Hello and welcome to Part 2 of a Fun Fact About Every Country in the World. In this
video we’ll cover the countries from M to Z. Link to Part 1 in the top corner if you
haven’t seen it, and other than that, let’s just get started.
Over 90% of the wildlife on the island of Madagascar is not found anywhere else on earth.
Lake Malawi is nicknamed “Calendar Lake”, this is because at its longest it’s 365
miles, and at its widest, 52 miles.
Malaysia is estimated to contain 20% of the world's species, and includes some of the
most biodiverse areas on the planet. The country is one of only 17 in the world to be classed
as a “Megadiverse Country”.
For the Maldives, no fact, just some incredible pictures of the country’s capital city,
Malé. The island is just 8.3 sq km, with a population of 227,000.
14th century Mansa Musa of Mali is believed by many to be the richest human who has ever
lived, with an estimated net worth of $400 billion. Although I’m sure Jeff Bezos or
Elon Musk will give him a run for his money in the next few years...
In 1942, Malta was awarded the George Cross for "heroism and devotion of its people" during
WWII. This was shown on the country’s flag when they became independent from the UK in
1964.
In January 2014, a man washed up in the Marshall Islands after 14 months adrift at sea.
The Bay of Nouadhibou in Mauritania is the largest ship graveyard in the world with over
300 shipwrecks.
The national animal of Mauritius is the dodo.
Mexico City is sinking. This is an ongoing issue the city has had for hundreds of years,
because the city was literally built on top of a lake.
The Federated States of Micronesia is in an arrangement called “free association”
with the United States, in which the US is entirely responsible for the country’s defense,
among other things. The Marshall Islands and Palau are two other countries in the same
situation.
After the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, one of the performers from Moldova became an internet
meme known as “Epic Sax Guy”. To this day the video has racked up over 75 million
views on YouTube.
30% of people living in Monaco are millionaires.
Mongolia is the MOST sparsely populated country in the world, with an average of just two
people per square kilometre.
When Montenegro became independent from Yugoslavia its internet domain changed from .yu to .me
By some definitions, a University in Morocco (which I won't try to pronounce) is the oldest
continuously used higher learning institution in the world… established in the year 859.
Mozambique is the highest scoring one-word country name in scrabble – at 34 points.
In Myanmar, they actually eat tea leaves. The delicacy known as “Lahpet”, is fermented
or pickled tea leaves, often served as part of tea leaf salad.
Until 1990, Namibia was actually part of South Africa. It was referred to by the super creative
name of South West Africa.
The South Pacific island-nation of Nauru doesn’t have an official capital city. Yaren district
functions as the de facto capital and is the seat of govt.
Nepal is the only country in the world that has a flag that is not rectangular.
Because the Euro is a currency that is used by many countries, the banknotes were designed
in a way that would not represent any specific countries. All the banknotes feature fictitious
bridges on the back of them... or at least they were fictitious until the Netherlands
decided to build them all.
New Zealand has a hill with a name that is 85 letters long.
Nicaragua 'accidentally' invaded Costa Rica in 2010 due to an error on Google Maps.
The country of Niger is named after the river of the same name…
As is Nigeria, the country with the second largest film industry in the world, colloquially
referred to as “Nollywood”. Yes, Nollywood. The industry accounts for about 5% of the
country’s GDP
Mother Teresa was born and raised in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje… at the time
part of the Ottoman Empire.
Residing in Edinburgh Zoo, there is a penguin that is part of the Norwegian Army, and has
even received a knighthood – Brigadier Sir Nils Olav III.
Due to a decree by the Sultan of Oman, nearly all buildings in the country are white.
Pakistan has 6 different national animals.
There’s a lake in Palau where jellyfish evolved without stingers after the lake's
connection to the sea closed, leaving them isolated from their natural predators. These
'Golden' jellyfish are totally harmless to humans and you can swim with them.
Some 14,000 ships pass through the Panama Canal every year, taking in an annual revenue
of more than $2.5 billion.
Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the world with around 850
different languages spoken.
In Paraguay, the indigenous language of Guaraní is actually more widely spoken than Spanish.
A small town in Peru, La Rinconada, is the highest permanent human settlement on earth
at 5,100m above sea-level.
This is Vulcan Point in the Philippines, which is an island within a lake within an island
within a lake... within an island.
Without changing its own borders, Poland no longer shares a border with any of the countries
it did in 1990. This was due the unification of Germany, the fall of the Soviet Union,
and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
In 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalise all drugs. The
impact this has had on the country’s drug problem has been overwhelmingly positive.
Qatar’s population has the highest men to women ratio, with 2020 estimates of 3.4 males
for every female.
Romania has the tallest rock sculpture in Europe, a carving of the face of Decebalus,
the last king of Dacia. The whole sculpture is 55m tall.
The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia is the deepest point on Earth ever reached, at 12,262m
below ground – that’s even deeper than the Mariana Trench.
Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in parliament, 61%, and is one of only 3 countries
in which women outnumber men
Saint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest and least populous country in the Americas, at
just 261 km2 and a population of 52,000.
Saint Lucia has the highest number of Nobel Laureates per capita with 2 and a population
of around 180,000.
The first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies were filmed in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
In 2011, Samoa changed its time zone from UTC-11 to UTC+13 by skipping an entire day,
the 30th of December. Several hundred people missed their birthday that day.
San Marino is considered to have the earliest written constitution still in effect, in use
since the year 1600.
Off the coast of Africa, São Tomé and Príncipe was completely uninhabited before the Portuguese
arrived in the 1400s.
Saudi Arabia is home to the world’s tallest lighthouse – the Jeddah Light, which stands
at 133m tall.
There is a lake in Senegal that is naturally pink.
The Serbian language uses both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.
Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, is considered part of Africa, and is the smallest country
of the continent. It also has a pretty awesome flag.
The capital city of Sierra Leone is called Freetown because it was founded by freed slaves.
Singapore is the only country in the world to become independent against its own will.
Bratislava is the only national capital in the world that borders two independent countries.
There was a time when representatives of Slovenia and Slovakia would meet up regularly to exchange
wrongly addressed letters.
The Solomon Islands are named after the wealthy biblical King Solomon, because the islands
were (incorrectly) believed to contain great riches.
The code for Somalia’s currency, the Somali Shilling, is SOS.
South Africa has three different capital cities. Pretoria, Cape Town, and
Bloemfontein.
South Sudan is the newest country in the world, admitted to the UN in 2011.
Every year in the small town of Buñol in Valencia there is a festival called La Tomatina
in which thousands of people throw tomatoes at each other.
Sri Lanka was the first country to have a female Prime Minister – Sirimavo Bandaranaike
in 1960.
Sudan, not Egypt, has the most pyramids of any country in the world.
Suriname is the most forested country in the world, with 95% of its land area covered by
the Amazon.
Sweden has more islands than any other country in the world, with 267,570.
Switzerland is home to the world's longest staircase. Traversing Mt. Niesen, it has 11,674
steps, a total distance of 3.4 km, and a vertical incline of 1,669m
The largest restaurant in the world is located in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The restaurant
gained a Guinness World in 2008, with a maximum capacity of 6,014 diners. The site was abandoned
in 2014 for obvious reasons.
There’s a restaurant in Taipei that is a toilet themed restaurant. The decor, the menus,
and, most importantly, the food, is all designed to be bathroom related… I’m sure it tastes
better than it looks...
Tajikistan has the longest glacier outside of the Earth’s polar regions – the Fedchenko
Glacier, at 76km long.
The shortest ever war in history took place in what is today Tanzania, in the Anglo-Zanzibar
War which lasted just 38 minutes.
The full name of Thailand’s capital city, Bangkok is: “City of angels, great city
of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces,
home of gods incarnate, erected by Visvakarman at Indra's behest”.
The name of the country of Togo, meaning “by the water”, was originally given to just
a coastal town (now called Togoville), but the Germans used the name to apply to the
whole country.
In the South Pacific, a millionaire wanted to create his own country as a tax haven by
buying sand from neighbouring countries. However, his plans were thwarted when the coral reefs
were annexed by Tonga.
The limbo dance originated from the island of Trinidad.
Much of the original Star Wars movies was filmed in Tunisia.
The bird called a “turkey” is named after the country, despite there being no turkeys
in Turkey. In the Turkish language the bird is called a Hindi, and in Hindi, it’s called
a Peru.
Turkmenistan has a burning natural gas field called the “Door to Hell”.
Tuvalu has the country code top-level domain of .tv which is extremely popular for obvious
reasons. The country negotiated a licensing deal which brings in millions of dollars a
year – up to 10% of the country’s revenue.
The president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, has been in office since 1986. Term limits
were scrapped in 2005, as was the age limit in 2017, allowing him to continue his rule.
The world’s deepest metro station is the Arsenalna station in Kyiv, Ukraine,
at 105m below ground.
The UAE, and especially Dubai, is packed full of world records – the world’s tallest
building, the world’s largest mall, the world’s highest tennis court, the first
7-star hotel, the world’s largest picture frame, the world’s largest flower garden
with the world’s largest flower arrangement… and the list goes on and on.
Collectively, people in the UK drink an average of 165 million cups of tea every day. That’s
more than 60 billion per year!
In the US, 420 mile markers on highways are stolen so frequently that some states have
changed them to 419.9 mile markers.
Jose Mujica, Uruguay's former president, was considered "the world's poorest president"
because he donated 90% of his $12,000 monthly salary to charity.
Uzbekistan is one of only 2 countries in the world that is double landlocked
i.e. - it’s entirely surrounded by landlocked countries.
In Vanuatu, it’s possible to buy citizenship for $150,000. Passport sales make up about
30% of the country’s revenue.
By far the smallest country in the world, the Vatican City is the only remaining absolute
monarchy in Europe.
Angel Falls, in Venezuela, is the tallest waterfall in the world, at a height of 979m.
Approximately 40% of people in Vietnam have the surname Nguyen.
Yemen is the only country in the world that begins with Y. Only three other letters only
have one country - O, Q, and W. The only letter in the alphabet that doesn’t have any countries,
is X.
Zambia has the highest national park coverage of any country, at 32% of its land area.
The first ever president of Zimbabwe was called President Banana. In 1982, a law was passed
forbidding citizens from making jokes about his name.
And with that, we’ve made it through all the countries, but this series isn’t quite
over just yet. For my next videos, I need some input from you, the viewers. So if you’d
like to help me out, please refer to the pinned comment down below to find out how you can
have your say about my next few videos.
Thank you all so much for watching, these videos were a lot of fun to make. And I hope
to see you in the next one!