Home The Mine of Useless Information - everything you never needed to know!

Europe Trivia

This is a subcategory of Geography

Showing page 3 of 4

« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »


The elegant coastal town of Biarritz in French Basque country got its start as a beach resort for Europe's aristocracy in 1854. It later became popular with well-to-do Britons.

The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy, in 133 B.C. London, England, reached the mark in 1810 and New York City made it in 1875.Today, there are more than 300 cities in the world that boast a population in excess of 1 million.

The god Lugh was the greatest of the Celtic gods. His name occurs across Europe in place names like Lyon and Leiden.

The highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis in western Scotland, is just 4,406 feet high. In many other countries, a "mountain" of this size would be considered something less than a large hill.

The Isle of Man is rich in history with Norse stone circles and long houses, signs of early Christianity and evidence of man's first struggles to farm the land. This green, fertile land has the oldest continuous Parliament in the world, its own currency, stamps, telecommunications, language, castles, legends, and customs.

The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.

The Jökulsárgljúfur National Park (the name means "glacial river canyon") is Iceland's newest reserve. Sometimes referred to as "Iceland's Grand Canyon," the park possesses the country's largest gorge, verdant vegetation, bizarre rock formations and caves, the steep-walled valley of Ásbyrgi, and countless waterfalls. Other highlights include the echoing rocks, Hljóđaklettar; the lush springs of Hólmatungur; and Dettifoss, Europe's most powerful waterfall. The park is east of Húsavík in north-eastern Iceland.

The land area of the country of Greece is slightly smaller than Alabama.

The largest National Park in England and Wales is the Lake District which covers 885 square miles.

The Mer de Glace is the second-largest glacier in the French Alps. It measures nearly 9 miles (14 km) long, and is up to 1,300 feet (400 m) deep.

The Monegasque – natives of Monoco – constitute only about 16 percent of the nation's population.

The most famous natural landmark in Northern Ireland is the Giant's Causeway. Comprised of approximately 37,000 dark basalt columns packed together, they were formed when a volcanic eruption spewed molten basalt out 55 million years ago. As the basalt cooled, these unique polygonal structures were formed. Most of the columns of the Giant's Causeway form a six-sided honeycomb pattern. Some have as many as ten sides and measure about 12 inches across and up to forty feet in length.

The national anthem of Austria was composed by Wolfgang Mozart.

The Netherlands are the lowest country in the world. It is estimated that 40 percent of the land is below sea level.

The New Forest in Hampshire, England, is not at all new. William the Conqueror gave the forest its name, but well before then Saxons had used the great expanse of land as hunting ground.

The old Roman province of Lusitania is now called Portugal. Some parts of Lusitania are also found in Spain.

The oldest city in Germany, Trier was once the capital of the Western Roman Empire, and residence of the Emperor Constantine. Despite a bloody history, a remarkable amount of Trier's past has been preserved, including an impressive group of Roman monuments north of the Alps.

The standard single oar used by gondoliers in Venice is 14 feet long.

The streets of London were lit by gaslights for the first time in 1807. Before that, torches were used.

The white cliffs of Dover is a natural landmark located at the southern coast of England. The distinctive color of the cliffs was actually created by the accumulation of skeletal remains of tiny organisms deposited over thousands of centuries. Sea level was higher millions of years ago, and after the waters receded, the whitish residual remains of the creatures were exposed.

© 2006 The Mine of Useless Information