1. What on Earth? 03

2. Rio de Janeiro , a former capital of Brazil, is famous for its spectacular natural setting. Its most famous landmarks are the giant statue of Jesus, Christ the Redeemer , on top of Corcovado Mountain, and the 396 metre high Sugarloaf Mountain (P ão de Açúcar) in the bay. BRAZIL

3. Changi Airport is a major aviation hub in Asia. Since its opening in 1981, the airport has made its mark in the aviation industry winning over 250 awards for service excellence. In November 2005 the airport became the first outside Europe to receive the Airbus A380 on its trials. SINGAPORE

4. The Mursi are a group of nomadic cattle herders who live close to the Sudanese border. Mursi women are famous for wearing plates in their lower lips. These lip discs are made from clay and girls are usually pierced at the age of 15 or 16. ETHIOPIA

5. SOUTH AFRICA An elephant produces 150 kilograms of dung every day and the flightless dung beetles that live in South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park have an important role to play in the fragile ecology.

6. Checkpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to a crossing point between West Berlin and East Berlin during the Cold War. After reunification in 1990 the checkpoint was removed but copies of the booth and sign that marked the crossing were later erected as tourist attractions. GERMANY

7. In parts of Australia, mainly in ‘outback’ areas, houses are often built on wooden or concrete supports. This means that houses can be transported ready built or, more usually, traditional ‘colonial style’ homes can be ‘lifted and restumped’ when they are moved to a new site. AUSTRALIA

8. The Ga people of coastal Ghana believe in an afterlife and hold elaborate funerals. Special coffins are often crafted by highly skilled carpenters. The coffins can be anything wanted by relatives of the deceased and are usually crafted to show some aspect of the person’s life. GHANA

9. The Shanghai Maglev Train is the first commercial high-speed maglev (magnetic levitation) line in the world. It commenced service in 2004 and runs between the airport and the city centre, a distance of 30 kilometres. The train takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the journey, and its top operational speed is 431 kilometres per hour. CHINA

10. Lake Nasser is a vast reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan created as a result of the construction of the Aswan high dam across the River Nile. The lake is about 550 km long and 35 km across at its widest point. The Aswan Dam was funded by the Soviet Union and was designed to prevent the Nile flooding, generate electricity, and provide water for agriculture. Damming the Nile, however, also caused a number of environmental issues. EGYPT

11. The United Nations Headquarters is a complex of buildings in New York City that has served as the headquarters of the UN since its completion in 1950. It is known for its gardens and outdoor sculptures. including the "Knotted Gun," a gift from the Luxembourg government. USA NEW YORK

12. The Beijing National Stadium , also known as the ‘bird's nest’ , will be the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and will be host to the Opening and Closing ceremonies. The stadium will seat as many as 100,000 spectators during the Olympics, but this will be reduced to 80,000 after the games CHINA

13. By the beginning of the 20 th century the Baku oil fields were the largest in the world and over 3,000 oil wells produced half of the world's oil supply. During World War II the Battle of Stalingrad was fought between the Soviet Union and German troops for control of the oilfields. Towards the end of the 20th century much of the onshore petroleum had been exhausted, and drilling has extended into the sea offshore. AZERBAIJAN

14. Nathan Road is the main street in Kowloon, the mainland part of Hong Kong city, running from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok. It is lined with shops, restaurants, and tourists, and the lower end, famous for its storefront neon signs, has been nicknamed the Golden Mile. The street is a great place for shopping but bargaining is a ‘must’! CHINA (HONG KONG)

15. The ‘Emma Maersk’ is a container ship built in Denmark and launched in August 2006. She became the largest container ship ever built and the longest vessel in operation. The ship can carry over 11,000 14 tonne containers and has a crew of 13. In December 2006 she was nicknamed SS Santa because she was bound for the UK from China loaded with Christmas goods. DENMARK

16. The literal translation of Ecuador’s official name is ‘The Republic of the Equator’. The Equator, an imaginary line on the Earth’s surface equidistant from the north and south poles crosses the land and/or territorial waters of 14 countries. ECUADOR

17. GERMANY The BMW Headquarters building is a Munich landmark built between 1968 and 1972. The tower’s design is supposed to represent the shape of a cylinder in a car engine and the museum right next to it, the cylinder head.

18. The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting European Russia with the Russian Far East provinces. The main route, the Trans-Siberian , runs from Moscow to Vladivostok. At 5,772 miles, spanning 8 time zones and taking about 7 days to complete its journey, it is one of the longest continuous rail services in the world. RUSSIA

19. Taipei 101 is a 101-floor skyscraper located in Taipei City that is currently classed as the tallest skyscraper in the world at 509 metres. It has the world's fastest elevators which run at a top speed of 63 km/h and are able to take visitors from the main floor to the observatory on the 89th floor in under 39 seconds TAIWAN

20. Lhasa is the capital of the Tibet autonomous region in and is located at 3650 meters (12 000 feet) above sea level on the northern slopes of the Himalayas. The Potala Palace was the residence of the Dalai Lama, the supreme head of Tibetan Buddhists, until the 14 th Dalai Lama fled the country in 1959 and today it is a state museum of China. CHINA (TIBET)

21. The Temples of Abu Simbel were originally carved out of the hillside to commemmorate the Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13 th century BC. The whole complex, however, was relocated in the 1960s to avoid being submerged by the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan Dam on the Nile. EGYPT

22. 02 BRAZIL Rio de Janeiro 03 SINGAPORE Changi airport 04 ETHIOPIA Mursi 05 SOUTH AFRICA Addo dung beetles 06 GERMANY Checkpoint Charlie 07 AUSTRALIA ‘lifting and restumping’ 08 GHANA Ga coffins 09 CHINA Shanghai maglev 10 EGYPT Lake Nasser 11 USA NEW YORK UN Headquarters 12 CHINA Beijing National Stadium 13 AZERBAIJAN Baku oil fields 14 CHINA (HONG KONG) Nathan Road 15 DENMARK Emma Maersk 16 ECUADOR Equator 17 GERMANY BMW Munich 18 RUSSIA Trans-Siberia express 19 TAIWAN Taipei 101 20 CHINA (TIBET) Potala Palace 21 EGYPT Abu Simbel Geography What on Earth?