includes Mount St Helens. Highest point is Mount Rainier

Allegheny Mountain Range is part of the Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada. It runs for over 500 miles from north-central Pennsylvania, through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia, to southwestern Virginia

Ozark Mountains are between Appalachians and Rockies

Cumberland Gap is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains. Famous in American history for its role as one key passageway through the lower central Appalachians, it was an important part of the Wilderness Road

Chesapeake Bay is the largest inlet off the Atlantic coast, and has coastlines on Virginia and Maryland

Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Toledo are all on Lake Erie

Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 and designed by Frank Crowe. Produces hydroelectric power. Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume

Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona. It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead

Missouri and Tennessee have borders with eight other states

I-90 is the longest interstate highway in the United States at nearly 3100 miles, and runs from Boston to Seattle

Four of the constituent states of the United States officially designate themselves Commonwealths: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia

Most common US city name is Franklin (17)

Sea Islands are a chain of 100 tidal and barrier islands, located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida

Appalachian Trail extends between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine. It is approximately 2,181 miles long

Susquehanna River is the longest river entirely within the USA that drains into the Atlantic Ocean

Missouri River is known as ‘the big muddy’

First state capital alphabetically – Albany

Last state capital alphabetically – Trenton

Route 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway, is colloquially known as the Main Street of America. One of the original U.S. Highways, Route 66 was established on 11 November 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, covering a total of 2,448 miles

Delaware Bay is bordered by Delaware and New Jersey

Lookout Mountain is located at the northwest corner of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southern border of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Most populous counties – 1^st Los Angeles County, 2^nd Cook County, Illinois, 3^rd Harris County, Texas

Great Basin – the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America. It is noted for both its arid conditions and its Basin and range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than 100 miles away at the summit of Mount Whitney

Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow 1770 km² peat-filled wetland straddling the Georgia–Florida border. Okefenokee is the largest "blackwater" swamp in North America

Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake entirely in USA

Supai Group is a slope-forming section of red bed deposits found in the Grand Canyon

Four Corners is a region consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, northwestern corner of New Mexico, northeastern corner of Arizona, and southeastern corner of Utah. The Four Corners area is named after the quadripoint where the boundaries of the four states meet, where the Four Corners Monument is located Connecticut River is the longest river in New England. Forms the boundary between Vermont and New Hampshire

Snake River is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, and the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean

Green River is the chief tributary of the Colorado River

Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2341 miles before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis. Flows through Bismarck and Pierre

Intercoastal Waterway runs from Boston, around the tip of Florida, to Brownsville, Texas

Connecticut River is the longest river in New England

Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River

Lake Champlain is a natural freshwater lake mainly within the borders of the United States (in Vermont and New York) but partially situated across the Canada–U.S. border, in Quebec

Compact of Free Association (COFA) is a type of diplomatic relationship that an independent country has with the United States of America, as an associated country. Presently, there are three sovereign states that have this type of relationship with the United States. They are the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau. Presently sovereign countries, the three freely associated states were formerly part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

United States Minor Outlying Islands consist of eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island) and one in the Caribbean Sea (Navassa Island)

Canada

Flag of Canada features an 11-pointed maple leaf

Capital	Ottawa
Largest cities	Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton
Currency	Dollar
Highest point	Mount Logan

Canada was known as La Nouvelle France

Canada produces 35% of world’s uranium

Canada consists of ten provinces and three territories

Canadian Prairies – the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba

Maritime Provinces of Canada – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

Atlantic Provinces of Canada – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador

Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only landlocked provinces

St. Lawrence Seaway permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, as far as Lake Superior. Opened in 1959

Provinces

Alberta

Capital – Edmonton

Largest city – Calgary

Calgary is third largest city in Canada

Jasper national park is in Alberta

Alberta is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Victoria, the Queen of Canada and Albert, Prince Consort

Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885, in the Canadian Rockies

Lake Louise is in Banff National Park Alberta

Banff is named by George Stephen, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, recalling his birthplace in Banffshire, Scotland

Medicine Hat, known to locals as ‘The Hat’, is a city located in the province of Alberta. Its major claim to fame is Rudyard Kipling's famous line ‘all hell for a basement’ referring to the vast reserves of natural gas beneath it

Most of the oil sands (tar sands) of Canada are located in northern Alberta

British Columbia

Capital – Victoria

Largest city – Vancouver

Burgess Shale Formation, located in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, is one of the world's most celebrated fossil fields. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. It is 505 million years (Middle Cambrian) old

The Queen Charlotte Islands or Haida Gwaii (‘Islands of the People’) are an archipelago off the northwest coast of British Columbia consisting of two main islands, Graham Island in the North, and Moresby Island in the south

Manitoba

Capital and largest city – Winnipeg

Churchill is a town on the shore of Hudson Bay in Manitoba. It is known as the ‘Polar Bear Capital of the World’

Winnipeg lies at the bottom of the Red River Valley

New Brunswick

Capital – Fredericton

Largest city – Saint John

New Brunswick is named for the city of Braunschweig in Lower Saxony. Braunschweig is the ancestral home of George I

Newfoundland and Labrador

Capital and largest city – St. John’s

Gander International Airport in Newfoundland opened in 1938 and within a few years was the largest in the world

Nova Scotia

Capital and largest city – Halifax

Sable Island, situated off the coast of Nova Scotia, is known as the “graveyard of the Atlantic”

Ontario

Capital and largest city – Toronto

Lester B Pearson airport serves Toronto

Toronto is on Lake Ontario, and is the most populous city in Canada

Toronto was known as York until 1834

CN Tower in Toronto was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure and world's tallest tower at the time.1815’ tall. Designed by Neil Baldwin

Ottawa was founded in 1826 as Bytown

Rideau Canal connects the city of Ottawa, on the Ottawa River to the city of Kingston, Ontario, on Lake Ontario. Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa is the world's largest skating rink at 7.8 km long

Thunder Bay is the most populous city on Lake Superior

Welland Canal connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. As a part of the St. Lawrence Seaway, this canal enables ships to ascend and descend the Niagara Escarpment and to bypass the Niagara Falls

Sudbury Basin is the second-largest impact crater on Earth

Prince Edward Island

Capital and largest city – Charlottetown

Charlottetown is named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III

Prince Edward Island is the smallest Canadian province in both area and population

Quebec

Capital – Quebec City

Largest city – Montreal

Mirabelle airport serves Montreal

Montreal is the second most populous city in Canada

Montreal covers most of the Island of Montreal at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers

Jacques Cartier Bridge is a steel truss cantilever bridge crossing the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal Island, Montreal, Quebec to the south shore at Longueuil, Quebec

Opened in 1859, Victoria Bridge was the first to span the St. Lawrence River, linking Montreal to the south shore city of Saint-Lambert

Montreal is known as the City of Saints

Quebec City was founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain

Plains of Abraham is a historic area in Quebec City

Saskatchewan

Capital – Regina

Largest city – Saskatoon

Saskatchewan is the only Canadian province with four straight boundaries

Territories

Northwest Territories

Capital and largest city – Yellowknife

Yellowknife is named after the local Yellowknives Dene First Nation

Great Bear Lake is the largest lake in Canada, the fourth largest in North America, and the eighth largest in the world

Great Slave Lake is the deepest lake in North America

Mackenzie River originates in Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. It is the longest river in Canada at 1,738 km. It was originally named Disappointment River

Nunavut

Capital and largest city – Iqaluit

Nunavut is the largest and newest territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories in 1999. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's map since the incorporation of the new province of Newfoundland (including Labrador) in 1949. The capital Iqaluit (formerly Frobisher Bay) on Baffin Island, in the east, was chosen in 1995

A member of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Bathurst Island is one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands in Nunavut Territory

Devon Island, claimed to be the largest uninhabited island on Earth, is located in Baffin Bay

Davis Strait separates Baffin Island from Greenland. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis, who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage

Yukon

Capital and largest city – Whitehorse

Dawson served as the Yukon's capital from the territory's founding in 1898 until 1952, when the seat was moved to Whitehorse

Bay of Fundy is on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the state of Maine. Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world

Lake Athabasca is located in the northwest corner of Saskatchewan and the northeast corner of Alberta. Athabasca means ‘lake of the hills’

Aspen parkland refers to a transitional biome between prairie and boreal forest stretching from northeastern British Columbia through central and northwestern Alberta, central Saskatchewan to central and southern Manitoba. Aspen parkland consists of groves of aspen poplars and spruce interspersed with areas of prairie grasslands

Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba are remnants of prehistoric Glacial Lake Agassiz

Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron is the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world

Lake Manitou is the largest lake on Manitoulin Island. It is the largest lake on a freshwater island in the world

Labrador Peninsula includes the region of Labrador, which is part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and parts of Quebec

Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. It is Canada's second largest island, after Baffin Island

Queen Elizabeth Islands are the northernmost cluster of islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, split between Nunavut and Northwest Territories. Ellesmere Island is the largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands

The source of the Yukon River is located in British Columbia. The next portion lies in, and gives its name to, Yukon. The lower half of the river lies in Alaska

Mexico

Coat of arms on the flag of Mexico depicts a golden eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus eating a rattlesnake

Capital	Mexico City
Largest cities	Mexico City, Tijuana, Leon
Currency	Peso
Highest point	Pico de Orizaba

With an estimated population of 126 million, Mexico is the tenth most populous and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world and the second most populous country in Latin America. It is the tenth largest oil producer in the world, and the largest silver producer in the world

The Greater Mexico City population is 21.2 million people, making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere

Torre Mayor is a skyscraper in Mexico City. With a height of 225 m, it is the tallest building in Latin America

Soumaya Museum in Mexico City contains a large collection of casts of sculptures by Auguste Rodin. It is owned by the Carlos Slim Foundation

Chicxulub Crater is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula, with its center located near the town of Chicxulub. The crater is over 180 kilometers in diameter, making the feature one of the largest confirmed impact structures in the world; the asteroid or comet whose impact formed the crater was at least 10 km in diameter. The impact associated with the crater is implicated in causing the extinction of the dinosaurs as suggested by the K–T boundary, 65 million years ago

Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization, located in the northern centre of the Yucatan Peninsula. Dominating the centre of Chichen is the Temple of Kukulcan (the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl), often referred to as “El Castillo” (the castle). This step pyramid with a ground plan of square terraces has stairways up each of the four sides to the temple on top

The city of Veracruz is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz

Naica Mine of the Mexican state of Chihuahua is a working mine that is known for its extraordinary selenite (a variety of gypsum) crystals in the Cave of the Crystals

Guadalajara Metropolitan Area is the second largest in the country after Greater Mexico City

Juarez is called "the most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones”

Palanque is a Maya city state in Southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century

Tula, in the state of Hidalgo, was the ancient capital of the Toltecs. The city was destroyed in the 12th century

Chihuahua is the largest state of Mexico

Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland

Popocatepetl is the second highest peak in Mexico, after the Pico de Orizaba. The name Popocatepetl comes from the Nahuatl words for ‘Smoking Mountain’

Paricutin is a dormant volcano in Mexico. It is thought to be the youngest volcano in the world

Central America

Belize

Coat of arms on the flag of Belize features woodcutters and a mahogany tree. It is one of only two national flags to include people – the other flag is Malta

Capital	Belmopan
Largest cities	Belize City, San Ignacio, Belmopan
Currency	Dollar
Highest point	Doyle’s Delight

Belize is is the only commonwealth country in Central America and the only country in Central America whose official language is English

Belize is the only Central American country connected only to the Atlantic

Belize City is the largest city in Belize. It was the capital of British Honduras (as Belize was then named) until it was devastated by Hurricane Hattie and the government was moved to the new capital of Belmopan in 1970

Chalillo Dam is a gravity dam in Belize

Lamanai and Caracol are Mayan ruins in Belize

Great Blue Hole is a large submarine sinkhole off the coast of Belize

Belize Barrier Reef is Belize's top tourist destination

Rio Hondo forms most of the border between Belize and Mexico

Costa Rica

Capital	San Jose
Largest cities	San Jose
Currency	Colon
Highest point	Mount Chirripo

Costa Rica permanently abolished its army in 1949

Cocos Island is an island located off the shore of Costa Rica, known as ‘Shark Island’

El Salvador

Capital	San Salvador
Largest cities	San Salvador
Currency	US dollar
Highest point	Cerro El Pital

The only Central American country that does not have a Caribbean coastline

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and the most densely populated country in the Americas

Izalco is a stratovolcano on the side of the Santa Ana Volcano

Guatemala

Coat of arms of the flag of Guatemala includes the resplendent quetzal

Capital	Guatemala City
Largest cities	Guatemala City
Currency	Quetzal
Highest point	Volcan Tajumulco

The most populous state in Central America

El Mirador is a large pre-Columbian Mayan settlement, located in the north of the modern department of El Peten, Guatemala. Discovered in 1926

Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Peten Basin in northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period, c. 200 to 850. Discovered by Alfred Maudslay

Volcan Tajumulco is a large stratovolcano in Guatemala. It is the highest mountain in Central America

Honduras

Capital	Tegucigalpa
Largest cities	Tegucigalpa
Currency	Lempira
Highest point	Cerro Las Minas

Honduras was at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became Belize. Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, prior to being conquered by Spain in the 16th century

La Ciudad Blanca (Spanish for "The White City") is a legendary settlement said to be located in the Mosquitia region of Honduras

San Pedro Sula was the "murder capital of the world" until 2016 when Caracas, Venezuela surpassed its homicide rate

Copan was a Mayan city in Honduras

Nicaragua

Capital	Managua
Largest cities	Managua
Currency	Cordoba
Highest point	Mogoton

The largest country in the Central American isthmus. On the Pacific side of the country are the two largest freshwater lakes in Central America – Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century. Nicaragua achieved its independence from Spain in 1821

Ometepe is the largest island in Lake Nicaragua

Panama

Capital	Panama City
Largest cities	Panama City
Currency	Balboa and US dollar
Highest point	Volcan Baru

Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the Panama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Panama Canal was designed by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1880, but the project failed. Work began again in 1904, and the canal was completed in 1914

There are three sets of locks in the Panama Canal. A two-step flight at Miraflores, and a single flight at Pedro Miguel, lift ships from the Pacific up to Lake Gatun; then a triple flight at Gatun lowers them to the Atlantic side

Gatun Lake was created between 1907 and 1913 by the building of the Gatun Dam across the Chagres River. At the time it was created, Gatun Lake was the largest man-made lake in the world

Bridge of the Americas spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Built in 1962

Chagres River is a major source of water for Panama Canal

Coiba is the largest island in Central America, off the Pacific coast of Panama

JW Marriott Panama is the tallest building in Central America

Caribbean

The West Indies consist of the Antilles, divided into the larger Greater Antilles which bound the Caribbean Sea on the north and the Lesser Antilles on the south and east (including the Leeward Antilles), and the Bahamas. Bermuda lies much further to the north in the Atlantic Ocean (570 miles east of North Carolina) and is in the West Indies

Lucayan Archipelago, also known as the Bahama Archipelago, is an island group comprising the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands

Greater Antilles – Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Cayman Islands

Lesser Antilles – Leeward Islands and Windward Islands

Leeward Islands – Northern group of the Lesser Antilles. Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla and Montserrat

Windward Islands – Southern group of the Lesser Antilles. Martinique, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenadines

Caribbean Sea is known as “Sea of the Antilles”

Windward Passage is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola

Caribbean is the deepest sea. Deepest point is the Cayman Trough

ABC islands are the three western-most islands of the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. From west to east they are, in order Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. All three islands are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Netherlands Antilles was an autonomous country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean. It was also informally known as the Dutch Antilles. The country was dissolved in 2010. Historically the Netherlands Antilles included the colony of Curacao and its dependencies

Antigua and Barbuda

Capital	Saint John’s
Largest cities	Saint John’s
Currency	East Caribbean dollar
Highest point	Boggy Peak

Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations in 1981

Most of the population of Barbuda lives in the town of Codrington

Bahamas

Capital	Nassau
Largest cities	Nassau
Currency	Dollar
Highest point	Mount Alvernia

Bahamas consists of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2387 islets

Nassau was formerly known as Charles Town; it was burned to the ground by the Spanish in 1684. Rebuilt, it was renamed Nassau in 1695 in honour of William III from the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau

New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population

Andros Island is an archipelago within the archipelago-nation of the Bahamas, the largest of the 26 inhabited Bahamian Islands

Barbados

Flag of Barbados is known as The Broken Trident

Capital	Bridgetown
Largest cities	Bridgetown
Currency	Dollar
Highest point	Mount Hillaby

Barbados is served by Grantley Adams airport

In 1813, a statue was erected in Bridgetown, in what was known as Trafalgar Square, (now renamed National Heroes’ Square) in recognition of Nelson's bravery and as a tribute to his honour within the British Empire. This statue was sculpted from bronze by Richard Westmacott

Cuba

Capital	Havana
Largest cities	Havana, Santiago de Cuba
Currency	Peso
Highest point	Pico Turquino

Cuba comprises the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud and several archipelagos

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean

Isla de la Juventud is the second largest Cuban island

Dominica

Flag of Dominica features the sisserou parrot

Capital	Roseau
Largest cities	Roseau
Currency	East Caribbean dollar
Highest point	Mount Diablotins

Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" for its unspoiled natural beauty. Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday, 3 November 1493

Dominica was the last Caribbean island to be colonized

Dominican Republic

Coat of arms on the Dominican Republic flag features a bible

Capital	Santo Domingo
Largest cities	Santo Domingo, Santiago de los Caballeros
Currency	Peso
Highest point	Pico Duarte

Dominican Republic occupies the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola

Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzman, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic and the largest city in the Caribbean by population. Santo Domingo de Guzman was founded in 1501. Oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, and was the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in the New World

First cathedral in the Americas was in Santo Domingo

Pico Duarte is the highest peak in all the Caribbean islands. It lies in the Cordillera Central range, the greatest of the Dominican Republic's mountain chains

Saona Island lies off the coast of Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo was known as Ciudad Trujillo

Grenada

Flag of Grenada is charged with a nutmeg at the hoist triangle

Capital	St. George’s
Largest cities	St. George’s
Currency	East Caribbean dollar
Highest point	Mount Saint Catherine

Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Petite Martinique

Haiti

Capital	Port-au-Prince
Largest cities	Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haitien
Currency	Gourde
Highest point	Pic la Selle

Haiti occupies the western half of the island of Hispaniola

Haiti is the only French speaking independent republic in Americas

Sans-Souci Palace was the royal residence of King Henri I (better known as Henri Christophe) of Haiti, Queen Marie-Louise and their twin daughters. Construction of the palace started in 1810 and was completed in 1813. It is located in the town of Milot, Nord Department. Its name translated from French means “without worry”. Close to the Palace is the renowned mountaintop fortress; the Citadelle Laferriere, built under decree by Henri Christophe to repel a feared French invasion

Jamaica

Flag of Jamaica is the only national flag that does not contain a shade of the colours red, white, or blue

Capital	Kingston
Largest cities	Kingston, Portmore, Spanish Town
Currency	Dollar
Highest point	Blue Mountain Peak

Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm. Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, in 1655 it came under the rule of England, and was called Jamaica. It achieved full independence from the United Kingdom in 1962

Black River is one of the longest rivers in Jamaica

Spanish Town was the former capital of Jamaica

Jamaica is divided into 14 parishes, which are grouped into the three historic counties of Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey

Kingston is in the county of Surrey

Port Royal was a city located at the mouth of the Kingston Harbour. Founded in 1588, it was the centre of shipping commerce in the Caribbean Sea during the latter half of the 17th century. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1692 and subsequent fires, hurricanes, flooding, epidemics and a final earthquake in 1907

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Capital	Basseterre
Largest cities	Basseterre
Currency	East Caribbean dollar
Highest point	Mount Liamuiga

Saint Kitts and Nevis specifically became the first ever British colony in the West Indies in 1624, and then became the first ever French colony in the Caribbean in 1625, when both nations decided to partition the island

The Narrows separates St Kitts from Nevis

Charlestown is the capital of Nevis

St Kitts and Nevis is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population

Saint Lucia

Capital	Castries
Largest cities	Castries
Currency	East Caribbean dollar
Highest point	Mount Gimie

Saint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

The current flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was adopted in 1985. A breadfruit leaf was replaced by three diamonds forming the letter “V”

Capital	Kingstown
Largest cities	Kingstown
Currency	East Caribbean dollar
Highest point	La Soufriere

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines

Christopher Columbus, the first European to discover the island, named it after St. Vincent of Saragossa

La Soufriere is an active volcano on the island of Saint Vincent. Many volcanoes in the Caribbean are named Soufriere (French: ‘sulphur outlet’). These include Soufriere Hills on Montserrat and La Grande Soufriere on Guadeloupe

Mustique is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

Capital	Port of Spain
Largest cities	Chaguanas, San Fernando, Port of Spain
Currency	Dollar
Highest point	El Cerro del Aripo

Trinidad and Tobago is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just 11 km off the northeastern coast of Venezuela

Pitch Lake is a lake of natural asphalt located at La Brea in Trinidad. It was discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595

Scarborough is the chief town of Tobago

Overseas territories

Anguilla

British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands

Aruba

One of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands, Curacao and Sint Maarten. Its capital is Oranjestad

Bonaire

One of the ABC islands. Bonaire's capital is Kralendijk

British Virgin Islands

A British overseas territory located to the east of Puerto Rico. Consists of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and Jost Van Dyke, along with over fifty other smaller islands and cays. About 15 of the islands are inhabited. The capital, Road Town, is situated on Tortola, the largest island

Necker Island is in the British Virgin Islands

Cayman Islands

Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac

Cayman Islands are named after a reptile

George Town is the capital of the Cayman Islands. Named after George III

One of Grand Cayman's main attractions is Seven Mile Beach

Curacao

A constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and one of the ABC islands. Willemsted is the capital of Curacao

Guadeloupe

Two main islands: Basse-Terre Island, Grande-Terre (separated from Basse-Terre by a narrow sea channel called Salt River)

Guadeloupe is an overseas region of France

Pointe-a-pitre – largest city in Guadeloupe

Capital city is Basse-Terre

Martinique

An overseas region of France

In Martinique there is a statue of the Empress Josephine, who was born in Martinique, holding a locket with a portrait of Napoleon

Mount Pelee is on Martinique, and erupted in 1902

Montserrat

A British Overseas Territory

Christopher Columbus gave Montserrat its name on his second voyage to the New World in 1493, after Montserrat mountain located in Catalonia. Montserrat is nicknamed “the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean”

In 1995, the previously dormant Soufriere Hills volcano became active. Eruptions destroyed Montserrat's Georgian era capital city of Plymouth and two-thirds of the island's population was forced to flee

Puerto Rico

Located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands

Unincorporated territory of the United States

Capital and largest city is San Juan

In a referendum in 2020, 52% said that Puerto Rico should be admitted immediately into the Union as a State

Saba

Smallest special municipality of the Netherlands

The capital of Saba is The Bottom

Mount Scenery on the island of Saba, now considered an integral part of the Netherlands following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, is the highest point in the Netherlands at 887 m

Saint Barthelemy

French overseas collectivity. Lies to the northeast of Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Martin

A tropical island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 240 km east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km² island is divided roughly in half between France and the Netherlands; it is the smallest inhabited sea island divided between two nations

The southern Dutch part comprises Sint Maarten

Princess Juliana International Airport is the main airport on Sint Maarten. The airport has very low-altitude flyover landing approaches, owing to one end of its runway being extremely close to the shore and Maho Beach

Sint Eustatius

A Dutch overseas public body in the northern Leeward Islands. The capital is Oranjestad

Turks and Caicos Islands

A British Overseas Territory consisting of wo groups of islands southeast of the Bahamas. The capital is Cockburn Town

US Virgin Islands

Named by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. The main islands are Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas. Formerly the Danish West Indies, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in 1916

Bermuda

Bermuda is Britain's second oldest remaining British Overseas Territory. It lies 1,000 km southeast of North Carolina, 1,700 km northeast of Cuba and 1,500 kn north of the British Virgin Islands

Capital – Hamilton

Largest city – St Georges

Bermuda is divided into nine parishes

Somers Isles – Bermuda. Britain’s oldest colony. Named after Admiral George Somers

St George’s – first capital of Bermuda

St. George's Island is one of the main islands of the territory of Bermuda

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the world's largest island, located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans

Capital and largest city – Nuuk

Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering 1,710,000 square kilometres (660,235 sq mi), roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Cape Farewell is the southernmost point of Greenland

Ilulissat Icefjord is a fjord in western Greenland. At its eastern end is the Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier, the most productive glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. Larger icebergs typically do not melt until they reach 40 – 45 degrees north

Store glacier is in Greenland

Petermann glacier connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic Ocean

Scoresby Sound is a large fjord system of the Greenland Sea on the eastern coast of Greenland

Northeast Greenland National Park is the world's largest national park

Various

Chihuahuan desert – borders USA and Mexico

Sonoran desert – borders of Arizona and Mexico

The 49th parallel of north latitude forms part of the international boundary between Canada and the United States from Manitoba to British Columbia on the Canadian side and from Minnesota to Washington on the U.S. side. Its use as a border is a result of the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 and the Oregon Treaty of 1846

From largest to smallest, the three waterfalls of the Niagara Falls are the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls lie mostly on the Canadian side and the American Falls entirely on the American side (New York state), separated by Goat Island. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also located on the American side, separated from the other waterfalls by Luna Island. The combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world. Rainbow Bridge is an arch bridge across the Niagara River gorge

The Canadian Shield, also called the Precambrian Shield, Laurentian Shield, or Laurentian Plateau, is a large thin-soiled area over a part of the North American craton (a deep, common, joined bedrock region) in eastern and central Canada and adjacent portions of the US, composed of base rock dating to the Precambrian Era

Chilkoot Trail leads from Dyea, Alaska, to Bennett, British Columbia. It is part of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in the United States. It was a major access route from the coast to Yukon goldfields in the late 1890s

Continental Divide (or Great Divide) of the Americas is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from, 1) those river systems which drain into the Atlantic Ocean and 2) those river systems which drain into the Arctic Ocean

Pan-American Highway measures 29,800 miles in total length. Except for a 54 mile rainforest break, called the Darien Gap, the road links the mainland nations of the Americas in a connected highway system. Extends from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the lower reaches of South America

Longest rivers in North America – Missouri, Mississippi, Yukon, Rio Grande, Nelson

Mountains

Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from the northernmost part of British Columbia to New Mexico. Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada which all lie further to the west

Mount Saint Elias is the second highest mountain in both Canada and the United States, being situated on the Yukon and Alaska border

Highest mountains in North America – McKinley, Logan, Pico de Orizaba

Maya Mountains are in Belize and eastern Guatemala

Seas and oceans

Sargasso Sea is an elongated region in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by ocean currents. On the west it is bounded by the Gulf Stream; on the north, by the North Atlantic Current; on the east, by the Canary Current; and on the south, by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current

Beaufort Sea is in Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska

Lincoln Sea is a body of water in the Arctic Ocean, stretching from Cape Columbia, Canada, in the west to Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland

Strait of Juan de Fuca forms the principal outlet for the Georgia Strait and Puget Sound, connecting both to the Pacific Ocean. It provides part of the international boundary between the United States and Canada

Lomonosov Ridge – underwater ridge of continental crust in the Arctic Ocean. It spans 1800 km from the New Siberian Islands over the central part of the ocean to Ellesmere Island of the Canadian Arctic islands. Named in honour of Russian scientist and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov

Greenland Sea borders Greenland to the west, the Svalbard archipelago to the east, Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south. The Greenland Sea is often defined as part of the Arctic Ocean

Yucatan Channel separates Mexico from Cuba

Puerto Rico trench has a maximum depth of 8648 metres at Milwaukee Deep, which is the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean and the deepest point not in the Pacific Ocean

Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, also known as the Great Mayan Reef, is a marine region that stretches over 1000 km from the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula down to Belize, Guatemala and Honduras