Why are the names of certain nations referred to as "The," for example, The Yemen, The Gambia, The Lebanon?

Stew54

A possible reason in some cases is that the name of the country in its native language has a definitie article. I know that is the case with the Yemen (al Yaman) for example. Sep 04 03, 6:07 PM

Gnomon

The Gambia is called that because it is a river, the river Gambia. Everything around the river gets the same name as the river, so the country is called The Gambia. I don't know about the other ones. Up to about 1950 the country now called Cameroon was always called The Cameroons. Sep 05 03, 2:55 AM