World Geography and Ancient Wonders Review

Vocabulary flashcards focusing on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Canadian geography, active volcanoes, major African and Asian water bodies, world deserts, and prominent mountain peaks based on the provided lecture notes.

Great Pyramid of Giza

Ancient wonder built for Khufu in $2550\,BC$ and designed by Hemiunu; it was the world's tallest building until $1301$.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Built by Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife Amyitis in $600\,BC$; also called the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis.

Statue of Zeus at Olympia

A gold and ivory statue created by Phidias in $435\,BC$ that sat on a cedar base.

Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Monument in Turkey commissioned by Croesus and designed by Chersiphron and Metgenes; destroyed by Herostratus via arson.

Mausoleum of Maussollos

A tomb in Halicarnassus commissioned by the satrap of Caria and his wife Artemisia; designed by Satyrus and Pythius.

Colossus of Rhodes

A statue of Helios designed by Chares of Lindos that snapped at the knee during an earthquake in $226\,BC$.

Lighthouse of Alexandria

Also called Pharos, it was designed by Sostratus of Cnidus for Ptolemy I and destroyed by earthquakes in $1303$ and $1323$.

Whitehorse

The capital city of the Yukon territory.

Iqaluit

The capital city of the Nunavut territory.

St. John's

The capital city of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Stratovolcano

A conical volcano built up by layers of rock strata; examples include Mount Erebus and Mount Etna.

Shield volcano

A volcano built over time by broad sheets of viscous lava, such as Kilauea and Mauna Loa.

Mount Erebus

The southernmost active volcano in the world, located on Ross Island in Antarctica and featuring Fang Ridge.

Mount Etna

A Sicilian volcano overlooking Catania; in myth, Zeus trapped the monster Typhon beneath it.

Mount Fuji

Japan's tallest mountain, located on Honshu; it is one of the Three Holy Mountains and was depicted by Katsushika Hokusai.

Kilauea

The most active volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii; home to the fire goddess Pele and the Halema umau crater.

Krakatoa

Indonesian island volcano that produced the loudest sound ever during an $1883$ eruption; its activity formed Anak Krakatau.

Mount Pinatubo

Luzon volcano whose $1991$ eruption ejected aerosols and sulfuric acid, briefly decreasing global temperatures.

Mount Rainier

The highest peak in the Cascades, located near Seattle; its principal peak is Columbia Crest.

Mount Saint Helens

Washington volcano that erupted in May $1980$, killing $57$ people including innkeeper Harry Truman.

Mount Vesuvius

The only active volcano on mainland Europe; it buried Pompeii in $AD\,79$ and last erupted in $1944$.

Nile River

World's longest river flowing south-to-north; formed by the Blue Nile and White Nile meeting at Khartoum.

Congo River

Africa's second-longest river; its sources include the Lualaba and Chambeshi, and it forms the Malebo Pool.

Zambezi River

Southern African river that features Victoria Falls, also known as Mosi-oa-Tunya.

Niger River

Third-longest river in Africa; mapped by Mungo Park and receives the Benue River as a tributary.

Limpopo River

River rising as the Crocodile River; famously described by Rudyard Kipling as great, grey-green, and greasy.

Lake Victoria

Africa's largest freshwater lake, named by John Hanning Speke; its only outlet is the Victoria Nile.

Lake Tanganyika

The second-deepest lake in the world; Henry Morton Stanley found Dr. David Livingstone on its shore at Ujiji.

Lake Volta

The world's largest man-made lake by area, created by the Akosombo Dam in Ghana.

Lake Chad

A shallow African lake whose surface area has been reduced by over $90\%$ since the $1960s$ due to droughts.

Yangtze River

The longest river in Asia; it is home to the Three Gorges Dam and empties into the South China Sea.

Brahmaputra River

River arising in the Himalayas that merges with the Ganges in Bangladesh to form the world's largest delta.

Yellow River

Also called Huang He, this river carries massive amounts of loess silt and is linked to the Yangtze by the Grand Canal.

Ganges River

The holiest river of Hinduism; it flows to a large delta on the Bay of Bengal and passes through Kolkata.

Mekong River

The chief river of Southeast Asia; it forms much of the Laos-Thailand border and flows through Cambodia.

Tigris River

The eastern defining river of Mesopotamia that flows past Mosul and Baghdad before joining the Euphrates.

Euphrates River

The western border of Mesopotamia and the longer of its two major rivers; its shores are home to the ruins of Babylon.

Indus River

The chief river of Pakistan; it is the cradle of an ancient civilization and its tributaries define the Punjab region.

Jordan River

River flowing from Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea; it was the site of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.

Antarctica

A desert classified by lack of precipitation; its highest point is Vinson Massif and its first visitor was Roald Amundsen.

Sahara Desert

The world's largest hot desert, dominated by rocky hamada, sand ergs, and salt shatts.

Atacama Desert

The driest hot desert in the world, located in Chile; victory in the War of the Pacific secured its nitrate resources.

Kalahari Desert

A region in Southern Africa known for red sand and San Bushmen who speak a click language.

Mojave Desert

California desert containing Death Valley and associated with the Joshua tree.

Gobi Desert

Asia's second-largest desert; it was part of the Silk Road and contains fossilized dinosaur eggs in the Nemegt Basin.

Rub' al-Khali

Known as the Empty Quarter, this Arabian desert contains the Ghawar oil field.

Mount Everest

The tallest mountain in the world, located on the China-Nepal border; first summited by Hillary and Norgay in $1953$.

K2

The second-tallest mountain in the world, located in the Karakoram range; features include the Black Pyramid and House's Chimney.

Denali

The highest mountain in North America, formerly known as Mount McKinley and located in Alaska.

Mount Mitchell

The tallest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi, located in North Carolina's Black Mountains.

Matterhorn

A pyramidal mountain on the Swiss-Italian border first climbed by Edward Whymper in $1865$.

Mount Kilimanjaro

The tallest mountain in Africa, composed of the peaks Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira.

Mount Kosciuszko

The highest peak in Australia; its name was swapped with Mount Townsend to ensure it remained the continent's tallest.

Mount Aconcagua

The highest point in the Southern Hemisphere, located in Argentina and straddling the Polish Glacier.

Mauna Loa

A shield volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii; Most massive above-sea volcano; Forms Hawai’i Volcano national park

Okavango River

1,000 miles from central Angola to the Okavango Delta

Lake Malawi

third largest lake by area; contains species such as cichlids

Irrawaddy

chief river of Myanmar; flows 1,350 miles past Yangon to Gulf of Martaban; world’s most important rice growing regions

Namib Desert

Coastal desert; thought to be the oldest desert in the world

painted desert

shared by grand canyon; color, banded rock formation in Arizona

Negev desert

southern half of israel

taklamakan desert

China; cold desert; splits silk road

great sandy desert

western Australia; 9th largest desert

Mount Kenya

2nd tallest mountain in Africa

Mount Fuji

Japan; tallest mountain in Japan; sacred to goddess Sengen-Sama