What are some in geographic facts your neck of the woods or your country that you find odd, unexpected, or just plain interesting? Here are some crazy ones in the United States.
1. Cairo, IL is closer to Birmingham, AL than it is to Chicago, and equidistant from Little Rock, AR as it is from Indianapolis.
2. Amarillo, TX is closer to Denver than it is to Austin, and closer to Cheyenne, WY than it is to Houston.
3. El Paso, TX is closer to San Diego than it is to Houston.
4. Across the southern United States, everything from Pecos, TX to Dothan, AL is located in the Central Time Zone.
5. Though South Carolina barely has any mountains, its highest point is higher than the highest point in Pennsylvania.
6. From its westernmost point to its easternmost point, North Carolina is over 500 miles long.
7. The Las Vegas metropolitan area is only served by one Interstate, not counting local spur routes. The Austin metropolitan area is only served by one Interstate, period.
8. New York and Philadelphia have no direct Interstate connection (yet).
9. The distance between the summit of Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States, and Badwater Basin in Death Valley, the lowest point in North America, is only 86 miles.
10. The northern border of Missouri is located at roughly the same latitude as Pittsburgh, while the southern border of the Missouri bootheel is located at roughly the same latitude as Raleigh, NC.
11) Both Rome Italy and Istanbul Turkey sit due north latitudinally of Pittsburgh
12) London, England and Calgary, Canada are at similar latitudes.
13) There is a part of Kentucky that can not be reached by land except from another state (caused to ground sinking during a major earthquake.)
14)The western tip of Virginia is west of Detroit.
15) Reno, Nevada is further west than Los Angeles.
16) It's further from one end of Tennessee to the other than it is from Tennessee to Canada.
17) The Panama Canal is east of Miami.
18) If you go straight south from Buffalo, you'll eventually end up in the Pacific Ocean.
19) The southernmost tip of Canada lies south of a part of Ohio - and 25 other states.
20) There is a portion of Washington state that no one can drive to except by leaving the US, entering Canada, and re-entering the US.
21) Kalawao County, Hawaii, population 90, admits no new residents, and a special permit is required to visit. It is the second-least populous of any county in the US. (the least populous being Loving County, TX,) and was once used as a quarantine for people with Leprosy.
It would be nice if you geography fans could add some more facts to these from your side of the world.