| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The only railroad facility on this network is operated by Metro-North in the Hudson Valley, located just after crossing the Bear Mountain Bridge. This network has its headquarters in the town of Harpers Ferry, and Kuwahi, or Clingmans Dome, in Tennessee marks the highest point of this trail that ends at Mount Katahdin in Maine. For ten points, name this hiking trail named for an eastern U.S. mountain range. | Appalachian Trail (accept Appalachian National Scenic Trail; prompt on "AT") |
| This gulf is the site of the resort of Sihanoukville as well as the islands Koh Samui and Phú Quốc. This gulf has been identified as the mythical "Great Gulf" which ancient cartographers believed was formed by the Dragon's Tail Peninsula. Pattaya City is located on the northernmost inlet of this gulf fed by the Chao Phraya River, and this gulf's eastern boundary is formed by the Mekong River Delta. For ten points, name this gulf between Vietnam and a namesake country, also known as Siam. | Gulf of Thailand (accept Gulf of Siam before mentioned) |
| This country's most-populous state is Zulia, while its smallest by land area is Nueva Esparta. The Apure River empties at the border of this country's state of Bolívar, which is bounded to the east by an "Esequiba" region this country claims as its own. This country, which has territorial disputes with Guyana, is home to the mouths of the Catatumbo and Orinoco Rivers. For ten points, name this country where the Llanos [[YAH-nohss]] bridges the region between the Orinoco and Caracas. | Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (or República Bolivariana de Venezuela) |
| This desert, home to towns such as Tobruk and Marsa Matruh, was the subject of proposals to create a massive oasis by flooding its Qattara Depression. This desert, which prevented trade between Kharga Oasis and Fezzan, contains the Great Sand Sea and the Siwa Oasis, and the portion of this desert that extends into Egypt is typically called the Western Desert. For ten points, what is this desert which takes its name from a country with its capital at Tripoli? | Libyan Desert (accept Western Desert before mentioned; prompt on "Sahara"; prompt on "Libya") |
| The island of Lido in Venice hosts the oldest example of events with this name, considered one of the "Big Three" alongside one hosted in Berlin and another which awards the Palme d'Or. Park City, Telluride, and Tribeca are other locales which host these events, and the largest example of these events in the U.S., dedicated to independent producers, is hosted at the Sundance Resort. Cannes [[CAHN]] hosts, for ten points, what type of event at which motion pictures are highlighted? | Film Festivals (accept Cannes Film Festival; accept International Film Festival; accept Venice International Film Festival; accept Berlin International Film Festival; accept Sundance Film Festival; accept Utah/US Film Festival; accept US Film and Video Festival; accept Telluride Film Festival; accept Tribeca Film Festival) |
| This island's town of La Brea [[la-BRAY]] contains Pitch Lake, the world's largest natural asphalt reserve, which is between the town of Point Fortin and this island's largest city of San Fernando. Soca music, with mixed African and Indian influence, is played at Carnival celebrations on this island which also feature limbo contests, and Nicki Minaj hails from this island, home to Port of Spain. For ten points, name this island which forms a country with Tobago. | Trinidad (accept Cairi; accept Trinidad and Tobago only after "Tobago" is mentioned) |
| This region's Tahquamenon Falls are renowned for their root-beer color, and locals often call people living south of this region "trolls." Those people from this region are 16 percent Finnish in ancestry, and this region is home to the cities of Sault Ste. Marie [[soo- saint-mah-REE]], on the Soo Locks, and Marquette. Granted as a consolation for ceding the Toledo Strip, for ten points, what is this region of Michigan's north, home to the "Yoopers"? | Upper Peninsula (or U.P.; prompt on "Michigan") |
| This island's highest point is Mount Talomo, part of the Apo-Talomo Range. This island's longest river is the Agusan, which starts in Tagum and flows into Butuan Bay. This island has the largest population of Muslims and is the second-most populated island in its country. This island’s two largest cities are Davao City and Zamboanga City. For ten points, name this second-largest island of the Philippines. | Mindanao |
| This system owns the freight-only Bay Ridge Branch. This system's major stops include Jamaica Station and Atlantic Terminal, and Water Mill is a stop on this system's Montauk Line. This system is the busiest commuter railway in North America, and its East Side Access extension is being facilitated via a tunnel underlying Roosevelt Island. For ten points, name this railway system which travels through Queens and Brooklyn. | MTA Long Island Rail Road (or LIRR; prompt on "MTA" or "Metropolitan Transportation Authority") |
| This city's Fietsflat is a three-story parking lot used exclusively for bicycles, and this city's Magere Brug translates to "Skinny Bridge." This city's suburbs include Hoofddorp and Haarlem, and this city's Schiphol [[SKIP-"hole"]] Airport is located entirely below sea level and is the hub of KLM. Home to the Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank House in addition to hundreds of miles of canals is, for ten points, what capital of the Netherlands? | Amsterdam |
| On this archipelago's Lafonia Peninsula, a military cemetery that was created after a 1982 battle, lies near Choiseul [[shwah-SUHL]] Sound. About 40 people reside in this archipelago's settlement of Goose Green, which lies about two miles from the settlement of Darwin. RAF Mount Pleasant is a major airfield in this archipelago whose main industry of sheep farming is centered outside the city of Stanley. Located on the Patagonian Shelf, for ten points, what is this archipelagic British Overseas Territory whose sovereignty status is disputed with Argentina? | Falkland Islands (or Falklands; or Islas Malvinas) |
| Immigration from the U.K., Chile, and this South Atlantic island has kept the Falklands population somewhat constant. This remote volcanic island is part of a British Overseas Territory with Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. | Saint Helena (accept Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha) |
| This sea contains the world's deepest port at Gwadar. This sea's Lakshadweep archipelago is opposite to the Malabar Coast, which includes the port of Kochi. On this body of water, seventy-eight volunteers met in Sabarmati Ashram, a suburb of Ahmedabad, to begin Gandhi's March to the Sea which ended at Dandi, also on this sea. For ten points, name this sea which is a subregion of the northern Indian Ocean. | Arabian Sea |
| Kathiawar, a peninsula that juts out into the Arabian Sea, contains the only habitat of these animals, which are depicted in an Ashokan sculpture that inspired India's national emblem and are vastly outnumbered by their African counterparts. | Asiatic Lions (accept Indian lion; accept Persian lion; prompt on "Lion") |
| The Yibir are a tribe of Somalia and Djibouti who practice this religion. In Ghana, this religion is practiced in the communities of Sefwi Wiawso and Sefwi Sui. Many populations of people who practice this religion are concentrated in North Gondar Zone and Shire Inda Selassie, and those who converted from this religion to Christianity are called Falash Mura. Following centuries of discrimination, Ethiopian members of this religion made aliyah. For ten points, name this religion, practiced throughout Africa, including by Beta Israel. | Judaism (accept Jewish Faith; or Jews) |
| This Bantu-speaking ethnic group of Zimbabwe and South Africa is believed to be descended from the original Jews. Some historians believe that this ethnic group, not the Shona, built Great Zimbabwe. | Lemba people (accept wa-Remba; accept Mwenye) |
| A university named for this polity is located in the city of Evanston. Settlement of this polity was opened after General "Mad Anthony" Wayne won the Battle of Fallen Timbers and a treaty was signed by the Wyandot people. The ordinance that created this polity was the first to completely ban slavery on U.S. soil. For ten points, name this incorporated polity that later became the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. | Northwest Territory (accept Territory Northwest of the River Ohio; accept Old Northwest; prompt on partial answers; prompt on "Northwestern University") |
| The 1795 treaty signed by the Wyandot bore the name of a fort around which this city was built, later becoming the county seat of Darke County in Western Ohio. Another noted city with this name in South Carolina is roughly equidistant between Atlanta and Charlotte. | Greenville (accept Fort Greenville) |
| The term decassegui, or "working away from home," refers to people of this ethnicity who migrated away from their adopted country. The city of Maringá has a park named for people of this ethnicity, who published a paper called the Shimbun. More than two million people, most of whom practice Buddhism or Shintoism, have, for ten points, what ethnicity which combines ancestry from one East Asian nation and one large South American nation? | Japanese-Brazilian (accept Nihonjin; accept descriptive answers including both Japan and Brazil; prompt on partial answers) |
| Many Japanese-Brazilians live in this state of Brazil, bordered to the north by São Paulo state. This state's capital is Curitiba, and it shares its name with a major South American river. | Estado do Paraná (accept Paraná River) |
| A national park named for these animals is located near the mouth of the Sundays River and features a sanctuary for these animals near Gqeberha. An island likely named for these animals forms part of the city of Aswan in Egypt and dates back to ancient Nubia. The bush and forest varieties of this elephant are the only two African species of them. A country governed from Yamoussoukro gained its name from the trade of a good most commonly obtained from these animals. For ten points, name these large, tusked animals. | Elephants (accept Addo Elephant National Park; accept Elephantine Island; accept African Bush Elephant; accept African Savannah Elephant; accept African Forest Elephant; accept African Elephant) |
| Over 3,000 elephants were killed between 2005 and 2010 in this country's Zakouma National Park, which straddles the border of the Guéra and Salamat Regions north of the Bahr Salamat, a tributary of the Chari River. | Republic of Chad (or Republique du Tchad; or Jumhuriyat Tshad) |
| This city, annexed by Nazi Germany during the Anschluss in 1938, was bombed 22 separate times by the Allies during World War Two. This city is the second-most populous city in the Alps and is located four miles north of the Patscherkofel [[PAHT-shehr-KOH-fel]] Peak. The host of both the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, for ten points, what is this capital of Tyrol, Austria’s second-most populous city? | Innsbruck |
| Innsbruck was awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics after this American city was originally selected as the host city but withdrew. 1976 was a Centennial year for this city's state, and Alpine events would have been held at Steamboat Springs, about three hours northwest of this city. | Denver |
| A city in this state contains the oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant in the U.S., Pekin Noodle Parlor. The Bob Marshall Wilderness is located in the west of this state, whose Hungry Horse Dam is on the South Fork Flathead River. Gallatin Canyon is located near this state's community of Big Sky. Cities in this state include Kalispell and Butte, while its capital includes Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and the Yellowstone Art Museum. For ten points, name this state governed from Helena, whose largest city is Billings. | Montana |
| This western Montana city along the Clark Fork River is located near Mount Sentinel and is home to sites like Rattlesnake National Recreation Area and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. | Missoula |
| River that runs from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. | Mississippi River |
| River that is formed by the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela in Pittsburgh. | Ohio River |
| Longest tributary of the Mississippi which runs past Omaha and Bismarck. | Missouri River |
| River which joins with the Tombigbee to form the Mobile River. | Alabama River |
| River which passes through the Bluegrass region and supplies one-sixth of the water to a certain commonwealth. | Kentucky River |
| New England river that separates Vermont and New Hampshire. | Connecticut River |
| River that contains the Kentucky Dam and is crossed by the Natchez Trace Parkway. | Tennessee River |
| River which is also known as the Kaw and is fed by the Smoky Hill and Republican Rivers. | Kansas River |
| "Birthplace of the Italian Renaissance" with cities like Pisa and Florence. | Tuscany (or Toscana) |
| Autonomous island region that is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Messina. | Sicily (or Sicilia) |
| Region previously in an independent kingdom with Sardinia and containing Turin. | Piedmont (or Piemonte; accept Savoy-Piedmont-Sardinia) |
| Most populous region, bordering Switzerland. | Lombardy (or Lombardia) |
| Northern region containing historic medieval cities like Verona and Venice. | Veneto (or Venetia) |
| Second-most populated region, containing Rome. | Lazio |
| Southern region that includes Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and Capri. | Campania |
| Only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, centered around Perugia. | Umbria Planned Capitals Name the planned national capital city that... |
| Was planned out and surveyed by Pierre L'Enfant and Benjamin Banneker. | Washington D.C. (accept either underlined portion; accept District of Columbia |
| Contains the Parliamentary Triangle and was designed by Walter and Marion Griffin in New South Wales. | Canberra |
| Was designed by Kenzō Tange and replaced the coastal city of Lagos as its nation's capital. | Abuja |
| Is a sparsely populated city that replaced Yangon as the capital in 2008. | Naypyidaw |
| Was made the seat of the executive and judicial branches of Malaysia in 2001. | Federal Territory of Putrajaya |
| Was announced by Joko Widodo to become the new capital of Indonesia in 2024. | Capital City of Nusantara |
| Was originally shaped like an airplane and whose layout was designed by Oscar Niemeyer. | Administrative Region of Brasília |
| Least-populated national capital in the world which replaced Koror City as the capital of Palau. | Ngerulmud |
| This country’s east is home to massive 100-thousand ton statues of dragons that date from the last Ice Age. A cave in this country was where the first remains of an extinct human and Neanderthal relative were discovered, the Denisovans. This country’s Ukok (+) Plateau and Pazyryk Valley are home to a large number of Scythian burial barrows. A so-called “ice maiden” was discovered in an undisturbed kurgan in this country’s portion of the Altai (*) Mountains. For ten points, name this country where many mammoth skeletons have been recovered from the permafrost of Siberia. | Russia (or Russian Federation; or Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; or Rossiya) |
| With a state to the north, this state is home to the indigenous Mayo people who speak a language similar to Yaqui. Much of this state's sugar cane and rice production occurs near the city of Los Mochis. This state's capital is located in a valley in the Sierra Madre (+) Occidental at the confluence of the Tamazula and Humaya Rivers. A Nahuatl word meaning "place of deer" provides the name for a city in this state that is known for its breweries and hotels, Mazatlán. (*) Culiacán is the capital of, for ten points, what Mexican state which names a powerful international drug trafficking cartel? | Sinaloa (accept Sinaloa Cartel or Cártel de Sinaloa) |
| The evolution of the structures of these ecosystems was the subject of Charles Darwin's first monograph. One of these ecosystems surrounds Grande Terre and the Ile des Pins [[eel-deh-PAHN]] but has been partially damaged by nickel mining. A structure called the Great (+) Blue Hole is found in one of these ecosystems in Belize. These structures, which may come in platform or fringing varieties, often include Anthozoa. The world's largest example of these ecosystems is located (*) off the coast of Queensland. For ten points, name these calcium carbonate systems that include a Great Barrier example. | Coral reefs (accept The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs; prompt on "Barrier Reef," "Platform Reef," "Fringing Reef," "Lighthouse Reef," "Great Barrier Reef," or "New Caledonia Barrier Reef") |
| This island's Moturu Kramat shrine was built to commemorate Sayed Adurohman Moturu who was exiled to this island in 1740. A man who stayed at this island began a rock pile to which former residents add when visiting. This island, off the coast of Bloubergstrand, (+) is named from the Dutch for "seals" and is located in Table Bay. A maximum-security prison on this island, which is accessed via ferry from Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, was where the first (*) president of South Africa was held. For ten points, name this small island off the coast of Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated. | Robben Island |
| This city's Nada-Gogō areas, shared with Nishinomiya, produce much of its country's sake [[SAH-keh]]. This city is connected via the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the world's second-longest suspension bridge, to Awaji Island. This city, which was devastated by the Great (+) Hanshin earthquake of 1995, is the capital of Hyōgo Prefecture. An anchor of western Kansai, (*) for ten points, what is this Japanese city which is part of Osaka's urban area and the home of a namesake variant of Wagyu beef? | Kobe (accept Kobe Beef) |
| This archipelago's islands, home to approximately 600 people, include Tufted Puffin Rock and Copper Island, and Nikolskoye is its only settlement. These islands were the only known habitat of the Steller's sea cow, and these islands, separated from (+) Attu Island by the International Date Line, were the site of Vitus Bering's death (*) after a shipwreck. For ten points, name these islands off the coast of Kamchatka, considered the westernmost part of the Aleutian Islands, which received their name from Bering's rank. | Commander Islands (or Commanders; or Komandorski Islands; do not accept or prompt on "Aleutian Islands") |
| This city, home to Europe's only megajoule laser, was the site of the Italian BETASOM naval base. This city's inland harbor is called the "Port of the Moon" and contains the Miroir d'eau [[meer-WAHR DOH]], the world's largest reflecting pool which is situated in front of the Place de la Bourse. (+) This city, which hosts Vinexpo, one of the world's largest wine fairs, is the capital of the Gironde Department and Nouvelle-Aquitaine. (*) For ten points, name this city in southwestern France, near the mouth of the Garonne River. | Bordeaux |
| Oljato [[ohl-HAH-toh]] is the native name of a town providing access to this area. The town of Mexican Hat is the northern gateway to this area, often photographed from U.S. Route 163, part of the Trail of the Ancients. The Mittens are iconic (+) features of this area, stratified into layers such as Organ Rock Shale and De Chelly Sandstone, and this area in the northern Navajo Nation was frequently used in John Ford's Western (*) films such as Stagecoach. For ten points, name this area, which is known for its buttes, on the Utah-Arizona border. | Monument Valley (or Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii; prompt on "Navajo Nation") |
| This city has 41 colleges and universities located in its metropolitan area, the most in the U.S. This city’s City Hall was designed by modernist architect I.M. (+) Pei in 1978. This is the city in which Abraham Zapruder and bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are buried. Home to (*) Dealy Plaza and the third-most populous city in Texas, for ten points, what is this city in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated? | Dallas |
| Sometimes called the "highest navigable lake in the world" at 12507 feet, this is the largest lake in South America. | Lake Titicaca (or Lago Titicaca) |