A town called Dildo, the highest wave ever recorded and the driest place on earth: 25 incredible travel facts

  • There's a place on earth that has had no rain at all for two million years
  • Why do Swiss cars carry a sticker with the letters 'CH'? The answer is below
  • Find out which town has put Father Christmas on the map - literally 

There’s a place on earth where it hasn’t rained for two million years.

Do you know where it is?

The answer is below, along with a host of other incredible facts, from the location of a town called Dildo to the biggest wave ever recorded – and much more.

 
 

There is a town called Dildo with a population of around 1,000

Around 150 mobile phones are handed in to Transport for London’s lost property office every day.

The Red Sea is so named because dying algae turns its normally intense blue-green waters to red.

Every Valentine’s Day around a thousand letters are sent to Juliet in Verona, Italy – the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Around 150 mobile phones are handed in to Transport for London’s lost property office every day

Around 150 mobile phones are handed in to Transport for London’s lost property office every day

India has 154,882 Post Offices, more than any other country in the world. 

Here’s one for flat-earthers - the horizon for someone who is 5ft 7in is just 2.9 miles away. From 100ft it’s 12.2 miles and from 30,000ft it’s 211 miles. The earth curves downwards by 7.98 inches per mile.

There is a town named Santa Claus in Indiana, USA. Some say that it put Father Christmas on the map.

Santa Claus in Indiana is billed as 'America's Christmas Hometown'

Santa Claus in Indiana is billed as 'America's Christmas Hometown'

The only river to flow both northwards and southwards over the equator is the River Congo.

About one third of power generated in Iceland is geothermal.

The driest place on earth is the Dry Valleys in Antarctica, where for at least the past two million years no rain has ever fallen. And there’s no snow or ice there, either. This is because ferocious winds, which can reach 200mph, blow away precipitation. Scientists say that it's the closest thing to a Martian environment on earth. The driest non-polar place in the world is the Atacama Desert in South America – it gets about 15mm of rain a year.

The driest place on earth are the Dry Valleys (pictured) in Antarctica, where for at least the past two million years no rain has ever fallen. And there’s no snow or ice there, either. This is because ferocious winds, which can reach 200mph, blow away precipitation

The driest place on earth are the Dry Valleys (pictured) in Antarctica, where for at least the past two million years no rain has ever fallen. And there’s no snow or ice there, either. This is because ferocious winds, which can reach 200mph, blow away precipitation

The official name in English for Switzerland is the Swiss Confederation, which in Latin is Confoederatio Helvetica. This is why cars registered there sometimes bear stickers with the initials CH.

The Bronx in New York is the only borough in the city to have ‘the’ as part of its name. It is named after the Bronx River, which is named after the Swede Jonas Bronck, the first European to settle in the Bronx. He arrived in 1639 and purchased land from the local Native Americans.

Finland has the cleanest air in the inhabited world.

The official name in English for Switzerland is the Swiss Confederation, which in Latin is Confoederatio Helvetica. This  explains car stickers such as the one pictured

The official name in English for Switzerland is the Swiss Confederation, which in Latin is Confoederatio Helvetica. This explains car stickers such as the one pictured

The countries in Europe that touch only one other are Ireland (touches the UK), the UK (Ireland), Portugal (touches Spain), Denmark (Germany), San Marino (Italy), Vatican City (Italy) and Monaco (France).

The oldest national anthem in the world is that of the Netherlands – it dates back to 1572.

The smallest and shallowest ocean in the world is the Arctic Ocean. Its average depth is 1,038 metres and it covers an area of 14 million square kilometres. The average depth of the Pacific Ocean, by contrast, is 4,280 metres. And it covers 161.8 million square kilometres.

About one third of power generated in Iceland is geothermal. Pictured is the island's popular Blue Lagoon spa

About one third of power generated in Iceland is geothermal. Pictured is the island's popular Blue Lagoon spa

Niagara Falls is eroding upstream at the rate of about one foot per year.

The movie Krakatoa, East of Java has one major flaw – Krakatoa is actually west of Java.

Sheep outnumber people by about 170 to 1 on the Falkland Islands. There are nearly half a million sheep and nearly 3,000 residents.

The biggest wave ever recorded was 100ft. It was generated by a landslide in 1958 in Alaska’s Lituya Bay.

There is a town in Canada called Dildo. If you’re planning a visit it can be revealed that hotels there aren’t too expensive, averaging about £68 ($90) a night. It has a population of just over one thousand.

There are more miles of canal in Birmingham than Venice.

The highest point in lowly Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in lofty Colorado.

Tube stop St John’s Wood is the only station on London’s Underground that does not contain any of the letters of the word ‘mackerel’.

Did the earth move for you? Don’t be surprised if it did, because there are over 50,000 earthquakes around the world annually.

A quarter of the world's prisoners are incarcerated in America. 

 

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