Geography Facts for Kids
Cool facts about our planet
Russia is so enormous that it stretches across 11 time zones — more than any other country on Earth. When people in Moscow are eating breakfast, people on Russia's Pacific coast are already going to sleep.
About 10,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert was a lush, green landscape full of lakes, rivers, and wildlife. Ancient rock paintings in the desert show hippos and crocodiles that once lived there.
Despite being the world's largest river by water volume, not a single bridge crosses the Amazon River. The dense jungle on both banks makes bridge-building extremely difficult.
Australia is wider than the Moon. The continent stretches about 4,000 km from east to west, while the Moon's diameter is only about 3,474 km.
The Dead Sea, bordering Israel and Jordan, is the lowest point on Earth's surface at about 430 metres below sea level. Its water is so salty that you can float in it without even trying to swim.
Canada contains more lakes than the rest of the world's countries combined. About 60% of all the world's fresh lake water is found within Canada's borders.
The Nile and Amazon rivers have long competed for the title of world's longest river. Depending on how the source is measured, either can claim the top spot, making it one of geography's great ongoing debates.
Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level, but it is NOT the farthest point from Earth's centre. That title belongs to Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador, because Earth bulges at the equator.
The Pacific Ocean is so vast that it covers more area than all of Earth's land combined. It holds about half of all the ocean water on the entire planet.
If Greenland's entire ice sheet melted, global sea levels would rise by about 7 metres, enough to flood most major coastal cities around the world.