29 Strange But True Facts About Countries That Nobody Really Believes The First Time

There are numerous threads online encouraging netizens to share the most unexpected and non-obvious facts about countries and places on our planet that they know. Many of these facts are nothing more than outdated myths, but some are true, though still very hard to believe.

Of course, a significant portion of these facts is simply an attempt to view something familiar from a different perspective. For example, Alaska is indeed, geographically, both the westernmost and easternmost US state. This is because part of the Aleutian Islands, which belong to Alaska, extends into the Eastern Hemisphere.

Consequently, these several islands actually lie at the easternmost point of the Earth’s Eastern Hemisphere. Incidentally, the International Date Line also runs nearby, which, if you recall, a century and a half ago, won Phileas Fogg his famous bet to travel around the globe in 80 days…

Another classic example of a paradoxical fact is how two countries, whose mainlands are separated by thousands of miles, actually share a border. And this is all due to the various overseas possessions of these countries. For example, France has several departments in South America and, accordingly, a common border with Brazil, or one tiny island in the North Atlantic that borders Canada.

Or, say, Spain, which can de facto be considered not only a European but also an African state, because it has two enclaves located in North Africa: Ceuta and Melilla. Yes, after several centuries of Western European monarchs redrawing the world map at will, numerous weird geographical paradoxes related to borders still remain nowadays…

Physical geography also yields many absurd and interesting facts. For example, the Isthmus of Panama, where you can see the sun rising in the morning over one ocean and setting in the evening over another. Yes, at its narrowest point, the Isthmus of Panama is about 30 miles wide, so this is entirely possible.

The fact that cities in the far east of Brazil are actually closer to West Africa than to Brazil's western border shouldn't surprise you too much. Firstly, Brazil is among the top 10 countries in the world by area.

Secondly, if you look at a world map, Brazil's east coast sometimes looks "torn away" from the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. In fact, millions of years ago, this was indeed the case, and once, during the age of dinosaurs, they were parts of a single gigantic continent.

Or, take the unique characteristics of India, where you can find literally any climate, from desert to mangrove forests to staggering heat to perpetual snow and cold. Firstly, India is vast – its area is three times that of Western Europe.

Secondly, it’s actually a subcontinent, which until relatively recently (from a geological perspective, of course), 55 million years ago (by which time, for example, dinosaurs had already become extinct), was a separate continent. Then, as a result of a massive collision with the Eurasian lithospheric plate, the also "very young" Himalayas emerged.

By and large, every fact we’ve shared with you in this collection has its own unique story or explanation, which is sometimes more bizarre than all the fiction and gossip of ancient travelers. But these facts are 100% true, even though they sound fake and like outright fabrications.

So now the only thing we want from you is to actually read all these facts, and maybe share some more incredible pieces of knowledge about various places on Earth, distant or not, that you know and believe are truly worth sharing.