Civilisation/World Geography - Europe

Albania

The symbol on the flag of Albania is a double-headed eagle

Capital	Tirana
Largest cities	Tirana, Durres
Currency	Lek
Highest point	Mount Korab

Durres is the main port of Albania

Vlore is the old capital of Albania. It is the city where the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in 1912

Albania is only European country with a 20th century Muslim monarch

In 1967 Enver Hoxha proclaimed Albania the world's first 'atheist state'

Andorra

Capital	Andorra la Vella
Largest cities	Andorra la Vella
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Coma Pedrosa

Andorra is a parliamentary co-principality with the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell (Catalonia, Spain), as co-princes. This peculiarity makes the President of France, in his capacity as Prince of Andorra, an elected reigning monarch

Andorra la Vella is the highest capital city in Europe

Catalan is the official language of Andorra

Andorra is divided into seven parishes

Armenia

Capital	Yerevan
Largest cities	Yerevan
Currency	Dram
Highest point	Mount Aragats

In August 1990, Armenia declared independence, becoming the first non-Baltic republic to secede from the Soviet Union

Armenia supports the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its state religion

Austria

According to legend, the flag of Austria was invented by Duke Leopold V as a consequence of his fighting during the Crusades. After a fierce battle, his white battle dress was completely drenched in blood. When he removed his belt, the cloth underneath was untouched by it, revealing the combination of red-white-red

Capital	Vienna
Largest cities	Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Grossglockner

Austria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder

St. Charles's Church (German: Karlskirche) is a church situated on the south side of Karlsplatz, Vienna. It is one of the most outstanding baroque church structures north of the Alps, and boasts a dome in the form of an elongated ellipsoid

Ringstrasse is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna

Hofburg Palace in Vienna currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria. It was the Habsburgs' principal winter residence

Graben one of the most famous streets in Vienna's first district, the city centre

Musikverein concert hall is the home to the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra

Prater is a large public park in Vienna. Oldest amusement park in the world

Wiener Riesenrad is a Ferris wheel at the entrance of the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt. Constructed in 1897 by the English engineer Lieutenant Walter Bassett Bassett, Royal Navy. Appeared in The Third Man

Belvedere is a historic building complex in Vienna, consisting of two Baroque palaces (the Upper and Lower Belvedere), the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. It houses the Belvedere museum

Zentralfriedhof (German for "Central Cemetery") is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, largest by number of interred in Europe and most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. Beethoven is interred in this cemetery

Fuhrermuseum was an unrealized museum complex planned by Adolf Hitler for the city of Linz to display the collection of art plundered or stolen by the Nazis throughout Europe during World War II

Semmering is a mountain pass in the Eastern Northern Limestone Alps connecting Lower Austria and Styria, between which it forms a natural border

Brenner Pass connects Austria and Italy

Azerbaijan

The star on the flag of Azerbaijan has eight points

Capital	Baku
Largest cities	Baku, Ganja
Currency	Manat
Highest point	Mount Bazardudu

Lachin corridor is a mountain pass within de-jure borders of Azerbaijan, It is the shortest route which connects Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

Baku is the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region

Baku is located 28 m below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world

Maiden Tower was built in the 12th century as part of the walled city of Baku. Together with the Shirvanshahs' Palace, dated to the 15th century, it forms an ensemble of historic monuments inscribed in 2001 under the UNESCO World Heritage List of Historical Monuments as cultural property

By the beginning of the 20th century almost half of world production of oil was being extracted in Baku

Oil Rocks is a town on the Caspian Sea, and was the first oil platform in Azerbaijan

Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is a landlocked exclave of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The region covers 5,500 km² and borders Armenia, Iran and Turkey

Belarus

Capital	Minsk
Largest cities	Minsk, Homyel
Currency	Ruble
Highest point	Dzyarzhynskaya Hara

Belarus is Europe’s biggest landlocked country

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed in Brest

From 1919 to 1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union

Pinsk Marsges (also known as Pripet Marches) occupy most of the southern part of Belarus and the north-west of Ukraine

Belarus is the last country in Europe to still retain and use the death penalty

Belgium

The colours of the flag of Belgium were taken from the coat of arms of the Duchy of Brabant

Capital	Brussels
Largest cities	Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liege
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Signal de Botrange

Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region

Luxembourg is the largest of the ten provinces in Belgium

Flemish, French and German are the official languages of Belgium

NATO Headquarters are in Brussels

Atomium was originally built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it stands 102 m tall. It has nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times

Brussels is on River Zenne/Senne, a tributary of the Scheldt

Grand Place or Grote Markt is the central square of Brussels

Manneken Pis is a small bronze sculpture (61 cm) in Brussels, designed in 1619

Palace of Justice is the most important court building in Brussels and the biggest courthouse in the world

Menin Gate is at Ypres

Zeebrugee is also known as Bruges-sur-mer

Antwerp is on the River Scheldt

Rubenshuis is the former home and studio of Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp. It is now a museum

Belgium was known as “The Cockpit of Europe”, due to the number of battles fought there

Leuven is the capital of Flemish Brabant

Waterloo is in the province of Walloon Brabant

Lion's Mound is a large conical artificial hill raised on the battlefield of Waterloo to commemorate the location where William II of the Netherlands (the Prince of Orange) was knocked from his horse during the battle. It was ordered constructed in 1820 by his father, King William I of The Netherlands

Liege is situated in the valley of the Meuse River, near Belgium's eastern borders with the Netherlands and Germany. The city is the principal economic and cultural centre of Wallonia. Liege is the second most populous city in Wallonia, after Charleroi

Mechelen is a Dutch-speaking city and municipality in the province of Antwerp. It is one of Flanders' prominent cities of historical art

Baarle-Hertog is a Flemish municipality of Belgium, much of which consists of a number of small Belgian exclaves in the Netherlands. Baarle-Hertog is noted for its complicated borders with Baarle-Nassau, Netherlands

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The white stars on a blue background on the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina represent links with the EU

Capital	Sarajevo
Largest cities	Sarajevo, Banja Luka
Currency	Mark
Highest point	Maglic

Mostar Bridge (Stari Most, ‘old bridge’) is a 16th century Ottoman bridge that crosses the River Neretva in Bosnia and Herzegovina and connects two parts of the city. The Old Bridge stood for 427 years, until it was destroyed in 1993 during the Croat-Bosniak War. Subsequently, a project was set in motion to reconstruct it, and the rebuilt bridge opened in 2004

Miljacka River passes through Sarajevo

Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for 20 km of coastline on the Adriatic Sea surrounding the city of Neum

Bulgaria

Capital	Sofia
Largest cities	Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna
Currency	Lev
Highest point	Musala

Sofia was originally a Thracian settlement

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral in Sofia

National Palace of Culture and Vitosha Boulevard are in Sofia

Varna was named Stalin between 1949 and 1956

Croatia

Capital	Zagreb
Largest cities	Zagreb, Split, Rijeka
Currency	Kuna
Highest point	Dinara

Zagreb lies on the Sava river

Trogir is a historic town and harbour on the Adriatic coast. The centre of Trogir is a World Heritage Site

Byron called Dubrovnik the “pearl of the Adriatic”

Dubrovnik was known as Ragusa until 1909

Cres and Krk are the largest Croatian islands

Plitvice Lakes National Park is the oldest national park in Southeast Europe and the largest national park in Croatia

The Danube runs through the city of Vukovar in the extreme east and forms part of the border with Serbia

Karst topography makes up about half of Croatia and is especially prominent in the Dinaric Alps

Port of Rijeka is the largest port in Croatia

Cyprus

The outline of the island on the flag of Cyprus is is a copper-orange colour, symbolising the large deposits of copper ore on the island

Capital	Nicosia
Largest cities	Nicosia, Limassol
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Mount Olympus

Cyprus is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean

Mount Olympus is the highest point of the Troodos Mountains

Pedieos is the longest river on Cyprus

United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus is a demilitarised zone that was established in 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The zone runs for more than 180 km along what is colloquially known as the Green Line. Turkish forces built a barrier on the zone's northern side – this line is also referred to as the Attila Line

Akrotiri and Dhekelia is a British Overseas Territory on Cyprus

Czech Republic (Czechia)

Capital	Prague
Largest cities	Prague, Brno, Ostrava
Currency	Koruna
Highest point	Sněžka

Prague is known as the “City of a Hundred Spires”

Charles Square in Prague it is one of the largest squares in the world and was the largest town square of the medieval Europe

Wenceslas Square is one of the main city squares and the centre of the business and cultural communities in the New Town of Prague

Dancing House, or Fred and Ginger, is the nickname given to the Nationale-Nederlanden building in Prague

Prague astronomical clock, or Prague orloj was first installed in 1410, making it the oldest astronomical clock in the world still working

Prague Castle is the official residence and office of the President of the Czech Republic

Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, St Vitus Cathedral is an example of Gothic architecture

Karlovy Vary, known in English as Carlsbad, is a spa city situated in Bohemia, the western part of the Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá. Carlsbad is named after Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370. Moser is a luxury, high-quality glass manufacturer based in Carlsbad

Spa triangle is an area in Czech Republic

Moravia occupies most of the eastern third of the Czech Republic

Czech Silesia is one of the three Czech lands and a section of the Silesian historical region. It is located in the north-east of the Czech Republic

Vltava is the longest river in the Czech Republic, running north from its source near the German Border, through Prague, merging with the Elbe at Melník

Denmark

The flag of Denmark, the Dannebrog, holds the world record of being the oldest continuously used national flag. Adopted in 1219

Capital	Copenhagen
Largest cities	Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense
Currency	Krone
Highest point	Mollehoj

The Little Mermaid was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled in 1913

Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen is the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Danish Prime Minister's Office and the Danish Supreme Court

Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen is dedicated to the art of Danish neoclassicistic sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, who lived and worked in Rome for most of his life

Constructed and extended from 1699 to 1735, Fredericksberg Palace in Copenhagen served as the royal family’s summer residence until the mid-19th century. Since 1869, it has housed the Royal Danish Military Academy

Kastrup Airport serves Copenhagen

Island of Bornholm is part of Denmark

Legoland is at Billund

Great Belt is a strait between the main Danish islands of Zealand and Funen (Fyn). Effectively dividing Denmark in two, the islands were connected by the Great Belt Fixed Link in 1998

Roskilde Cathedral is the burial site for Danish monarchs

Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde is the Danish national museum for ships. Around 1070, five Viking ships were deliberately sunk at Skuldelev in Roskilde Fjord in order to block the most important fairway and to protect Roskilde from enemy attack from the sea

Capital Region of Denmark (Danish: Region Hovedstaden) is the easternmost administrative region of Denmark

Estonia

Capital	Tallinn
Largest cities	Tallinn, Tartu
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Suur Munamagi

Soomaa National Park is national park in Estonia. Soomaa (‘land of bogs’) is a Ramsar site of protected wetlands

Suur Munamagi is the highest point in the Baltic states

Saaremaa is the largest island of Estonia

Hiiumaa Island is in Estonia

Peipus is the largest lake in Estonia, and the fifth largest lake in Europe

Finland

Capital	Helsinki
Largest cities	Helsinki, Espoo
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Halti

Helsinki Metro has bright orange trains and is is the world's northernmost subway

Turku was the capital of Finland until 1812

Finland is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union

Saimaa is the largest lake in Finland, and the fourth largest lake in Europe

Europe’s largest lake island is in Finland

Archipelago Sea is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Aland, within Finnish territorial waters. By some definitions it contains the largest archipelago (island group) in the world by the number of islands

Aland Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. They are situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and form an autonomous Swedish-speaking region of Finland

France

Capital	Paris
Largest cities	Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Mont Blanc

France is the largest country in the EU

Gascony is currently divided between the Aquitaine region and the Midi-Pyrenees region

Loire is the longest river in France

Tarn is a tributary of River Garonne

Canal du Midi runs from the city of Toulouse down to the Mediterranean port of Sete

Malpas tunnel was excavated in 1679, allowing the passage of the Canal du Midi. It was Europe's first navigable canal tunnel

River Dordogne rises in Massif Central and unites with Garonne to form Gironde estuary

River Lot is a tributary of the Garonne

There are 18 regions, of which 13 are in continental metropolitan France

Note – in 2016 the number of metropolitan regions was reduced from 22 to 13. The old names are used here at the moment

Alsase

Capital – Strasbourg

Strasbourg is principal city of the Alsace region and is the official seat of the European Parliament. It is the capital of the Bas-Rhin departement

Aquitaine

Capital – Bordeaux

Bordeaux is on River Garonne. It is the prefecture of the Gironde department

Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. Since 1998 the cave has been beset with a fungus

Auvergne

Capital – Clermont-Ferrand

Auvergne is part of the Massif Central

Vichy is a spa town, famous for thermal baths. Connects the Garonne to the Mediterranean

Brittany

Capital – Rennes

Rennes is the historic capital of Brittany

Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon

Brest is noted for poultry

Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany

Carnac is famous as the site of more than 3000 prehistoric standing stones. The stones were hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany

Burgundy

Capital – Dijon

Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Cote d'Or department

Centre-Val de Loire

Capital – Orleans

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres is considered one of the finest examples in all France of the Gothic style of architecture. It has two contrasting spires – one, a 105 metre plain pyramid dating from the 1140s, and the other a 113 metre tall early 16th century flamboyant spire on top of an older tower

Chartres Cathedral was reconstructed after a fire in 1194

Fontevraud Abbey, near Chinon, was the site of the graves of King Henry II of England, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, their son King Richard I of England, their daughter Joan, their grandson Raymond VII of Toulouse, and Isabella of Angouleme, wife of Henry and Eleanor's son King John

Champagne-Ardenne

Capital – Chalons-en-Champagne

Reims played a prominent ceremonial role in French monarchical history as the traditional site of the crowning of the kings of France

Franche-Comte

Capital – Besancon

Franche-Comte was part of the Kingdom of Burgundy

Ile-de-France

Capital – Paris

Ile-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the 27 administrative regions of France. It consists mostly of the Paris metropolitan area

La Rive Gauche is the left bank of the River Seine in Paris

Distances from Paris are measured from Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Ile de la Cite in the fourth arrondissement. Construction began in 1163, during the reign of Louis VII

European Space Agency HQ is in Paris

Tuileries Palace stood in Paris, on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval of the Paris Commune. The site is now the location of the Tuileries Garden

France’s unknown soldier buried under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Eiffel Tower was constructed for the Centennial Exposition in Paris in 1899, it is 986’ high (including the antenna, it is 1063’ high)

Eiffel Tower was world’s tallest building until the Chrysler building was constructed in 1930

Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower 72 names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions

Obelisk of Luxor in Place de la Concorde is not a ‘Cleopatra’s needle’

Palais Bourbon is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacre Coeur, is located at the summit of Montmartre, the highest point in the city. Built as a national penance for the supposed excesses of the Second Empire and socialist Paris Commune of 1871

Charles de Gaulle-Etoile is a Paris Metro station

Elysee Palace is the official residence of the French president

July Column is a monumental column commemorating the Revolution of 1830. It stands in the centre of the Place de la Bastille and celebrates the Trois Glorieuses – the ‘three glorious’ days of 27–29 July 1830 that saw the fall of King Charles X and the commencement of the ‘July Monarchy’ of King Louis-Philippe. It was built between 1835 and 1840

Louvre Museum is housed in the Louvre Palace which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection. Opened in 1793. During the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces

Place de la Concorde – largest Place in Paris. During the French Revolution the statue of Louis XV of Franc was torn down and the area renamed ‘Place de la Revolution’. Marie Antoinette was executed there

Place Charles de Gaulle, historically known as the Place de l'Etoile, is a large road junction in Paris, the meeting point of twelve straight avenues (hence its historic name, which translates as ‘Place of the Star’) including the Champs-Elysees which continues to the east. In the centre is the Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon. Completed in 1836

Statue of Marianne is at the centre of the Place de la Republique

Gare St Lazare opened in 1837. First station in Paris

Pere Lachaise takes its name from Pere François de la Chaise, the confessor of Louis XIV, who lived in the Jesuit house rebuilt in 1682 on the site of the chapel. The cemetery was established by Napoleon in 1804

The original cast of the Statue of Liberty is in Luxembourg Gardens, in Paris

Musee Marmottan Monet is located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It features a collection of over three hundred works by Claude Monet (with the largest collection of his works in the world)

Musee Grevin is a waxwork museum in Paris. The museum was founded in 1882 by Arthur Meyer

The Lido is a cabaret and burlesque show establishment on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, which opened in 1946, famous for its exotic shows

Stalingrad metro station opened in 1903. Changed name to Stalingrad in 1946

Les Invalides is a complex of buildings in Paris, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France. The most notable tomb at Les Invalides is that of Napoleon Bonaparte

La Defense is a major business district of the Paris Metropolitan Area. It is Europe's largest purpose-built business district

La Grande Arche in La Defense is a monument in the approximate shape of a cube

Tour First is the tallest skyscraper in La Defense

Paris is known the ‘City of Light’

Sainte-Chapelle is a royal medieval Gothic chapel, located near the Palais de la Cite, on the Ile de la Cite in Paris. It is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture. Its erection was commissioned by King Louis IX to house his collection of Passion Relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns

The first-ever race run at Longchamp was in 1857. The Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Eugenie were present

Chateau de Malmaison is about 12 km from Paris. It was formerly the residence of Josephine de Beauharnais, and with the Tuileries, was from 1800 to 1802 the headquarters of the French government

The fountains at Versailles were fed by the Marly hydraulic machine, driven by the current of the Seine moving fourteen vast paddlewheels

Parc Asterix is a theme park near Paris

Disneyland Paris is at Marne la Vallee

Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of Paris, is one of the largest French royal châteaux

Languedoc-Roussillon

Capital – Montpellier

Musee Fabre – art and sculpture museum in Montpellier

Pont du Gard is an aqueduct in the south of France constructed by the Roman Empire, and located near Remoulins, in the Gard department, close to Nimes

Limousin

Capital – Limoges

Limoges is famous for porcelain

Limousin is situated largely in the Massif Central

Lorraine

Capital – Metz

Metz is the first regional outpost of the Pompidou Centre, opened in 2010

Metz is the capital of Lorraine, on the River Moselle

Last working coalfield in France was in Lorraine

Nancy was formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine

Verdun Memorial is situated on the battlefield, close to the destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont in the department of Meuse

Lower Normandy

Capital – Caen

During the Hundred Years' War, the English made repeated assaults on the island of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, but were unable to seize it due to the abbey's improved fortifications

Midi-Pyrenees

Capital – Toulouse

Millau Bridge is 270m high, and is the largest cable-stayed bridge in the world. Largest pylon is 343m high. A75 road over the River Tarn

Pech Merle, a hillside opening in the Lot department of Midi-Pyrenees region in France, east of Cahors, is the site of one of the prehistoric cave paintings remaining in France

Albi Cathedral – constructed from 1282 to 1480, built in the wake of the Albigensian heresy of the Cathars and the brutal crusade brought against it. This crusade, lead by Simon de Montfort, involved the burning of 400 Cathars

Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Capital – Lille

Pas-de-Calais is a department in northern France. Its name is the French equivalent of the Strait of Dover, which it borders

Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department

Nord is the most populous French department. Principal city is Lille

Pays-de-la-Loire

Capital – Nantes

Nantes is on the banks of the River Loire

Picardy

Capital – Amiens

Amiens Cathedral is the tallest Gothic cathedral in France

Aisne, Oise, and Somme are departments of Picardy

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a major war memorial to 72,191 missing British and South African men who died in the Battles of the Somme with no known grave. Designed by Edwin Lutyens

Musee Conde is a museum located inside the chateau de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise

During the Hundred Years' War, Ponthieu, now part of Picardy, changed hands a number of times, although the English claimed control of it from 1279–1369, and then later until 1435

Poitou-Charantes

Capital – Poitiers

The port of La Rochelle is in Poitou-Charantes

Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur

Capital – Marseille

Nice is the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes department

Largest Orthodox cathedral in Western Europe is in Nice

Promenada des Anglais is in Nice

Alpes-Maritimes was created by Octavian as a Roman military district in 14 BC

Marseille was founded in 600 BC by Greeks from Phocaea as a trading port. Oldest city in France

Marseille is Europe’s largest Muslim city

Miramar restaurant is in Marseilles

La Ciotat, near Marseilles, was the setting of one the very first projected motion pictures, L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat filmed by the Lumiere brothers in 1895

L'Estaque is a fishing village just west of Marseille. Many artists of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods visited or resided there or in the surrounding area

Menton is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region. It is nicknamed ‘The Pearl of France’

Pont Saint-Benezet, also known as the Pont d'Avignon, is a famous medieval bridge in the town of Avignon, in southern France. The bridge originally spanned the Rhone River between Avignon and Villeneuve-les-Avignon on the left bank. It was built between 1171 and 1185

The first museum in the world to be dedicated to Picasso is in Antibes

The military port of Toulon is the major naval centre on France's Mediterranean coast

Built in 90 AD, the Arles Amphitheatre was capable of seating over 20,000 spectators

Mont Ventoux is a mountain in Provence. Mistral wind speeds can reach 200 mph. Mont Ventoux has become legendary as the scene of one of the most grueling climbs in the Tour de France

Rhone-Alpes

Capital – Lyon

Lyon is the capital of Rhone department

Lyon is at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone

Lyon was historically known as an important area for the production and weaving of silk

Chauvet Cave in the Ardeche department of southern France became famous in 1994 after speleologists found that its walls were richly decorated with Paleolithic artwork, that it contained the fossilized remains of many animals, including those that are now extinct

Upper Normandy

Capital – Rouen

Rouen Cathedral is a Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral. Painted by Monet

Etretat is a resort in Normandy frequently painted by impressionist artists

Overseas regions

One is the island of Corsica, and five lie overseas (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, and Reunion)

Corsica is known as ‘The Scented Isle’

Corsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean, after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus

Bastia – capital of Corsica until 1791. Second largest city of Corsica

Corsica is divided in two departements: Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse

Porto-Vecchio is a commune in Corsica

Monte Cinto is the highest mountain on Corsica

The French overseas collectivities are first-order administrative divisions of France. There are six collectivities – Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna, and French Polynesia

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is situated in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean near Canada

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France

The term overseas territory is an administrative division of France and is currently only applied to the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Includes Kerguelen Islands and Amsterdam Island

Georgia

Flag of Georgia, known as the Five Cross Flag, was adopted in 2004

Capital	Tbilisi
Largest cities	Tbilisi
Currency	Lari
Highest point	Shkhara

Georgia contains two de facto independent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War

Tbilisi is on the River Mtkvari (Kura)

Tbilisi was also capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from 1918 to 1921, the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1921 to 1991, and the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic from 1922 to 1936

Germany

Capital	Berlin
Largest cities	Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Zugspitze

Germany is a Federal Republic made up of 16 States, known as Lander. The term Bundeslander (‘states of the federation’) is commonly used as it is more specific. Three cities (Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg) are states in their own right, termed Stadtstaaten (‘city states’). The remaining 13 states are termed Flachenlander (‘area states’)

City states

Berlin

Unter den Linden (under the lime trees) – area east of Brandenburg Gate

Adlon Hotel – historic hotel in Unter den Linden, Berlin

Brandenburg Gate – located on the Pariser Platz, consists of 12 Doric columns, above the gate is the Quadriga consisting of the goddess of peace driving a hour-horse chariot, design based on the Propylea (the gateway to the Acropolis)

The Pergamon Museum is one of the museums on the Museum Island in Berlin. It was planned by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann and was built over a period from 1910 to 1930. It houses original-sized, reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate, all consisting of parts transported from the original excavation sites

Neues Museum (New Museum) is a museum in Berlin located to the north of the Altes Museum (Old Museum) on Museum Island. The artifacts it houses include the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti

Berlin Central Station (Berlin Hauptbahnhof) began full operation in 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof

Archenhold Observatory in Berlin opened in 1896, and contained what was then the world's longest telescope, with a focal length of 21 meters

Berlin – old name ‘swamp town’

Tempelhof was designated as an airport in 1923. Tempelhof was one of Europe's three iconic pre-World War II airports, the others being London’s Croydon Airport and the old Paris – Le Bourget Airport

Cold war listening station in Berlin built on mountain of rubble from WWII (known as the ‘devils’ mountain’)

The Fernsehturm is a television tower in the city centre of Berlin. Close to Alexanderplatz and part of the World Federation of Great Towers (WFGT), the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969

Tegel airport was built in 1948 for Berlin airlift. Tegel Airport is named after Otto Lilienthal, the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful gliding flights

Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport is a new airport under construction to the south of Berlin

Berlin orbital motorway (BAB 10) is 122 miles long, and is the longest orbital in Europe

Bremen

The state consists of two cities (Bremen and Bremerhaven) and is the smallest German state

River Weser flows through Bremen and Bremerhaven

Hamburg

Hamburg is officially known as the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

The port of Hamburg, on the river Elbe, is the second largest port in Europe (after the Port of Rotterdam)

The area of Reeperbahn in the quarter St. Pauli is Europe's largest red light district

Area states

Baden-Wurttemberg

Capital – Stuttgart

Ulm is primarily known for its Ulm Munster (a Lutheran cathedral and the tallest church in the world, its steeple measuring 530 ft high) and as the birthplace of Albert Einstein. It lies on the Danube

Heidelberg is on Neckar river

The Rhine joins the Necker at Mannheim

Hockenheim – built to test Mercedes cars

Bavaria

Capital – Munich

Bavaria is the largest state in Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th century neo-romantic castle. Located near Hohenschwangau and Fussen in southwest Bavaria, the castle was built by Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, as a retreat and as homage to Richard Wagner, the King's inspiring muse

Frauenkirche (‘Cathedral of Our Dear Lady’) is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. It is a landmark and is considered a symbol of the Bavarian State Capital

Olympic Stadium in Munich was designed by the German architect Günther Behnisch and the engineer Frei Otto. Design included large sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by steel cables that were used for the first time in a large scale

Pilgrimage Church of Wies is an oval rococo church in Bavaria, designed in the 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann

Lindau is a Bavarian major town and an island on the eastern side of Lake Constance

Nuremberg is in Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia

Regensburg, historically also Ratisbon, is a city in Bavaria

Wurzburg Residence is a palace in Wurzburg. Balthasar Neumann, architect of the court of the Bishop of Wurzburg, was the principal architect. Giovanni Tiepolo, assisted by his son, Domenico, painted frescoes in the building

Brandenburg

Capital – Potsdam

Sanssouci is the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam, in the state of Brandenburg. Sanssouci – means ‘without worries’

Hesse

Capital – Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is one of the oldest spa towns in Europe. Its name literally means ‘meadow baths’

Frankfurt is the largest city in Hesse

Frankfurt is home to the European Central Bank and the German Federal Bank

Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the largest in Germany

Messel Pit is a disused quarry near the village of Messel, close to Frankfurt. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of fossils, it has significant geological and scientific importance

Lower Saxony

Capital – Hanover

The northwestern area of Lower Saxony, which lies on the coast of the North Sea, is called East Frisia

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

State is also known as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in English

Capital – Schwerin

Mecklenburg – region between Berlin and Hamburg. Largest city is Rostock

Rostock – principal overseas port of the former GDR

Mecklenburg Lake District is sometimes called "the land of a thousand lakes"

Rugen is Germany's largest island. It is located in the Baltic Sea

Prora is a beach resort on the island of Rugen, known especially for its colossal Nazi-planned touristic structures. The massive building complex was built between 1936 and 1939

North-Rhine Westphalia

Capital – Dusseldorf

North-Rhine Westphalia is the most populous lander

Cologne Cathedral – largest Gothic cathedral rebuilt after WWII

In Cologne cathedral is the Shrine of the Three Kings, a large gilded sarcophagus dating from the 13th century, and the largest reliquary in the Western world. It is traditionally believed to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men

Cologne became acknowledged as a city by the Romans in 50 AD

Cologne Cathedral – From 1880 to 1884, it was the tallest structure in the world, until the completion of the Washington Monument. It has the second-tallest church spires, only surpassed by the single spire of Ulm Minster

Largest church bell is in Cologne Cathedral

The Rhine joins the Ruhr at Duisburg

Aachen Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe

Rhineland-Palatinate

Capital – Mainz

Porta Nigra (Latin for ‘black gate’) is a large Roman city gate in Trier. It is today the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps and has been designated a World Heritage Site

Koblenz is at the confluence of Rhine and Moselle

Stolzenfels Castle is a castle near Koblenz on the Rhine

Lorelei – a rock on the eastern bank of the Rhine near St. Goarshausen, which soars some 120 metres above the water line. It marks the narrowest part of the river between Switzerland and the North Sea

The wine festival called Wurstmarkt in Bad Durkheim is the largest wine festival in the world

Saarland

Capital – Saarbrucken

Apart from the city states, it is Germany's smallest federal state

Saxony

Capital – Dresden

The Dresdner Frauenkirche survived the firebombing of Dresden during World War II but was totally burned out and collapsed the next day. It was reconsecrated in 2005

Zwinger – a palace in Dresden and a major landmark of German baroque architecture

Dresden is known as the ‘Florence of the Elbe’ and the ‘Florence of the North’

Leipzig is the largest city in Saxony

Oflag IV-C (often referred to as Colditz Castle because of its location) was situated on a cliff overlooking the town of Colditz in Saxony

Chemnitz was known as Karl-Marx-Stadt between 1953 and 1990

Saxony-Anhalt

Capital – Magdeburg

Magdeburg lies on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Emperor Otto I lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death

Brocken – the highest peak of the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak of Northern Germany

Schleswig-Holstein

Capital – Kiel

Heligoland – German island in the North Sea. Matches the description of Azkaban in the Harry Potter books

Kiel Canal links North Sea with Baltic. World’s busiest artificial waterway

Thuringia

Capital – Erfurt

Elephant Hotel, Weimar – visited by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Sebastian Bach, Leo Tolstoy and Thomas Mann

River Danube originates in the Black Forest in Germany as two smaller rivers: the Brigach and the Breg rivers

Meissen, Pardubice, Wittenberg, Dessau, Magdeburg and Cuxhaven are on the River Elbe

Swabia is normally thought of as comprising the former German state of Wurttemberg (with the Prussian Hohenzollern Province) and the administrative region of Bavarian Swabia

Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises large portions of the western Harz mountain range

Reichenau Island lies in Lake Constance. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 because of its monastery, the Abbey of Reichenau

Teutoburg forest – range of low forested mountains in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia

Lake Constance (German: Bodensee) is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee (‘upper lake’, the Untersee (‘lower lake’), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein. The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria

Greece

Parthenon is a temple of the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their protector. Its construction began in 447 BC and was completed in 438 BC on the Athenian Acropolis, although decorations of the Parthenon continued until 431 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered to be the culmination of the development of the Doric order

Syntagma Square (English: Constitution Square), is located in central Athens. The Square is named after the Constitution that King Otto was forced to grant to the people, after a popular and military uprising in 1843

Plaka is the old historical neighborhood of Athens, clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, and incorporating labyrinthine streets and neoclassical architecture

Athens is known as the “violet crowned city”

The Philippeion in the Altis of Olympia was an Ionic circular memorial of ivory and gold, which contained statues of Philip's family and Alexander the Great. It was made by the Athenian sculptor Leochares in celebration of Philip's victory at the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on Mount Parnassus

Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece

Palace of Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture

Heraklion is the capital of Crete

Mount Ida is the highest point in Crete

Chania is an old city and port on Crete

Euboea is the second largest of the Greek Aegean Islands and the second largest Greek island overall in area and population, after Crete

Lesbos is the third largest Greek island, Rhodes is fourth, Chios is fifth

Kefalonia (largest), Corfu (second largest), Lefkada, Zante and Paxos (smallest) – Ionian Islands

Argostoli is the capital of Kefalonia

Kerkira is the local name for Corfu

The north-eastern coastline of Corfu lies off the coast of Sarande, Albania

Ithica is an Ionian island

Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades

Naxos used to be the main source of emery

Andros is the northernmost island of the Cyclades archipelago

Akrotiri is an ancient city buried, and preserved by, the volcanic ash on the island of Santorini

Santorini is in the Cyclades

There are 14 Dodecanese Islands (12 major islands and two small ones)

Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese Islands

Faliraki is the primary seaside resort village on the island of Rhodes

Acropolis of Lindos is on the island of Rhodes

Santorini is a Greek island with large pumice deposits

The region of Argos, in Greece is called the Argolid. The inhabitants of Argos were called Argives

Cape Matapan is the southernmost point of Greek mainland

Piraeus is the largest port in Europe (and third largest in the world) in terms of passenger transportation, servicing 19,000,000 passengers annually

Thessaloniki or Salonica is Greece’s second-largest city and the capital of Macedonia, the largest region of Greece

Skopje Airport is named after Alexander the Great

Gulf of Corinth is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. In medieval times, the gulf was known as the Gulf of Lepanto

Corinth Canal connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnesian peninsula from the Greek mainland

Arcadia is a region of Greece in the Peloponnese. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas

Gavdos is the southernmost Greek island. It is also the most southerly point in Europe

Mycanae, in the Peloponnese, was Agamemnon’s capital, and is the the site of Lion Gate

Rion-Antirion Bridge is the World's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridge. It crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rion on the Peloponnese to Antirion on mainland Greece

Cadmea was the citadel of ancient Thebes, named after Cadmus

The city of Pavlopetri, underwater off the coast of southern Laconia in Peloponnese, is about 5000 years old, and is the oldest submerged archeological town site. It is unique in having an almost complete town plan

Mount Athos in Macedonia is self-governed state in the Hellenic Republic

Corinth was founded as New Corinth in 1858 after an earthquake destroyed the existing settlement of Corinth

Hungary

Capital	Budapest
Largest cities	Budapest, Debrecen
Currency	Forint
Highest point	Kekes

Budapest is the combination of the city names Buda and Pest, which were (together with Obuda) united into a single city in 1873

Budapest Metro is the second oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground. Opened in 1896

Szechenyi Lanchid Chain Bridge in Budapest was the first permanent bridge across the Danube. Designed by William Tierney Clark. Opened in 1849

Gellert Hotel is a spa hotel in Budapest

Keleti is the main railway station in Budapest

Memento Park is a museum in Budapest, including Statue Park with monumental statues from Hungary's Communist period

The ancient city of Aquincum was situated on the North-Eastern borders of the Pannonia province within the Roman Empire. The ruins of the city can be found today in Budapest

Debrecen is the second largest city in Hungary

Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe

Iceland

Capital	Reykjavik
Largest cities	Reykjavik, Kopavogur
Currency	Krona
Highest point	Hvannadalshnjukur

Mount Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes

Vatnajokull (meaning ‘Glacier of Rivers’), also known as the Vatna Glacier, is the largest and most voluminous Icelandic glacier

Eyjafjallajokull lies 25 km west of another subglacial volcano, Katla, which is much more active and known for its powerful subglacial eruptions and its large magma chamber. Each of the eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull in 920, 1612, and 1821–1823 has preceded an eruption of Katla

Eyjafjallajokull erupted in 2010

Katla last erupted in 1918

Laki is a volcanic fissure situated in the south of Iceland. The system erupted over an 8 month period during 1783–84 from the Laki fissure and the adjoining Grímsvotn volcano, pouring out basalt lava and clouds of poisonous hydrofluoric acid/sulfur-dioxide compounds that killed over 50% of Iceland's livestock population, leading to famine which killed approximately 25% of the population

Iceland is located on both the Iceland hotspot and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs right through it

The Iceland Plume is an upwelling of anomalously hot rock in the Earth's mantle beneath Iceland whose origin probably lies at the boundary between the core and the mantle at c. 2880 km depth. It is generally thought to be the cause of the formation of Iceland and its volcanism

In 1973 a volcanic eruption of the mountain Eldfell began on Heimaey. Townspeople constantly sprayed the lava with cold seawater, causing some of it to solidify and much to be diverted, thus saving the harbour from destruction

Karahnjukar is Europe’s biggest dam and is part of a hydroelectricity plant

Surtsey, one of the youngest islands in the world, is part of Iceland. It rose above the ocean in a series of volcanic eruptions between 1963 and 1968

Dettifoss is a waterfall in Vatnajokull National Park, and is reputed to be the most powerful waterfall in Europe

Ireland

Capital	Dublin
Largest cities	Dublin, Cork, Limerick. Galway, Waterford
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Carrauntoohil

For further information see British Isles Geography

Italy

Italy is subdivided into 20 regions

Abruzzo

Capital – L’Aquila

Aosta Valley

Capital – Aosta

Aosta Valley is a mountainous semi-autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is the smallest, least populous, and least densely populated region of Italy

Apulia

Capital – Bari

Apulia (Italian: Puglia) is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southern portion known as Salento, a peninsula, forms a high heel on the ‘boot’ of Italy

Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia and is the main Italian naval base

Basilicata

Capital – Potenza

Calabria

Capital – Catanzaro

Calabria – the ‘toe of Italy’s boot’

Campania

Capital – Naples

Capri is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region

Teatro di San Carlo is in Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for public opera in the world, opening in 1737

Sorrento overlooks the Bay of Naples as the key place of the Sorrentine Peninsula, and many viewpoints allow sight of Naples itself, Vesuvius and the Isle of Capri

Cape de Monte – in the district of Naples

Salerno is mostly known for its Schola Medica Salernitana (the first University of Medicine in the world)

Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed when Vesuvius erupted in 79

Vesuvius last erupted in 1944

Amalfi Coast – a stretch of coastline on the southern side of the Sorrentine Peninsula of Italy (Province of Salerno), extending from Positano in the west to Vietri sul Mare in the east

Lake Avernus is a volcanic crater lake located in the Avernus crater in the Campania. Avernus was of major importance to the Romans, who considered it to be the entrance to Hades

Emilia-Romagna

Capital – Bologna

Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport is an international airport serving the city of Bologna

Rimini airport is named after Federico Fellini

Ravenna is known as ‘city of the mosaic’

Faience pottery, originally associated by French speakers with wares exported from Faenza in the province of Ravenna

Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Capital – Trieste

As a prosperous seaport in the Mediterranean region, Trieste became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest, and Prague). Trieste was the main seaport of the Austro-Hungarian empire

Lazio

Capital – Rome

The Arch of Titus is a triumphal arch with a single arched opening, located on the Via Sacra just to the south-east of the Forum in Rome. It was constructed by the emperor Domitian shortly after the death of his older brother Titus, commemorating the capture and sack of Jerusalem in 70

Pantheon – a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome, but which has been a Christian church since the 7th century. The original Pantheon was built in 27 BC – 25 BC under the Roman Empire, during the third consulship of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and his name is inscribed on the portico of the building. Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a fire in 80, and the current building dates from about 125, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Pantheon has the largest un-reinforced concrete dome

The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of Rome, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering. Occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus, with further modifications being made during Domitian's reign

Rome is built on Palatine Hill

The Roman Forum is located between the Palatine Hill and the Capitoline Hill

Quirinal Palace was built in 1583 by Pope Gregory XIII as a papal summer residence

Ponte Sant'Angelo, meaning the Bridge of Hadrian, is a bridge in Rome, constructed between 134 and 139 by Roman Emperor Hadrian, to span the Tiber, from the city centre to his newly constructed mausoleum, the Castel Sant'Angelo

Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family

Temple of Jupiter – on Capitoline Hill

Temple of Vesta is located in the Roman Forum between the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Caesar, the Regia and the House of the Vestal Virgins. The temple's most recognizable feature is its circular footprint which is most likely a remnant of an ancient Latin or Etruscan shrine

La Bocca della Verita (‘the Mouth of Truth’) is an image, carved from marble, of a man-like face, located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome. It was believed that if one told a lie with one's hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off

Stadium of the Marbles in Rome has Carrara marble steps lined by 59 marble statues in classical style portraying athletes

Trevi fountain was constructed in1762. Trevi means ‘three roads’. An estimated 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day

Spanish Steps – monumental stairway of 138 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed funds of 20,000 scudi, in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy, and the Trinita dei Monti church that was under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France

Altare della Patria in Rome is a monument built in honour of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy

Trajan’s Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars

Ostia – harbour port of ancient Rome

EUR is a residential and business district in Rome. The area was originally chosen in 1930s as the site for the 1942 world's fair which Benito Mussolini planned to open to celebrate twenty years of Fascism

Ostia was the port city of Ancient Rome

Tivoli, the classical Tibur, is an ancient Italian town in Lazio, about 30 km east of Rome

Lake Nemi is a small circular volcanic lake. The lake is most famous for its sunken Roman ships

Ligurua

Capital – Genoa

Genoa – largest commercial port in Italy

Imperia – a coastal city and commune in the region of Liguria

Lombardy

Capital –Milan

Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historic library in Milan, also housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana art gallery. Named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, it was founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo

Mediolanum – Latin name for Milan

La Scala opened in 1778 with a performance of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta

Pirelli Tower – second tallest building in Milan

Ducal Palace, Mantua – built between the 14th and the 17th century mainly by the noble family of Gonzaga as their royal residence in the capital of their Duchy

Stone carvings of Val Camonica constitute one of the largest collections of prehistoric petroglyphs in the world. The collection was recognized by Unesco in 1979 and was Italy's first recognized World Heritage Site. Include the world’s earliest map, known as the Bedolina Map

Monza is 15 km north-northeast of Milan

Marche

Capital – Ancona

Ducal Palace (Italian: Palazzo Ducale), Urbino is a World Heritage site

Molise

Capital – Campobasso

Piedmont

Capital – Turin

Piedmont – means ‘foot of the mountains’

Turin Shroud is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin

Sardinia

Sassari – second-largest city of Sardinia

Costa Smeralda – resort in Sardinia. Development of the area started in 1961, and was financed by a consortium of companies led by Aga Khan

Alghero is a town in Sardinia. The Catalan language is co-official in the city, unique in Italy

Sicily

Capital - Palermo

Catania is the second-largest city in Sicily

Mazzaro – beach in Sicily

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean

Trapani is a city in Sicily

Marsala in Sicily is famous for the landing of Garibaldi in 1860 (the Expedition of the Thousand) and its wine

Mount Etna – also known as Muncibeddu (beautiful mountain) in Sicilian and Mongibello in Italian

Messina was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 1908

Syracuse was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and became a very powerful city-state. Syracuse was allied with Sparta and Corinth, exerting influence over the entire Magna Graecia area of which it was the most important city

Trentino-South Tyrol

Capital – Trento

South Tyrol is an autonomous province. 64% of the population is Austro-Bavarian or Tyrolean and speaks German. Less than a quarter of the population speak Italian as their first language

Trentino is the other autonomous province

Tuscany

Capital – Florence

Ponte Vecchio – spans the River Arno in Florence. Means ‘old bridge’

The Palazzo Pitti, sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The Boboli Gardens, behind the Pitti Palace, the main seat of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany at Florence, are some of the first and most familiar formal sixteenth century Italian gardens

The Vasari Corridor is an elevated path in Florence which connects Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti, passing over the Uffizi Gallery and the Ponte Vecchio. It was built in five months by order of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici in 1565, under design by Giorgio Vasari

Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace or Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People) is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence

Laurentian library in Florence was designed by Michelangelo

Medici Chapel is a structure in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy. It comprises two structures added to Brunelleschi's original design, each intended to celebrate the power of the Medici as Grand Dukes of Tuscany. One is the Sagrestia Nuova, the ‘New Sacristy’, designed by Michelangelo. The other is the Cappella dei Principi, the 16th and 17th-century ‘Chapel of the Princes’

Giotto’s Campanile is a free-standing campanile that is part of the complex of buildings that make up Florence Cathedral on the Piazza del Duomo in Florence

Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories

Piazza della Signoria is an L-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence

Carrara is a city in Tuscany notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there

Ducal palace of Mantua was built between the 14th and the 17th century mainly by the noble family of Gonzaga as their royal residence

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of Pisa. It is situated behind the Cathedral and it is the third structure in Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli (field of miracles). Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173. The height of the tower is 186’. The tower has 294 steps and leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees before restoration work reduced the angle to 4 degrees. Construction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa occurred in three stages across 177 years. Work on the first floor of the white marble campanile began in 1173

Elba is largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago

Umbria

Capital – Perugia

Umbria is a region of Central Italy, bordered by Tuscany to the west, the Marche to the east and Lazio to the south. The main towns are Perugia and Terni

The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi (St Francis), the mother church of the Franciscan Order, is a World Heritage Site in Assisi, Italy. The foundation stone was laid by Pope Gregory IX in 1228. Works by Giotto and Cimabue

Veneto

Capital – Venice

Venice is built on 118 islands

Grand Canal – at one end the canal leads into the lagoon near Santa Lucia railway station and the other end leads into Saint Mark Basin: in between it makes a large S-shape through the central districts (sestieri) of Venice

Rialto Bridge is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice. It is the oldest bridge across the canal, and was the dividing line for the districts of San Marco and San Polo. The present stone bridge, a single span designed by Antonio da Ponte, was completed in 1591

Rialto Bridge is the oldest bridge of Venice

Triumphal Quadriga or Horses of Saint Mark is a set of Roman or Greek bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga. It was originally erected in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, possibly on a triumphal arch, and is now in St Mark's Basilica in Venice

San Marco library – in Venice

Venice – Bride of the Sea

Venice is divided into six areas or sestiere

San Michele – Venice’s cemetery island

Lido – a sandbar located in Venice

Sant'Erasmo is an island in the Venetian Lagoon lying north of the Lido and north east of Venice

Murano – glass making centre, near Venice

Islands

Aeolian Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily. The largest island is Lipari, and the entire archipelago is known as the Lipari Islands. The other islands include Vulcano and Stromboli

Stromboli is known as “the lighthouse of the Mediterranean”

The island of Lampedusa belongs to Italy and is the largest of the Pelagie Islands, situated 205 km from Sicily and 113 km from Tunisia. It is a major route for Africans immigrating to Europe

Santo Stefano is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy, and part of the Pontine Islands. It is dominated by an old prison built by the Bourbons, completed in 1797 and in use until 1965

Blue grotto – cave off the island of Capri

Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples

Ferdinandea is a submerged volcanic island (also known as Graham Island) that forms part of the underwater volcano Empedocles 30 km south of Sicily. Currently a seamount, eruptions have raised it above sea level several times before erosion has caused it to submerge again. It last rose above sea level after erupting in 1831

Mountains

Corno Grande is the highest point in the Apennines

The Julian Alps stretch from north-eastern Italy to Slovenia, where they rise to 2864 metres at Triglav. They are named after Julius Caesar and are part of the Southern Limestone Alps

Cortina d’Ampezzo is in the Dolomites

Dolomites is derived from the French mineralogist Deodat Gratet de Dolomieu who was the first to describe the rock, dolomite

Marmolada is the highest point in the Dolomites

Lakes

Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy. It is located in Northern Italy, about half-way between Brescia and Verona, and between Venice and Milan

Lake Maggiore is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest of Italy and largest of southern Switzerland

Lake Como is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy. It is the third largest lake in Italy. At over 400 m (1320 ft) deep it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe

Lake Como is shaped much like the character ‘Y’. The northern branch begins at the town of Colico, while the towns of Como and Lecco sit at the ends of the southwestern and southeastern branches respectively

Lake Lugano is between Como and Maggiore

Lake Trasimene is the largest lake on the Italian peninsula south of the Po River

Lake Avernus is a volcanic crater lake located in the Avernus crater in the Campania region

Seas

Ligurian Sea – between Corsica and Genoa

Strait of Messina is the strait between Sicily and Calabria

Strait of Bonifacio is the strait between Corsica and Sardinia

Rivers

The Po flows 405 miles eastward across northern Italy, from Monviso (in the Cottian Alps) to the Adriatic Sea near Venice. It is the longest river in Italy, and passes through many important Italian towns, including Turin

The Adige is the second longest river in Italy

River Tiber flows through Rome

River Arno flows through Florence and Pisa

Kazakhstan

Flag of Kazakhstan has a gold sun with 32 rays above a soaring golden steppe eagle, both centered on a sky blue background

Capital	Nur-Sultan
Largest cities	Almaty, Nur-Sultan
Currency	Tenge
Highest point	Khan Tengri

Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country by land area and the ninth largest country in the world

Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991

Lake Balkhash is in Kazakhstan

After the capital of Kazakhstan was moved from Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, to Akmola in1997, the city was consequently renamed Astana in 1998

Astana renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019

Bayterek is the most famous landmark in Astana. The legend behind this tower as a symbol is that it represents a poplar tree, where the magic bird Samruk laid its egg

Kosovo

Flag of Kosovo uses a map of the country as a design element; the flag of Cyprus is the only other to do so

Capital	Pristina
Largest cities	Pristina
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Velika Rudoka

Note - Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008. Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. Kosovo has gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 98 member states of the United Nations

Mitrovica is mainly Albanian

North Mitrovica is mainly Serbian

Kosovo is the only mainland European country which does not border the European Union

Latvia

Capital	Riga
Largest cities	Riga, Daugavpils
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Gaizinkalns

Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member

Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states

Riga has one of the largest collection of art nouveau buildings in the world

Yarni is a pagan festival in Latvia

Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia

Liechtenstein

The crown was added to the flag of Liechtenstein in 1937, after it was discovered by Liechtenstein's team at the 1936 Summer Olympics that the flag then in use was identical to the flag of Haiti

Capital	Vaduz
Largest cities	Schaan, Vaduz
Currency	Swiss franc
Highest point	Grauspitz

Liechtenstein is a constitutional monarchy with the rank of principality, headed by the Prince of Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked country bordered by Austria and Switzerland. The entire western border of Liechtenstein is formed by the Rhine

The principality of Liechtenstein is divided into 11 communes called Gemeinden. Five of them fall within the electoral district Unterland (the lower county), and the remainder within Oberland (the upper county)

Liechtenstein is one of the few countries in the world with more registered companies than citizens

Vaduz is on the River Rhine

Lithuania

Capital	Vilnius
Largest cities	Vilnius, Kaunas
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Aukstojas Hill

On 11 March 1990, a year before formal break-up of the Soviet Union, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare itself independent

In 1995, the world's first bronze cast of Frank Zappa was installed in Vilnius

Luxembourg

Flag of Luxembourg is very similar to the flag of the Netherlands, but the light blue stripe and red stripe on the Luxembourg flag are a lighter shade

Capital	Luxembourg City
Largest cities	Luxembourg City
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Kneiff

Luxembourg comprises two principal regions: the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south

As a representative democracy with a constitutional monarch, it is headed by a grand duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and is the world's only remaining grand duchy

European Court of Justice is in Luxembourg

Luxembourg was known as the “Gibraltar of the North”

Three languages are recognized as official in Luxembourg: French, German, and Luxembourgish

Luxembourg City lies at the confluence of the Alzette and Petrusse rivers

Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial is the final resting place of 5,076 American military dead, including General George S. Patton

Schengen is near the tripoint where the borders of Germany, France, and Luxembourg meet. The Schengen Agreement of 1985 led to the creation of Europe's borderless Schengen Area

Malta

A representation of the George Cross, awarded to Malta in 1942, is carried in the canton of the white stripe on the flag of Malta

Capital	Valletta
Largest cities	Birkirkara
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Ta' Dmejrek

Malta is an archipelago 80 km south of Sicily across the Malta Channel. Only the three largest islands – Malta, Gozo and Comino – are inhabited

Malta is the closest commonwealth country to UK

Malta has two official languages: Maltese and English

Valletta, at 0.8 km², is the smallest national capital in the European Union

Valletta contains buildings from the 16th century onwards, built during the rule of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, also known as Knights Hospitaller

Mdina served as the island's capital from antiquity until 1530, when the capital was moved to Birgu

Megalithic Temples of Malta are the oldest free-standing structures on Earth, even older than the Pyramids

Moldova

The tricolour of Moldova is identical to the flag of Romania, but on Moldova's flag the yellow stripe is charged with the coat of arms

Capital	Chisinau
Largest cities	Chisinau, Tiraspol
Currency	Leu
Highest point	Balanesti Hill

The name Moldova is derived from the Moldova River

Moldova declared itself an independent state in 1991. It is the poorest country in Europe

The largest part of the nation lies between two rivers, the Dniester and the Prut

The English language name for Chisinau is Kishinev

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west. This was the name by which Imperial Russia designated the eastern part of the Principality of Moldavia

Monaco

Capital	Monaco
Largest cities	Monaco
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Chemin des Revoires

Monaco is a sovereign city-state and microstate. It is the second smallest and the most densely populated country in the world

Monaco is a principality governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with Prince Albert II as head of state

The traditional national language is Monegasque, now spoken by only a minority of residents

Monte Carlo officially refers to an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco; informally the name also refers to a larger district, the Monte Carlo Quarter

Opera de Monte-Carlo was designed by Charles Garnier

Montenegro

Capital	Podgorica
Largest cities	Podgorica
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Zla Kolata

Montenegro means “black mountain”

Montenegro declared itself independent of Serbia in 2006

The country has a segment of the Karst of the western Balkan Peninsula

Podgorica was known as Titograd from 1946 to 1992

Podgorica means “under the small hill”

Netherlands

Capital	Amsterdam
Largest cities	Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Vaalserberg (see note below)

Note: Vaalserberg is the highest point on the Dutch mainland. The highest point of the Netherlands is Mount Scenery on the island of Saba in the Caribbean Netherlands

Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces and three overseas public bodies (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba)

Largest cities in Netherlands – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven

Maastrict – capital of Limburg province

Haarlem – capital of North Holland province

The Hague – capital of South Holland province

Amsterdam is the largest city in North Holland province

Museumplein is a square in Amsterdam. The square is called “Museum Square” because four museums are located around the square: the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Diamond Museum

Rijksmuseum (English: State Museum) has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art. It also displays the stern of the HMS Royal Charles which was captured in the Raid on the Medway

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum of modern art

Anne Frank building is located on Prinsengracht canal

De Wallen, also known as Walletjes or Rosse Buurt, is a designated area for legalised prostitution and is Amsterdam's largest and most well known red-light district

Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the oldest stock exchange in the world

Royal Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam

Rotterdam is the largest city of South Holland province

The port of Rotterdam is the largest cargo port in Europe. Rotterdam is known as the “Gateway to Europe”

The Erasmus Bridge is a cable stayed bridge across the Nieuwe Maas river, linking the northern and southern halves of the city of Rotterdam. It was designed by Ben van Berkel and completed in 1996. The bridge has a 139 metre-high asymmetrical pylon, earning the bridge its nickname of “The Swan”

The Hague is the seat of Dutch government

International Court of Justice is located at Peace Palace in The Hague, and was funded by Andrew Carnegie

Mauritshaus art museum in The Hague houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 841 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings

Maastrict is on River Maas

Philips' presence is probably the largest single contributing factor to the major growth of Eindhoven

Vlissingen is also known as Flushing

Zuider Zee was dammed using boulder clay in 1932

Dutch dykes destroyed in 1953 storm

Vaalserberg is the location of the tripoint between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands

Ijsselmeer is a shallow artificial lake of 1100 km² in the central Netherlands. It is the largest lake in Western Europe

North Macedonia

Capital	Skopje
Largest cities	Skopje
Currency	Denar
Highest point	Mount Korab

North Macedonia is officially the Republic of North Macedonia. It became a member of the United Nations in 1993, but, as a result of an ongoing dispute with Greece over use of the name Macedonia, it was admitted under the provisional description of "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM). The name was changed from Macedonia to North Macedonia in 2019

Skopje is on the River Vardar

Skopje was known in the Roman period under the name Scupi

Norway

Capital	Oslo
Largest cities	Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger
Currency	Krone
Highest point	Galdhopiggen

Bygdoy in Oslo has several museums, inckuding the Kon-Tiki Museum; the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Norsk Folkemuseum); the Viking Ship Museum; the Norwegian Maritime Museum and the ship Fram, used by Roald Amundsen

The main attractions at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo are the Oseberg ship, Gokstad ship and Tune ship

Oseberg ship is a well-preserved Viking ship discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm in Norway. The characteristic motif of the Oseberg style of animal ornamentation is gripping beasts

Sarpsfossen has the greatest flow of any waterfall in Europe, It is the last waterfall in the river Glomma, which is the longest river in Norway

Cape Nordkinn is the northernmost point of mainland Norway, and by extension the northernmost point of mainland Europe. In the county of Finnmark

Laerdal Tunnel is a 15 mile long road tunnel connecting Lærdal and Aurland in Sogn in Norway. It is the longest road tunnel in the world

Lofoten is an archipelago in the county of Nordland. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude. Target of oil and gas exploration

Utsira is a municipality in Rogaland county. Utsira (under the spelling Utsire) gives its name to North Utsire and South Utsire, two of the sea areas of the Shipping Forecast

Hammerfest claims to be the northernmost city in the world

Hurtigruten (“the Express Route”) is a daily passenger and freight shipping service along Norway's western and northern coast between Bergen and Kirkenes. Sometimes referred to as the Norwegian Coastal Express

Troll Wall is the tallest vertical rock face in Europe. The rock is gneiss

Jostedal Glacier (Norwegian: Jostedalsbreen) is the largest glacier in continental Europe

Norway is the most sparsely populated country in Europe

Svalbard (formerly known by its Dutch name Spitsbergen) is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It is about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago. The island was first used as a whaling base in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which it was abandoned. Coal mining started at the end of the 19th century and several permanent communities were established

Longyearbyen, in Svalbard, is the world’s northernmost town

Bear Island is the southernmost island of the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago

Jan Mayen is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and a part of the Kingdom of Norway

The Antarctic Peter I Island is a dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land

Bouvet Island is an uninhabited subantarctic volcanic island and dependency of Norway located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote island in the world

Poland

Capital	Warsaw
Largest cities	Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan
Currency	Zloty
Highest point	Rysy

Warsaw international airport is named after Frederic Chopin

Warsaw is known as the “phoenix city”

Warsaw is located on the Vistula River

River Vistula empties into the Baltic Sea

Royal Castle was the official residence of the Polish monarchs. It is located in the Castle Square, at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town

Krakow's John Paul II International airport in Balice is Poland’s second busiest after Warsaw

The main landmarks of Krakow include the St. Mary's Basilica and the Sukiennice Cloth Hall, the Wawel Castle, the Zygmunt Bell at the Wawel Cathedral, and the medieval St Florian's Gate with the Barbican along the Royal Coronation Route

Wieliczka salt mine, near Krakow, was built in the 13th century. It produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest salt mines still in operation

Lodz translates literally as “boat”

Wroclaw is the capital of Lower Silesia in southwestern Poland, situated on the Oder River

Poznan has the oldest cathedral in the country, which contains the tombs of the first Polish rulers

Containing the painting known as the Black Madonna, the Jasna Gora monastery in the city of Czestochowa is a centre for Catholic pilgrims

River Vistula empties into the Baltic Sea near Gdansk

Portugal

Flag of Portugal has a simple version of the national coat of arms (armillary sphere and Portuguese shield)

Capital	Lisbon
Largest cities	Lisbon, Porto
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Serra da Estrala (see note below)

Note: Serra da Estrela is the highest point on the Portuguese mainland. The highest point of Portugal is Mount Pico on Pico Island in the Azores

Aside from continental Portugal, the Portuguese Republic holds sovereignty over the Atlantic archipelagos of Azores and Madeira, which are autonomous regions of Portugal

The country is named after its second largest city, Porto

In 27 BC, Lusitania gained the status of Roman province. Later, a northern province of Lusitania was formed, known as Gallaecia, with capital in Bracara Augusta, today's Braga

Lisbon was built on seven hills

Belem Tower, Lisbon was commissioned by King John II to be both part of a defense system at the mouth of the Tagus River and a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon

Lisbon was known to the Romans as Felicitas Julia Olissipo

Vasco da Gama Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that spans the Tagus River in Lisbon. It is the longest bridge in Europe. It was built to alleviate the congestion on Lisbon's other bridge (25 de Abril Bridge)

Braga Munipical Stadium was carved out of a quarry (Monte Castro) that overlooks the city of Braga

River Tagus is the longest river in Portugal

River Douro enters the Atlantic near Porto

Serra da Estrela (English: Mountain Range of the Star) is the highest mountain range in Continental Portugal

Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on account of its 19th century Romantic architecture

Most westerly point in mainland Europe is Cabo da Roca

Algarve is the southernmost region of mainland Portugal. The region has as its administrative centre the city of Faro

Sao Miguel is the largest of the nine volcanic islands of the Azores

Ponta Delgada is the capital of the Azores

Madeira is an archipelago located in the north Atlantic Ocean, west and slightly south of Portugal. It includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas, administered together with the separate archipelago of the Savage Islands

Madeira is famous for Madeira wine and embroidery

Its annual New Year celebrations feature the largest fireworks show in the world

The main harbour is in Funchal, the capital of Madeira

Romania

Capital	Bucharest
Largest cities	Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara
Currency	Leu
Highest point	Moldoveanu Peak

Modern Romania emerged within the territories of the ancient Roman province of Dacia, and was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877

The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest is the world's second largest administrative building, after the Pentagon

Carpathian Mountains dominate the centre of Romania

Transylvania was part of Hungary until 1918

River Danube empties in Romania's Danube Delta

Danube Delta has three distributaries

Russia

Capital	Moscow
Largest cities	Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod
Currency	Ruble
Highest point	Mount Elbrus

Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the world's ninth most populous nation

Russia is a federation which, since 2008, consisted of 83 federal subjects. In 2014, Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea became the 84th and 85th federal subjects

Federal subjects are grouped into nine federal districts

46 of the federal subjects are oblasts

Russia is the only country that borders the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea

St Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow was built in the 16th century on Red Square by Ivan the Terrible

Peter the Great Statue in Moscow was designed by the Georgian designer Zurab Tsereteli to commemorate 300 years of the Russian Navy, which was started by Peter I of Russia. It is the eighth tallest statue in the world. The statue is allegedly based on a design originally intended to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1992

The Federation Tower is a skyscraper currently under construction as part of the Moscow International Business Centre. Construction of the towers began in 2003. When completed in 2016, it will become the tallest building in Europe

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is on the northern bank of the Moskva River, a few blocks southwest of the Kremlin. With an overall height of 103 metres it is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world

Seven sisters a group of seven skyscrapers in Moscow designed in the Stalinist style

Great Assumption bell – in the Kremlin Boulevard Ring is Moscow's second centremost ring road (the first is formed by the Central Squares of Moscow running along the former walls of Kitai-gorod)

Boulevard Ring is Moscow's second centremost ring road (the first is formed by the Central Squares of Moscow running along the former walls of Kitai-gorod)

Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo are the international airports in Moscow

Moscow Metro was opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations. It was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 185 stations. The Moscow Metro is the world's second-most-heavily-used rapid transit system, afterTokyo's twin subway

Underground stations in Moscow are known as “people’s palaces”

Monument “To the Conquerors of Space” was erected in Moscow in 1964 to celebrate achievements of the Soviet people in space exploration. The main part of the monument is a giant obelisk topped by a rocket and resembling in shape the exhaust plume of the rocket. A statue of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the precursor of astronautics, is located in front of the obelisk

Moscow is known as the “Port of the Five Seas”

Lenin's Mausoleum is situated in Red Square in the center of Moscow.  Aleksey Shchusev's diminutive but monumental granite structure incorporates some elements from ancient mausoleums, such as the Step Pyramid and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great

Shabolovka Radio Tower is a broadcasting tower in Moscow designed by Vladimir Shukhov. The 160-metre-high free-standing steel structure was built in the period 1920–1922, during the Russian Civil War. It is a hyperboloid structure

Ostankino Tower is a free-standing television and radio tower in Moscow. Standing 540 metres tall, Ostankino was designed by Nikolai Nikitin. It is currently the tallest in Europe

Tatlin’s Tower or The Monument to the Third International was a grand monumental building envisioned by the Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin, but never built. It was planned to be erected in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, as the headquarters and monument of the Comintern (the third international)

The Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. It has a facade of yellow brick, designed by Alexander Ivanov in 1897 and augmented by Aleksey Shchusev from 1940 to 1947

Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703

Saint Petersburg was known as Petrograd from 1914 to 1924, and Leningrad from 1924 to 1991

Mariinsky Palace was the last Neoclassical imperial palace to be constructed in Saint Petersburg

State Hermitage Museum was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852

Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of Saint Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740

Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs

Alexander Column is the focal point of Palace Square in Saint Petersburg. The monument was erected after the Russian victory in the war with Napoleon's France. The column is named for Emperor Alexander I

Saint Petersburg is on River Neva

Catherine Palace was the summer residence of the Russian tsars, located in the town of Pushkin (formerly known as Tsarskoye Selo), 24 km south of Saint Petersburg. The residence originated in 1717, when Catherine I of Russia engaged the German architect Johann-Friedrich Braunstein to construct a summer palace. Empress Elizabeth found her mother's residence outdated and in 1752 asked her court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to demolish the old structure and replace it with a much grander edifice in a flamboyant Rococo style

Volgograd was known as Tsaritsyn from 1598 to 1925, and Stalingrad from 1925 to 1961

The Motherland Calls is a statue in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad

Nizhny Novgorod was known as Gorky from 1932 to 1990

Astrakhan is the principal port on River Volga

Archangel is on the White Sea

Ekaterinburg – largest city in Urals, is the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast

Anadyr is a town in far northeastern Russia. It lies on the southern shore of the estuary of the Anadyr River, which empties into the Bering Sea

Norilsk in Siberia is known for nickel mining

Birobidzhan is a town and the administrative centre of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway

Sakha Republic is the largest subnational governing body by area in the world at 1,190,555 sq miles and the eighth largest territory in the world. Its capital is Yakutsk

Yakutsk is the coldest city on earth

Novosibirsk is the third most populous city in Russia after Moscow and St. Petersburg and the most populous city in Asian Russia

Great Patriotic War Monument is the large statue in Murmansk

Samara lies on the River Volga. Chosen to be the capital of the USSR should Moscow fall to the invading Germans during World War II

Mount Narodnaya is the highest peak of the Urals in Russia

Kamchatka has around 30 active volcanoes

Kalmykia is the only region in Europe where Buddhism is the main religion

Vladikavkaz is the capital of North Ossetia-Alania

Magas is the capital of Ingushetia

Grozny is the capital of Chechnya

Makhachkala is the capital of Dagestan

Derbent is a city in the Republic of Dagestan. It is the southernmost city in Russia. Often identified with the legendary Gates of Alexander, Derbent claims to be the oldest city in Russia

Kaliningrad Oblast is an exclave of Russia surrounded by Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea

Konigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946

Museum of the World’s Ocean is in Kaliningrad

Franz Josef Land is an archipelago located in the far north of Russia. Discovered in 1873 and named in honour of the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I

Solovki – first Gulag, was located on the Solovetsky Islands, in the White Sea

Novaya Zemlya (Russian: New Land) is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky. Novaya Zemlya consists of two major islands, separated by the narrow Matochkin Strait. The two main islands are Severny (northern) and Yuzhny (southern). Novaya Zemlya separates the Barents Sea from the Kara Sea. It was used as a nuclear test site in the Cold War. It was the site of the 1961 explosion of Tsar Bomba, the largest, most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated

Seas and rivers

River Volga is the longest river in Europe (2,290 miles) and empties into Caspian Sea

Lake Baikal, in Southern Siberia is the deepest and oldest lake in the world as well as the largest (by volume) freshwater lake. It contains over 20% of the world's liquid fresh surface water and more than 90% of Russia's liquid fresh surface water. It is a World Heritage Site. Olkhon, by far the largest island in Lake Baikal, is the second largest lake-bound island in the world (the largest being Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron)

River Angara is the only river flowing out of Lake Baikal

Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, not far from Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake in Europe

Neva is the only river flowing from Lake Ladoga

Lake Onega is the second largest lake in Europe

Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two being the Ob River and the Yenisei River)

Ob It is the westernmost of the Siberian rivers. The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary

Yenisei is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean

Don River rises southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,220 miles to the Sea of Azov

Kolyma River is in northeastern Siberia and is 1,323 miles long. It is frozen for 250 days each year

San Marino

Capital	San Marino
Largest cities	Serraville (see note below), Borgo Maggiore, San Marino
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Monte Titano

Note: Though it is the biggest town of the Republic, Dogana is not an autonomous castello (municipality) but belongs to the castello of Serravalle

San Marino is also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino

San Marino is a microstate surrounded by Italy. It claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, as the continuation of the monastic community founded in 301, by stonecutter Marinus of Arba

San Marino is is the only country with more vehicles than people

Serbia

Capital	Belgrade
Largest cities	Belgrade, Novi Sad
Currency	Dinar
Highest point	Velika Rudoka (see note below)

Note: Velika Rudoka is in Kosovo, but the Serbian government claim that Kosovo is part of Serbia

Serbia became landlocked after Montenegro declared independence in 2006

The province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia immediately condemned the declaration and continues to deny any statehood to Kosovo

Air Serbia is the flag carrier and largest airline of Serbia. The airline was formerly known as Jat Airways until it was renamed in 2013. The airline has its hub at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport

Belgrade lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers. Means “white city”

Slovakia

Capital	Bratislava
Largest cities	Bratislava, Kosice
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Gerlach

Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Bordering Austria and Hungary, Bratislava is the only national capital that borders two independent countries

Bratislava was known as Pressburg

Pressburg flourished during the 18th century reign of Queen Maria Theresa, becoming the largest and most important town in “the Kingdom of Hungary”

Vah is the longest river in Slovakia

Slovenia

The coat of arms on the flag of Slovenia is a shield with the image of Mount Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak

Capital	Ljubljana
Largest cities	Ljubljana, Maribor
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Mount Triglav

In 1991, Slovenia split from Yugoslavia and became an independent country. In 2004, it entered NATO and the European Union; in 2007 became the first former Communist country to join the Eurozone

Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport is named after the leader of the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia between 1989 and 1992

In the Middle Ages, both the river and the town of Ljubljana were also known by the German name Laibach

Spain

Spain is divided into 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities

Andalusia

Capital – Seville

Cordoba is known as the “Athens of the west”

Cordoba was the most populous city in Europe in 1000

Mezquita is a mosque in Cordoba, completed in 11th century. The building is most notable for its giant arches, with over 1,000 columns of jasper, onyx, marble, and granite

Alhambra (“red castle”) is an ancient palace and fortress complex of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, in southern Spain (known as Al-Andalus when the fortress was constructed during the mid 14th century). It was the residence of the Muslim kings of Granada and their court, but is currently a museum exhibiting Islamic architecture. Court of the lions – fountain supported by the figures of twelve lions in white marble

Federico Garcia Lorca airport serves Grenada

Seville is on River Guadalquivir

Almería is a province of the Autonomous Community of Andalucia. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the city of Almería

Pablo Picasso airport serves Malaga

Costa del Sol (“Sun Coast”) is a region in the south of Spain, in Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns along the Mediterranean coastline of the Malaga province. It includes the towns of Torremolinos and Marbella

Most southerly point in mainland Europe is Punta de Tarifa

Aragon

Capital – Zaragosa

Zaragoza is on river Ebro

Zaragoza was founded by Emperor Augustus

Pico d’Aneto is the highest point in Pyrenees and in Aragon

Asturias

Capital – Oviedo

Gijon is a seaport and the largest city in Asturias

Balearic Islands

Capital – Palma de Mallorca

Palma de Mallorca is on Majorca

The four largest islands are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. There are many minor islands and islets in close proximity to the larger islands, including Cabrera, Dragonera and S'Espalmador

Pityusic Islands, or commonly but informally the Pine Islands, is the name given collectively to Ibiza, Formentera and a number of small islands

Ibiza is closest to the mainland

Large portions of Ibiza are registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Mahon is the capital of Minorca

Basque Country

Capital – Vitoria (de facto)

Basque Country includes the Basque provinces of Alava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories

Almost half of the inhabitants of the Basque Autonomous Community live in Greater Bilbao

San Sebastian is also known as Donostia

Canary Islands

Capital – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, commonly known as Las Palmas is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the most populous city in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the ninth largest city in Spain

Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands

Playa de las Américas is a purpose-built holiday resort in Arona Municipio, in the south of Tenerife

Mount Teide is a volcano on Tenerife. Its 3,718 m summit is the highest point in Spain

La Gomera – Tenerife. Mountainous island of volcanic origin

Fuerteventura is the oldest island in the Canary Islands dating back 20 million years to a volcanic eruption from the Canary hotspot. It is the second largest island and the closest to Africa

El Hierro is the smallest and westernmost Canary Island

Lanzarote is the easternmost Canary Island

Fire Mountain is on Lanzarote

Arrecife is main town on Lanzarote

La Palma is the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands

Cumbre Vieja is an active volcanic ridge on the volcanic ocean island of Isla de La Palma in the Canary Islands. A future failure of the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja may cause a mega-tsunami

Canary Islands means “Islands of the Dogs”

Cantabria

Capital – Santander

Altamira is a cave famous for its Upper Paleolithic cave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands. It is located near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria. The cave with its paintings has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO

Castile-La Mancha

Capital – Toledo

La Mancha is the largest continuous wine growing region in the world

La Mancha's windmills were immortalized in the novel Don Quixote

Castile and Leon

Capital – Valladolid

Castile and Leon is the largest autonomous community in Spain

Burgos Cathedral is the burial place of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid)

Catalonia

Capital – Barcelona

Sagrada Familia is the unfinished Gaudi cathedral in Barcelona

Park Guell is in Barcelona. Garden complex designed by Gaudi

Barcelona El-Prat airport is the second largest in Spain behind Madrid Barajas Airport

Barcelona was known as Faventia in Roman times

A tree-lined pedestrian mall, La Rambla in Barcelona stretches for 1.2 km connecting Placa de Catalunya in the centre with the Christopher Columbus Monument at Port Vell

Dali Theatre and Museum is in Figueres, near Barcelona

Costa Brava is a coastal region of northeastern Catalonia, in the province of Girona. Costa is the Catalan and Spanish word for 'coast', and Brava means 'rugged' or 'wild'. It includes the town of Lloret de Mar

Extremadura

Capital – Merida

Galicia

Capital – Santiago de Compostela

Galicia takes its name from the Gallaeci, the Celtic peoples living north of the Douro river

Way of St. James is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried. The scallop shell, often found on the shores in Galicia, has long been the symbol of the Camino de Santiago

Vigo is a city in Galicia

La Rioja

Capital – Logrono

Madrid

Madrid is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third largest in the European Union after Paris and London

Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the King of Spain in the city of Madrid, and it is only used for State Ceremonies

Philip II named Madrid as the capital of Spain in 1561

Puerta del Sol is a square in Madrid

Plaza de Colon is located in Madrid. This plaza and its fountain commemorate the explorer Christopher Columbus, whose name in Spanish was Cristóbal Colón

Madrid is located on the Manzanares River

Las Ventas, in Madrid, is the largest bullring in Spain

Golden Triangle of Art in Madrid comprises the Prado, Reina Sofia, and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums

Valley of the Fallen (Spanish: Valle de los Caídos) is a Catholic basilica and a monumental memorial in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid, conceived by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to honour and bury those who fell during the Spanish Civil War

The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a palace, Augustinian monastery, museum, and library complex located at El Escorial, a town 45 km northwest of Madrid

Murcia

Capital – Murcia

Navarre

Capital – Pamplona

Bull running in Pamplona is part of the San Fermin festival, held in July

Valencian Community

Valencia is known as the “city of 100 bell towers”

La Tomatina is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Bunol, in which participants throw tomatoes at each other

Costa Blanca (English: White Coast) refers to the over 200 kilometres of coastline belonging to the Province of Alicante. The name Costa Blanca was devised as a promotional name used by BEA when they launched their air service (for £38.16s.-) between London and Valencia in 1957. It includes the major tourist destinations of Benidorm and Alicante

Ceuta

Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of Africa, sharing a western border with Morocco. Ceuta, like Melilla, was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean

Melilla

Melilla is an autonomous city of Spain and shares a border with Morocco and is and across the sea from the Spanish provinces of Granada and Almería

Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera is a Spanish rock in North Africa off the Moroccan coast

Ebro is the longest river in Spain

Río Tinto is notable for being very acidic (pH 2) and its deep reddish hue is due to iron dissolved in the water

Mulhacen is the highest mountain in continental Spain and in the Iberian Peninsula. It is part of the Sierra Nevada range

Picos de Europa is a mountain range in Spain

Sweden

Capital	Stockholm
Largest cities	Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo
Currency	Krona
Highest point	Kebnekaise

Vasa Museum in Stockholm displays the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628

The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is well known for its decoration of the stations; it has been called the longest art gallery in the world

Museum of World Culture is in Gothenburg

Gothenburg is situated by the Kattegat

Gota Canal provides a route from Gothenburg on the west coast to Söderköping on the Baltic Sea. 118 miles long

Together with Copenhagen, Malmo constitutes the transnational Oresund Region

HSB Turning Torso is the tallest skyscraper in Sweden and the Nordic countries, situated in Malmo. The project was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava

The Oresund Bridge is a combined two-track rail and four-lane road bridge across the Oresund strait. The bridge-tunnel is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe and connects Copenhagen and Malmo. The bridge ends in the middle of Oresund, on an artificially built island, called Peberholm. The connection between Peberholm and the nearest populated part of Denmark is through the Drogden Tunnel. Opened in 2000

Kiruna is the northernmost town in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland. The city's vicinity shares a long history with the indigenous Sami people

ICEHOTEL near the village of Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna is the first and most famous of the ice hotels

Visby is main town of Gotland, which is Sweden’s largest island

In 1999, the world's largest Viking silver treasure, the Spillings Hoard, was found in a field in Gotland

Vanern is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the European Union and the third largest lake entirely in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia

Oland is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden

Sweden has more than 220,000 islands

Switzerland

Flag of Switzerland is square

Capital	Berne
Largest cities	Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Berne, Lausanne
Currency	Swiss franc
Highest point	Dufourspitze

Officially the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Berne as the seat of the federal authorities, the so-called Bundesstadt ("federal city")

The establishment of the Swiss Confederation is traditionally dated to1291

Historically each canton in the then confederation was a sovereign state, with its own borders, army, and currency until the current federal structure was established in 1848

Graubunden is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland

Jura is the newest (created in 1979) of the Swiss cantons

Switzerland has four official languages – German, French, Italian, and Romansh

Zurich has the highest population of the cantons

Zurich was known as Turicum in Roman times

Most of Zurich's sites are located within the area on either side of the Limmat river, between the Main railway station and Lake Zurich

Geneva is located at the south-western end of Lake Geneva, where the lake flows back into the Rhone River. It is surrounded by two mountain chains, the Alps and the Jura

Lake Geneva – largest alpine lake

Geneva is known as ‘The Protestant Rome’

Geneva is the headquarters of many of the agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross

CERN is based in a suburb of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border

Palais des Nations in Geneva was built between 1929 and 1936 to serve as the headquarters of the League of Nations

Basle is on the Rhine, where Swiss, French, and German borders meet

Canton of Berne is the second most populous of Switzerland's cantons

The Aare flows in a wide loop around the Old City of Berne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva

Vevey is the site of the world headquarters of the food giant Nestle, founded in 1867

Suisse romande or Romandie is the French-speaking parts of western Switzerland

Interlaken is located between Lake Brienz to the east and Lake Thun to the west. The Aare River flows through the town connecting the lakes

Vindonissa was a Roman camp in Switzerland

Lotschberg Base Tunnel is a 21.5 mile long new railway tunnel cutting through the Alps of Switzerland some 400 m below the existing Lotschberg Tunnel. It is the longest land tunnel in the world

Reichenbach Falls are near Meiringen

Bernese Oberland is the higher part of the canton of Bern

Eiger is near Grindelwald in the Bernese Alps

Lake Neuchatel is the largest lake entirely in Switzerland, as the larger Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) is shared with France, and Lake Constance (German: Bodensee) with Germany and Austria

Lake Maggiore is divided between the Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy and the Swiss canton of Ticino

Lake Lucerne (‘Lake of the Four Forest Cantons’) is a lake in central Switzerland, the fifth largest in the country

Jungfraubahn is a rack railway which runs 9 km from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch. The railway runs almost entirely within a tunnel built into the Eiger and Monch mountains

Jungfrau is one of the main summits in the Bernese Alps. Together with the Eiger and Monch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland

Jungfrau – German for maiden/virgin

Rhine Falls is the largest plain waterfall in Europe. The falls are located on the Upper Rhine near the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland

Zermatt lies at the foot of the Matterhorn

Monte Rosa is the highest mountain in Switzerland. Its main summit is named Dufourspitze

Davos is the highest city in Europe

Locarno is located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore

Turkey

Capital	Ankara
Largest cities	Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa
Currency	Lira
Highest point	Mount Ararat

Hagia Sophia (‘holy wisdom’), now known as the Ayasofia Museum, was an early Christian Church, and later an Eastern Orthodox Church which was transformed into a mosque in 1453 by the Turks, and converted into a museum in 1935. It is located in Istanbul. It was constructed from 532 to 537, at the orders of Emperor Justinian I and designed by Isidore of Miletus. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Medieval Seville Cathedral in 1520

Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul was built on the order of sultan Suleiman I (Suleiman the Magnificent) and was constructed by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. The construction work began in 1550 and the mosque was finished in 1557

Diamond of Istanbul is the tallest building in Istanbul and Turkey currently being built in the city's Maslak business district. It is also the country's first steel skyscraper

Galata Tower is a medieval stone tower in Istanbul

Taksim Square is considered the heart of modern Istanbul. Taksim is Arabic for ’division’ or ‘distribution’. The Taksim square was originally the point where the main water lines from the north of Istanbul were collected and branched off to other parts of the city (hence the name)

Golden Horn is a fresh-water estuary in Istanbul dividing the city of Istanbul. Crossed by several bridges, most notably the Galata Bridge. Galata was a colony of the Republic of Genoa between 1273 and 1453

Ankara was historically known as Angora

Ankara has many well-preserved remains of Ottoman and Roman architecture, the most remarkable being the Temple of Augustus and Rome

Hisarlik (‘Place of Fortresses’), is the modern Turkish name for the ancient site of Troy, also known as Ilion, and is located in Turkey (known throughout history as Anatolia)

Topkapi Palace museum – Istanbul. Includes the Court of Janissary and the Black Eunuchs dormitory

Cappadocia region is largely underlain by sedimentary rocks formed in lakes and streams, and ignimbrite deposits erupted from ancient volcanoes approximately 9 to 3 million years ago. The rocks of Cappadocia near Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms

Goreme is a town in Cappadocia, located among the ‘fairy chimney’volcanic tuff formations. Early homes were carved straight into the rock formations

The Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, Turkey, was commissioned by Sultan Selim II and was built by architect Mimar Sinan between 1568 and 1574. It was considered by Sinan to be his masterpiece and is one of the highest achievements of Islamic architecture

Edirne is a city in Thrace, the westernmost part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1457, when Constantinople (Istanbul) became the empire's new capital. Founded by the Romans as Adrianople

Sardis was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart in Turkey. Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the important cities of the Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine times

Gobekli Tepe is a Neolithic (stone-age) hilltop sanctuary erected at the top of a mountain ridge in southeastern Anatolia. It is the oldest known human-made religious structure. This is where modern wheat was first domesticated

Library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, now part of Selcuk, Turkey. It was built in honour of the Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus

Rize – tea producing province in Turkey

Bosphorus connects Black Sea to Sea of Marmara, It is the world's narrowest strait used for international navigation

Dardanelles link Aegean and Sea of Marmara. Formerly known as Hellespont

Marmaray is an undersea rail tunnel being constructed to link the European and Asian sections of Istanbul, running under the Bosphorus strait. When completed, it will be the world's deepest undersea immersed tube tunnel

Lycia was a geopolitical region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Mugla on the southern coast of Turkey

Turquoise Coast is the southwest Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Also known as the Turkish Riviera

Tigris and Euphrates both rise in Turkey

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey

Taurus Mountains are in southern Turkey, dividing the Mediterranean coastal region of southern Turkey from the central Anatolian Plateau

Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey

Ukraine

Capital	Kiev
Largest cities	Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa
Currency	Hryvna
Highest point	Hoverla

Ukraine is is the largest wholly European country

Ukraine’s only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west

Kiev is on the Dnieper River

Kiev Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery. Since its foundation as the cave monastery in 1015 the Lavra has been a preeminent centre of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Eastern Europe

The largest cave in Europe is in Ukraine

Simferopol is the capital of Crimea

Livadia Palace was a summer retreat of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family in Livadiya. The Yalta Conference was held there in 1945, when the palace housed the apartments of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other members of the American delegation

Prypiat is a ghost town near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Kiev Oblast of northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus

Lviv was previously known as Lemberg and Lwow. It has been occupied by Poland, Germany, and the Soviet Union

Donetsk airport is named after Sergei Prokofiev

United Kingdom

Flag of United Kingdom consists of the red cross of Saint George, superimposed on the Cross of St Patrick, which are superimposed on the Saltire of Saint Andrew

Capital	London
Largest cities	London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow
Currency	Pound
Highest point	Ben Nevis

For further information see UK Geography

Vatican City

Flag of Vatican City is a yellow and white square. On the white area is surmounted the Papal crown and two crossed keys, which represent the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven

Capital	Vatican City
Largest cities	Vatican City
Currency	Euro
Highest point	Vatican Hill

Vatican City is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of 842, it is the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population

The name "Vatican" predates Christianity and comes from the Latin Mons Vaticanus, meaning Vatican Mount

Vatican City is currently the only widely recognized independent state that has not become a member of the United Nations. The Holy See, which is distinct from Vatican City State, has permanent observer status

Sistine Chapel is in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored it between 1477 and 1480. There are five sibyls on the roof of the Sistine Chapel

St. Peter's Basilica is a Late Renaissance church located within Vatican City. It is the largest church in the world. Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Belvedere Torso is a fragment of a nude male statue, signed prominently on the front of the base by "Apollonios, son of Nestor, Athenian", who is unmentioned in ancient literature. It is now in the Vatican Museums. It is a marble torso

Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Danish Realm since 1948

Streymoy and Esturoy are the largest of the Faroe Islands

Torshavn is the capital of the Faroe Islands. On the island of Streymoy

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory

Strait of Gibraltar is 13 km wide

Gibraltar ruled by Britain since 1704. Named ‘Jebel Tarik’ by Moorish settlers

Europa Point is a lighthouse in Gibraltar

Gorham's Cave is a natural sea cave in Gibraltar, and is considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals c. 25000 years ago

North Front airport serves Gibraltar

States with limited recognition

Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia. The Georgian government, United Nations and the majority of the world's governments consider Abkhazia a part of Georgia's territory, though Georgia is not in control of it The capital is Sukhumi

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), a de facto independent republic which is recognized as a part of Azerbaijan

Since the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been holding peace talks on the region's disputed status

Stepanakert is the largest city and capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The city comprises about 50,000 Armenians

Northern Cyprus is a self-declared state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. Recognised only by Turkey, Northern Cyprus is considered by the international community as part of the Republic of Cyprus

Transnistria is landlocked and borders Moldova to the west and Ukraine to the east. It is a narrow valley stretched in the north-south direction along the banks of the Dniester River. The capital is Tiraspol

Transnistria is designated by the Republic of Moldova as the Transnistria autonomous territorial unit with special legal status

South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in 1990, calling itself the Republic of South Ossetia. The Georgian government responded by abolishing South Ossetia's autonomy and trying to re-establish its control over the region by force. The crisis escalation led to the 1991–92 South Ossetia War. The capital is Tshkinvali

Regions

Lusatia is a historical region in Central Europe, today located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg, and Poland

Pomerania is located on the south coast of the Baltic Sea, divided today between Germany in the west and Poland in the east by the Polish-German border. While its boundaries have varied, and are somewhat differently interpreted, Pomerania can be said to stretch roughly from Stralsund in the west to Gdansk in the east, centered on the Oder River delta

Karelia is currently divided between the Russian Republic of Karelia, the Russian Leningrad Oblast, and Finland (the regions of South Karelia and North Karelia

Jutland forms the mainland part of Denmark, and the German state of Schleswig-Holstein

Galicia is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine

Cerdanya, or Cerdagne, is a historical region of the eastern Pyrenees divided between France and Spain

Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. Currently split between Estonia and Latvia

Macaronesia consists of Azores, Madeira Islands, Canary Islands, and Cape Verde Islands

Rivers

Longest rivers in Europe – Volga, Danube, Ural, Dnieper, Don

Capital cities on Danube – Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bratislava

River Sava is a tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through Serbia, discharging into the Danube in Belgrade

Iron Gates is a gorge on the Danube River. It forms part of the boundary between Romania and Serbia

River Meuse rises in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. The Meuse is one of the oldest rivers in the world

River Douro flows from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto

Ural River rises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1511 miles making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube

River Dnieper flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine (including Kiev), to the Black Sea

River Daugava rises in Russia and drains into the Gulf of Riga in Latvia

Seas

Baltic Sea is the world’s largest pool of brackish water

Gulf of Riga and Gulf of Finland are inlets of Baltic Sea

Usedom is a Baltic Sea island since 1945 split between Germany and Poland

Market is an uninhabited island in the Baltic Sea divided between Sweden and Finland

Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the “Hospitable Sea”

Sea of Azov is a northern section of the Black Sea, linked to the larger body through the Strait of Kerch. It is bounded on the north by Ukraine, on the east by Russia and on the west by the Crimean peninsula

Strait of Kerch connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula in the west from the Taman Peninsula in the east

Skagerrak is a strait running between the southeast coast of Norway, the southwest coast of Sweden, and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, which leads to the Baltic Sea

Kattegat separates Sweden and Denmark, and is a continuation of the Skagerrak

Bering Strait is 53 miles across at narrowest point

The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Apennine peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges

Istria is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner. Istria lies in three countries: Croatia, Slovenia and Italy

Aegean Sea is a sea arm of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus

Caspian Sea borders Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan

North Sea was known as the German Sea

Ionian Sea is is connected to the Tyrrhenian Sea by the Strait of Messina, and to the Adriatic Sea by the Strait of Otranto

Calypso Deep, located in the Ionian Sea south-west of Pylos, Greece, is the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea. At the Calypso Deep, the African Plate slides under the Eurasian Plate, creating the Hellenic Trench

Strait of Otranto separates Italy from Corfu and Albania

Denmark Strait separates Iceland and Greenland

Strait of Sicily is between Sicily and Tunisia

Laptev Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Siberia

Mountains

Highest summit in Europe is Mount Elbrus (5,642 m/18,510 ft) in the Caucasus

Dykh-Tau is is the second highest of the Caucasus Mountains, after Mount Elbrus, and is the second highest peak in Europe

Caucasus run from Black Sea to Caspian Sea

Tatra Mountains form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains

Urals are usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia

Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each. The mountain range is located in France, Switzerland, and Germany

Pindus mountain range is located in northern Greece and southern Albania

Dinaric Alps are between Croatia and Albania

Matterhorn (German), Cervino (Italian) or Cervin (French), is a mountain in the Pennine Alps. With its 4,478 m high summit, lying on the border between Switzerland and Italy, it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps and the highest peak in Europe outside of the Caucasus range. It rises 4,810 m above sea level, lying on the border between France and Italy

The Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Danish Realm since 1948

Streymoy and Esturoy are the largest of the Faroe Islands

Torshavn is the capital of the Faroe Islands. On the island of Streymoy

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory

Strait of Gibraltar is 13 km wide

Gibraltar ruled by Britain since 1704. Named ‘Jebel Tarik’ by Moorish settlers

Europa Point is a lighthouse in Gibraltar

Gorham's Cave is a natural sea cave in Gibraltar, and is considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals c. 25000 years ago

North Front airport serves Gibraltar