By the Way, Where on Earth Is Curaçao? Quiz

Answer: orange

Curaçao is a distilled spirit flavoured with the peel of laraha, a variety of Seville orange originally brought to the island from Spain in the 16th century. As is the case with other bitter orange varieties, laraha pulp is inedible, but its peel is rich in aromatic oils. The liqueur's origins are unclear, though the well-known Bols company lays claim to its creation.

The Curaçao-based company Senior & Co. prepares the liqueur by first soaking laraha in alcohol and water for several days, then removing the peel and placing it in a hessian bag with spices. The bag is then put in a heated copper still with nearly pure alcohol for three days prior to being distilled. Naturally colourless, curaçao is often tinted blue or orange to add an exotic appearance to cocktails.

The largest of the Dutch Caribbean islands, Curaçao is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands but is not formally part of the European Union. The smallest nation in history to qualify for a FIFA World Cup, Curaçao did not make it beyond the group stage and finished bottom of their group.

Answer: escudo

Subdivided into 100 centavos, the Cape Verdean escudo became the archipelago's currency in 1914, replacing the Cape Verdean real. At the time, the island country in the North Atlantic Ocean was a Portuguese dependency, and the Cape Verdean escudo was equal in value to the Portuguese escudo. After Cape Verde achieved independence in 1975, its currency depreciated for several years. When Portugal adopted the euro in 2002, the Cape Verdean escudo was pegged to the euro. Cape Verdean escudo banknotes are strikingly colourful, depicting notable Cape Verdean figures in the fields of literature, music and politics - such as singer Cesária Évora and composer Codé di Dona. The coins, on the other hand, feature images of native plants and animals and historical ships.

An archipelago consisting of ten volcanic islands, Cape Verde is named after Cap-Vert, a peninsula in Senegal that is Africa's westernmost point. Its soccer team, nicknamed the Blue Sharks ("Tubarãoes Azuis"), was the only one of the four debutants at the 2026 World Cup to make it to the knockout stage, where they were eliminated by Argentina.

Before the advent of the euro, the peseta was the currency used in Spain, the drachma in Greece, and the guilder in the Netherlands.

Answer: Turkish

Turkic languages are spoken in four out of the five Central Asian "stans" that were formerly part of the Soviet Union - the sole exception being Tajikistan, whose national language is a variety of Persian (an Indo-European language). Uzbek is the official and national language of Uzbekistan, spoken by most of the country's population either as a first or a second language. With over 36 million native speakers worldwide, Uzbek is the world's second most widely spoken Turkic language after Turkish.

Uzbek belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family, which also includes Uyghur, spoken in Western China. While they belong to other branches of the family, the Turkic languages spoken in the other "stans" - Turkmen, Kazakh and Kyrgyz - are to some extent mutually intelligible with Uzbek. In fact, Uzbek has been strongly influenced by these languages as well as Persian, Russian and Arabic. Formerly written in the Arabic and Cyrillic scripts, Uzbek switched back to the Latin script in 1992, though the Cyrillic script is still frequently used.

Uzbekistan is one of the world's two doubly landlocked countries, the other being Liechtenstein. Though soccer is the country's most popular sport, its national team exited the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the end of the group stage after losing all three matches.

Answer: Petra

Petra ("rock") is the Greek name of the city called Raqmu by the Nabateans, the nomadic Arab people that founded it in the 4th century BC. In the 2nd century BC, the city became the capital of the Nabatean Kingdom as well as a major trading hub, due to its proximity to the incense trade routes that connected the Mediterranean with the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. The magnificent sandstone buildings that can be still admired today bear witness to Petra's prosperity. However, its decline began with the Roman conquest of 106 AD. The city was eventually abandoned and forgotten until Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burkhardt rediscovered it in 1812.

Inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985, Petra is Jordan's most popular tourist attraction, visited by over one million people every year, as well as one of the country's symbols. The designation as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World (a distinction shared with the Colosseum and the Taj Mahal, among others) and the subsequent media exposure have substantially contributed to the site's fame and popularity.

Located in the Southern Levant region, the Kingdom of Jordan is an unusually peaceful and tolerant country in that troubled part of the world. Unfortunately, its soccer team's first participation in a FIFA World Cup ended at the group stage with three losses.

Answer: Zaire

In the 1870s the territory of the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) became the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium with the name of Congo Free State. Until 1908 the state was run with an iron hand: the natives were ruthlessly exploited and subjected to unspeakable human rights abuses. The following stage, Belgian Congo, was only marginally better. After gaining independence from Belgium in 1960, the country was known for a few years as Republic of the Congo-Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) to distinguish it from its northern neighbour and former French colony, the Republic of the Congo or Congo-Brazzaville.

The DRC first adopted its current name in 1964, but in 1971 it was renamed Republic of Zaire by President Mobutu Sese Seko. The name was the Portuguese adaptation of "nzadi", a Kikongo word meaning "river that swallows rivers", which in the past had been used as a name for the river Congo that runs through the country. When Mobutu was overthrown in 1997, the country's name reverted to DRC.

Straddling the equator, the DRC is Africa's second-largest country; much of its territory is covered by tropical rainforest. Their first participation in the FIFA World Cup in 1974 was quite a disaster, while in the 2026 edition they managed to qualify for the round of 32 and hold their own against England before being eliminated.

The three wrong answers are also former names of African countries: Benin (Dahomey), Eswatini (Swaziland) and Zimbabwe (Rhodesia).

Answer: mountains

Haiti comes from the Taino word "ayiti", which means "land of high mountains". The name originally referred to the whole island of Hispaniola, the second largest in the Caribbean, whose western side is occupied by Haiti. This native name was restored by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the leader of the Haitian Revolution, when the country declared its independence from France in 1804. Under French rule (1659-1803), the territory of Haiti was known as Saint-Domingue.

Haiti's name is well deserved, as most of its terrain consists of mountain ranges and massifs, with few coastal plains and river valleys. The country's highest mountain, Pic la Selle (2,574 m/ 8,445 ft), is part of the Chaîne de la Selle mountain range in southwestern Haiti. The higher reaches of the mountain are covered by a pine forest home to several bird species. Because of its great natural beauty, Haiti is known as "The Pearl of the Antilles".

Unfortunately, Haiti is one of the world's most troubled countries, plagued by poverty, political instability and frequent natural disasters. Neither of Haiti's two participations in the FIFA World Cup were exactly memorable, as on both occasions the team ended up bottom of their group with three losses.

Answer: Shatt al-Arab

Despite its troubled recent history, the territory of present-day Iraq is one of the cradles of human civilization - known as Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers, for its location in the fertile plain bounded by the Tigris and the Euphrates. These two mighty waterways rise in Armenia (Tigris) and Turkey (Euphrates), flowing through Iraq and joining at Al-Qurnah, about 200 km (120 mi) from the Persian Gulf coast, to form a river known as Shatt al-Arab ("river of the Arabs").

The southern end of the Shatt al-Arab marks the border between Iraq and Iran; the port city of Basra lies along the river's bank before it empties into the Persian Gulf. The huge date palm forest - the largest in the world - that used to grow in the area was unfortunately nearly destroyed by war, pests and salt.

The first appearance of Iraq in the 1986 FIFA World Cup) happened during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). The team exited the competition at the group stage, losing all matches and finishing last of their group.

Bab-el-Mandeb is a strait connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden; Sharm el-Sheikh is an Egyptian city on the Red Sea; Rub' al-Khali, or Empty Quarter, is a desert in the Arabian Peninsula.

Answer: a bridge

Bosnia and Herzegovina's fifth-largest city, Mostar takes its name from the "mostari", the keepers of its famous Old Bridge (Stari Most) during the Ottoman era. Mostar, which is also the capital of the region of Herzegovina, lies on the river Neretva in the southern part of the country. It was founded in 1452 by people from Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik), just a few years before the region came under Ottoman rule.

Stari Most was built in the mid-16th century by order of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent. The bridge, the city's symbol and Bosnia and Herzegovina's best-known landmark, is characterized by its humpbacked shape and the two fortified towers at each end. On 9 November 1993, the bridge - which had been used as a military supply line - was destroyed by Bosnian Croatian forces. Stari Most was rebuilt between 2001 and 2004 with funding provided by several countries and international organizations. The bridge and the Old Town of Mostar were designated as the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was the only first-timer at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, where it did not go beyond the group stage. In 2026, the team made it to the knockout stage but was eliminated by the USA.

Answer: harpy eagle

Though mainly known for its canal and as a tax haven, Panama is also a major biodiversity hotspot. Its rainforests - the largest in the Americas outside the Amazon Basin - are home to many endemic species of plants and animals. The country's 16 national parks attract a growing number of tourists interested in the environment and its conservation. Soberanía National Park, near the banks of the Panama Canal, is a favourite destination for birdwatchers, though it is also home to many species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians (such as various species of poison dart frogs). Darién National Park, on the other hand, is the largest park in Central America and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated in 1981.

The jungles of Darién provide the perfect habitat for the magnificent harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja), one of the largest living eagle species, which is sadly on the brink of extinction in most of Central America. This awe-inspiring bird of prey, named after the harpies of Greek myth, is distinguished by its double crest and the longest talons of any bird species, which can grow as long as those of a grizzly bear. The harpy eagle hunts in the forest canopy, preying on mammals such as sloths and monkeys. A harpy eagle with its wings spread is depicted on the Panama coat of arms; the bird was adopted as the country's national bird in 2002.

Both of Panama's appearances at the FIFA World Cup ended early at the group stage. On both occasions the team finished bottom of their group, losing all their games.

Answer: dhow

A dhow is a wooden sailing vessel used for trading in the regions around the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Though it is believed to have originated in India over 2,000 years ago, its name comes from "daw", the Swahili word for vessel. Distinguished by a long, thin hull and one or more triangular (lateen) sails, dhows are traditionally employed to carry heavy items such as fruit or fresh water. In modern times, they still make commercial journeys between the Persian Gulf and East Africa, taking advantage of the monsoon season to sail south.

In a nod to the country's culture and history, a dhow is featured on Qatar's national emblem along with the waves of the sea, two palm trees and two crossed swords. The emblem, adopted in its current form in 2022, is in Qatar's national colour, a shade of maroon that harks back to the purple dye produced in the area during the Bronze Age. In the past, dhows were widely used in the pearling industry, which was a major factor in Qatar's economic growth.

Qatar was the first Middle Eastern country to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, despite widespread controversy. As the competition's hosts, Qatar qualified automatically but were eliminated at the group stage. The same thing happened in 2026, though the team managed to score one point in a draw against Switzerland.

Junks, xebecs and brigs are also types of sailing ships, though larger than dhows and used in different regions of the world.