A "Great" Quiz

Answer: Great Zimbabwe

Built over 300 years between the 11th and 14th centuries, it would have been the political centre for the various kings of Zimbabwe. The current country of Zimbabwe was named after the site, following its independence from Britain as a Crown Colony known as Rhodesia.

Answer: Great Bend

Having the word "Bend" in a place name may sound calm and idyllic, but geographically speaking, those locations are also prone to flooding during high periods of precipitation.

Great Bend is a hamlet in NY, a borough in PA and a city in central Kansas. It is also considered a city in North Dakota, despite the fact that it only had sixty permanent residents as of the 2010 census.

Answer: Great Adventure

Owned by the Six Flags Corporation, Great Adventure located in Jackson, NJ, is the largest Six Flags park in the US. It offers a 350 acre Animal Safari drive-thru park, a 45 acre waterpark and eleven themed parks within the complex.

Answer: The Great Plains

The Great Plains extend 500 miles east to west and 2,000 miles north to south with an area of approximately 500,000 square miles and run through ten US states: Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.

The three Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan are also part of the Great Plains, but here they are known as the Great Prairies. Some geologists believe the area dips into Mexico, but most consider it stops at the Rio Grande. Bison roamed the region until near extinction from over-hunting, but paleontologists are finding that animals such as the wooly mammoth, saber-toothed tiger and the mastodon may have grazed on the Plains grasslands millions of years before them.

Answer: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of various debris that has been pushed around by the North Pacific Gyre. The possibility of there being such an accumulation of garbage was first considered in a paper published in 1988 and was first seen in 1997 by Charles Moore while he was in a sailing race.

Answer: Tennessee & North Carolina

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Blue Ridge Mountain portion of the Appalachian Mountains pass through the park as does the Appalachian Trail, which goes from Maine to Georgia. The Great Smoky Mountains are 200-300 Million years old, making them some of the oldest in the world. One place to visit in the park is Cades Cove which is an eleven mile loop for people to drive through and see the wildlife.

Answer: Canada

Great Bear Lake is located in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the largest lake completely within Canada's borders and the fourth largest in North America. Other than fur trade activities, this area was largely ignored by outsiders until the discovery of pitchblende on its shores in 1931. It became the first active site in the Canadian uranium mining industry.

Answer: Mali

The mosque has three large minarets and covers a floor area of 245ft by 245ft. The prayer hall is 85ft by 165ft. Like many other things with "Great" in their name, it is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There is no larger mud brick construction in the world.

Answer: Great Missenden

Roald lived in Great Missenden, a village in Buckinghamshire, UK, for 36 years and is buried there. A Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre was opened in 2005 to commemorate his works.
Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote "Treasure Island" also lived there briefly.

Answer: The Great Barrier Reef

Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Great Barrier Reef stretches over 1800 miles and is up to forty miles wide at some points. It contains over 400 different kinds of coral.