August 2026 Geography Bee Quiz

Learn more about the Earth with the help of a GeoFact of the Day Geography Bee Quiz (↗) like this one! Think of this resource as free food for your mind. Whether you are preparing for a geography bee, wanting to impress folks at a trivia contest, or just yearning to learn, I hope you enjoy these morsels about the world. The answers to this quiz are listed below — enjoy and good luck!

1)      Which country's economy is more dependent on fisheries than the other two options?
A — BURKINA FASO
B — NORWAY
C — BOLIVIA

2)      What Central American country was formerly known as British Honduras?
A — BELIZE
B — COSTA RICA
C — PANAMA

3)      When Prophet Muhammad left Mecca, he traveled north to which now-sacred city in SAUDI ARABIA?
A — Tabuk
B — Riyadh
C — Medina

4)      Central Bengal, Eastern Bengal, Northern Bengal, and Southern Bengal are regions in which country?
A — PAKISTAN
B — THAILAND
C — BANGLADESH


























ANSWERS

Question 1:
B . . . . . Norway

Question 2:
A . . . . . Belize

Question 3:
C . . . . . Medina

Question 4:
C . . . . . Bangladesh

January 2023 Africa Trivia Quiz

Happy New Year! January 2023’s continental quiz is a continuation of the Africa GeoQuiz in December of last year. After testing your African trivia prowess, you can further test your geographic knowledge (↗) with other geography quizzes from GeoFact of the Day. The answers are listed below; enjoy and good luck!

1)      Fill in the blank: _________ from desert land in present-day MALI was once so highly prized that an ounce of this resource carried the same value as an ounce of gold!
A — sand
B — salt
C — pepper

2)      True or false: the Olduvai Gorge, Serengeti grassland region, and Mount Kilimanjaro are all notable landscape features of northern UGANDA.

3)      The naming (etymology) of BURKINA FASO translates in English to “land of the honest men” as well as “land of the _________.”
A — liars
B — incorruptible
C — brazen

4)      Fill in the blank: tucked in the northeast corner of EQUATORIAL GUINEA, Ebebiyín is a “corner city” of about 36,000 residents near _________ as well as GABON.
A — CAMEROON
B — DJIBOUTI
C — LESOTHO
D — MADAGASCAR

5)      MAURITIUS is one of the first countries around the globe to convert a relatively unconventional material to generate electricity. Steam turbines powered by this crop produce up to one fifth (1/5) of the island’s electricity during the annual harvest season! Which crop is especially used in Mauritius for energy needs?
A — broccoli
B — sugarcane
C — plantains
D — guava, mangoes, and papaya

6)      True or false: Lake Togo gave the country of TOGO its name. Togo is derived from the Ewe word togodo, meaning “behind the lake.”

7)      One provincial name in SOUTH AFRICA translates from the Sotho language into English as the “place of gold.” Which is the correct province?
A — Gauteng
B — Kwazulu-Natal
C — Western Cape



















ANSWERS

Question 1:
B . . . . . salt

Question 2:
False . . . . . northern Tanzania

Question 3:
B . . . . . incorruptible

Question 4:
A . . . . . Cameroon

Question 5:
B . . . . . sugarcane

Question 6:
True

Question 7:
A . . . . . Gauteng

Independence Day Recently Celebrated in Burkina Faso

People all across BURKINA FASO celebrated their country's Independence Day yesterday on Wednesday, August 5th. Burkina Faso achieved independence from France in 1960. Happy belated Independence Day!

Burkina Faso is Known for...

●    Fespaco — Africa's premiere film festival
●    Sahel landscapes
●    Baobab trees
●    Drum music
●    "Lyrical" names for towns: Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Rambo, etc.

Listed in The Africa Book; the MLA citation is below. What are other "trademarks" of this African country? Feel free to share your thoughts with a comment!

Phillips et al. The Africa Book: A Journey through Every
          Country in the Continent. Lonely Planet, 2007.

— #AfricaWeek —

Lions Clubs Create Irrigation System to Help Feed Burkinabé

According to the March 2018 issue of Lions Clubs International's LION Magazine (the online version is available at LionMagazine.org), members of Lions Clubs from Venice (Venezia), ITALY traveled over 3,870 kilometers and 2,400 miles to West Africa for a project to help with hunger and malnutrition. They collaborated with the Baobab Lions Club of Koudougou, BURKINA FASO to set up a drip irrigation system. The Lions Clubs International Fund (LCIF) granted $54,267 (US Dollars) — an equivalent of €43825.05 and West African C₣A 28,873,563.68 — for setup costs, training local people on the proper usage of the system, and growing vegetable gardens sustained by irrigation. Lions volunteers created a well, solar-power water pump, and storage tank and then planted various vegetables and Moringa trees. The ultimate goal is for locals to grow enough excess food so they can start a village market to sell their nutritious produce.   ● ● ● ● ●

Map of Burkina Faso Published

GeoFact of the Day's latest map depicts cities/communities, neighboring countries, and two major rivers of BURKINA FASO. This map and a plethora of information can be found in my updated Burkina Faso post (↗). If you have not already, please consider liking the GeoFact of the Day Facebook page for fun facts, beautiful photos taken around the world, flag(s) of the day, posts about independence days, and more. Thank you so much for visiting GeoFact of the Day today and always!

Burkina Faso Exports

The following items are major exports of BURKINA FASO: cotton, grain (millet, sesame, sorghum, and wheat), limestone, livestock, manganese, marble, okra, peanuts, phosphates, pumice, salt, small deposits of gold, and textiles. According to the International Monetary Fund (data.imf.org), countries and territories buying and importing most of those exports in 2016 include Switzerland (top importer), India, South Africa, Singapore, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Ghana, Togo, Mali, Niger, Germany, the Netherlands, China, Canada, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Benin, Bulgaria, and Japan.

Ruins of Loropeni

Scattered across southwestern BURKINA FASO are about a dozen historic fortified settlements and at least 100 stone enclosures, signifying where the Koulango people established a burgeoning gold mining and trading civilization. While the trans-Saharan gold trade particularly helped Koulango society flourish between the 14th and 17th centuries, stone ruins near the city of Loropéni possibly date back about 1,000 years ago to the 11th century. These ruins are protected the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year 2016. Update: a couple newly established sites in Burkina Faso were inscribed to the World Heritage List in 2017 and 2019. The height of Loropéni's laterite stone walls can reach up to six meters or almost 20 feet. The UNESCO map below shows the ruins' location — northwest of Loropéni and north of Hobikoko village in an isolated, forested area. More photos and information can be found on UNESCO's webpage, conveniently linked above.

Burkina Faso Endangered Species

As of November 30th, 2014, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for BURKINA FASO lists one critically endangered species and seven endangered species. In addition, the Scimitar-Horned Oryx (Oryx dammah) is listed as extinct in the wild since it only found in captive breeding programs in hopes of restoring their population to North African countries. The Slender-Snouted Crocodile is Burkina Faso's only critically endangered species, and the seven endangered species are the African Wild Dog, Chimpanzee, Egyptian Vulture, Hooded Vulture, Rüppell's Vulture, White-Backed Vulture, and Barbus bawkuensis ray-finned fish. Barbus bawkuensis is only found swimming in Burkina Faso's White Volta river and in northwest Nigeria's Sokoto River.

Discover more about Burkina Faso! (link to my blog post)

Some Facts About Burkina Faso

BURKINA FASO, located in West Africa, is a small country that borders six countries. It is located north of, from left to right, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Burkina Faso is south of Mali and west of the southwestern panhandle of Niger. Ouagadougou is the capital and was a destination for a previous season of CBS's popular The Amazing Race, hosted by Phil Keoghan. The country's population is about 18.6 million, and it achieved independence from France in the year 1960.

Burkina Faso

Nicknamed the "country of the upright people, full of courage and worthy of respect," landlocked BURKINA FASO is located at least 500 kilometers (311 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean in Western Africa. Previously known as Upper Volta before August 1984, Burkina Faso shares borders with 6 bordering countries: Benin (located to the southeast), Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast; southwest), Ghana (south), Mali (north and west), Niger (east), and Togo (south). According to a government census in 2016, about 19,000,000 (19 million) people call Burkina Faso home. Independence from France was achieved on August 5th, 1960. Main agricultural produce, mined natural resources, and industrial goods include cotton, peanuts, shea nuts and shea butter, sorghum, corn, livestock, gold, manganese, limestone, marble, phosphates, pumice, salt, beverages, soap, and textiles.

● ● ● ● ●  People and Places  ● ● ● ● ●  With about 2.27 million people (2017), the capital and most-populated city is Ouagadougou. Ouagadougou is considered a primate city in the state because of the following criteria: (1) it is the dominant financial and economic hub of Burkina Faso, and (2) there is not another city rivaling Ouagadougou's population. Other cities in Burkina Faso include Banfora, Bobo Dioulasso, Dédougou, Djibo, Fada-N'Gourma, Garango, Koudougou, Ouahigouya, Pouytenga, Tenkodogo, and Zorgo. Attractions and sites of interest throughout Burkina Faso include the Banfora Falls (Les Cascades de Banfora), Bobo Dioulasso Grand Mosque, Laongo Sculpture Symposium (Ouagadougou), Mare aux Hippopotames (Lake of Hippopotamuses) in Bobo Dioulasso, Nazinga Reserve, Ruins of Loropéni (blog post ↗), and Sindou Peaks (Les Pics de Sindou) in Banfora.

While French is Burkina Faso's only official language used for government purposes, about 70 total languages are spoken throughout the state. According to Ethnologue (↗), the three recognized languages of national identity are Fulfulde (over 1,1870,000 people in B.F.), Jula (over 3,600,000), and Mòoré (over 6,400,000 Mossi people). Other major (and minor) languages and their respective ethnic groups/tribes — populations of communicators are listed in parentheses — include Birifor (110,000), Bisa (400,000), Buamu (270,000), Hausa (500), Koromfé (200,000), Lobi (220,000), Lyélé (215,000), Marka (140,000), Ninkare (25,000), Northern Dagara (250,000), Southern Bobo Madaré (185,000), Téén (2,000), and Zarma (600). About half the population believes in the tenets of Islam, followed by animist ethnic religions (30%), Christianity (almost 20%), and Bahá'í (0.03%). The Burkinabé people (people of Burkina Faso) use the West African CFA Franc (ISO 4217 currency code: XOF) as their currency.

● ● ● ● ●  Land Features  ● ● ● ● ●  The generally flat country sits on a vast plateau and mostly includes grassy savanna land. With an area of about 16,000 km², Sahel Reserve is the country's largest park and the major protector of savanna habitat — the type of ecosystem suitable for large mammals and migratory birds. Three major north-south rivers — Black Volta (Mouhoun), Red Volta (Nazinon), and White Volta (Nakambé) from west to east — cut through the plateau's lateritic iron rock. The continuous savanna landscape transitions into here-and-there forests in southern Burkina Faso, especially south of Bobo Dioulasso city. Protected forestland and other areas of savanna land include the Arli National Park, Deux Bale Forest, Forest of the Mou, Kaboré Tambi National Park, Nakambé Forest, Singou Reserve, Sissili Forest, and W National Park. The transnational W National Park is named after the Niger River's W-shaped meander, located in southwestern Niger.

The lakes of Burkina Faso are certainly not as large as Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, etc. However, several substantial lakes provide crucial water to people and animals. Burkinabé lakes include Bam, Dem, Higa, Kompienga, Oursi, and Tengrela. The country's first dam was constructed in the late 1980s on the southeast end of Lake Kompienga. Located along the Koulpeleogo (Koul Péolgo) river, the Kompienga Dam can generate up to 14 electrical megawatts (MWe) of energy for Ouagadougou and surrounding communities. Generating up to 16 megawatts of electricity, Bagré Dam was completed in the 1990s and later expanded to create a 7,000,000,000 m³ reservoir along the White Volta river. Finally, Burkina Faso's highest point is Mount Tena Kourou (Tenakourou). In the Cascades region of southwestern Burkina Faso near Mali, Tena Kourou stands 749 meters and 2,457 feet tall in elevation.

This post was updated with more information on April 14th, 2017.
The map of Burkina Faso was added on June 13th, 2017.