The humiliation continues...

The answers to the geography quiz in the preceding post are: 1-United Arab Emirates, 2-Nigeria, 3-Ghana, 4-Pitcairn Islands, 5-Ethiopia, 6-Algeria, 7-Niue, 8-Jordan, 9-Netherlands, 10-Andorra, 11-Turkey, 12-Madagascar, 13-Samoa, 14-Turkmenistan, 15-Eritrea, 16-Kazakhstan, 17-Greece, 18-Paraguay, 19-Cook Islands, 20-Iraq, 21-Azerbaijan, 22-Mali, 23-Brunei, 24-Thailand, 25-Central African Republic, 26-Gambia, 27-St. Kitts and Nevis, 28-China, 29-Netherlands, 30-Northern Ireland, 31-Serbia, 32-Belize, 33-Germany, 34-Switzerland, 35-Kyrgyzstan, 36-Guinea-Bissau, 37-Colombia, 38-Brazil, 39-Slovakia, 40-Republic of the Congo, 41-Barbados, 42-Belgium, 43-Romania, 44-Hungary, 45-Argentina, and 46-Burundi.

Wikipedia’s list of national capitals has a grand total of 249 entries. In fairness and full disclosure, I must tell you that the list includes territories and dependencies, non-sovereign states including associated states, and entities whose sovereignty is disputed along with the probably more familiar sovereign states. So far we have covered only the ones starting with A and B.

National capitals that start with C are Cairo, Canberra, Caracas, Cardiff, Castries, Cayenne, Charlotte Amalie, Chisinau, Cockburn Town, Conakry, and Copenhagen.

National capitals that start with D are Dakar, Damascus, Dhaka, Dili, Djibouti, Dodoma, Doha, Douglas, Dublin, and Dushanbe.

National capitals that start with E are Edinburgh, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, and Episkopi Cantonment.

National capitals that start with F are Flying Fish Cove, Freetown, and Funafuti (which happens to be the capital of Tuvalu. I know. I never heard of it either.)

We could continue like this all the way from G through Z, but I think I will just let you have a look for yourself.

Why should I be the only one feeling stupid?

An anomaly in Wikipedia’s list is that Jerusalem appears twice, once as capital of Israel and once as capital of Palestine. There are two rather lengthy explanatory notes: (1) Jerusalem Law states that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”, and the city serves as the seat of the government, home to the President’s residence, government offices, supreme court, and parliament. United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 declared the Jerusalem Law “null and void” and called on member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from Jerusalem. The United Nations and all member nations maintain their embassies in other cities such as Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Herzliya (see the CIA Factbook and Map of Israel). The Palestinian Authority sees East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. (2) Palestine has observer status at United Nations General Assembly and maintains a permanent observer mission at the UN Headquarters. The unilaterally declared State of Palestine received diplomatic recognition from around 100 countries. The proclaimed state has no agreed territorial borders, nor effective control on the territory which it claims.

For the record, my favorite world capital is Ulaanbaatar, the capital of (what else?) Mongolia.

Tell me you knew that one. I dare you.

A capital offense, or where in the world is Carmen San Dirhymeswithplague?

I thought I knew something about geography, but a list of the capital cities of the world left me humbled. Of the first 46 cities from a list arranged alphabetically (which turn out to be all the ones starting with A or B), how many can you match to their countries without having to resort to looking them up?

1. Abu Dhabi
2. Abuja
3. Accra
4. Adamstown
5. Addis Ababa
6. Algiers
7. Alofi
8. Amman
9. Amsterdam
10. Andorra la Vella
11. Ankara
12. Antananarivo
13. Apia
14. Ashgabat
15. Asmera
16. Astana
17. Asunción
18. Athens
19. Avarua
20. Baghdad
21. Baku
22. Bamako
23. Bandar Seri Begawan
24. Bangkok
25. Bangui
26. Banjul
27. Basseterre
28. Beijing
29. Beirut
30. Belfast
31. Belgrade
32. Belmopan
33. Berlin
34. Bern
35. Bishkek
36. Bissau
37. Bogotá
38. Brasilia
39. Bratislava
40. Brazzaville
41. Bridgetown
42. Brussels
43. Bucharest
44. Budapest
45. Buenos Aires
46. Bujumbura

I managed to come up with slightly more than half. I hang my head in shame.

The answers will appear later, as if by magic.