Zeniths and Nadirs Trivia Quiz

Most people will be familiar with the fact that the summit of Mount Everest, located on the border between Nepal and Tibetan China, is the highest point above sea level on the entire planet, not just the continent of Asia. The English name was allocated in 1849 by Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, who claimed that he could not find any one local name for the peak, and thought it better not to favor one local group by selecting their name; hence he named it after Sir George Everest, his predecessor.

Despite his claim, there are definitely local names, both more descriptive than the one with which most players will be familiar: the Nepalese Sagarmatha means goddess of the sky, or head in the great blue sky; the Tibetan Qomolangma means holy mother.

The highest peak in South America, located in the Argentinean part of the Andes, is nearly 2000 metres lower than Mount Everest, but still impressive. It ranks as the highest peak in the southern hemisphere (with most of the highest peaks in the world part of or near to the Himalayas), and also the highest peak in the western hemisphere.

It is known to mountaineers as the worlds' highest non-technical peak, meaning that you do not need specialised climbing equipment to reach the summit, especially of you take the northern approach. That doesn't mean it is easy, as both altitude sickness and exposure to extremely cold conditions pose serious threats to climbers.

Denali, the highest peak in North America, is the tallest mountain in the world measuring from the base on land to the peak, coming in as 5,500m. The two higher peaks are mountains which start at a higher base level. The local Koyukon people have called the mountain Denali (meaning high or tall) for centuries. When the area was under Russian control, this was translated into Russian as Bolshaya Gora (big mountain).

Near the end of the 19th century it was renamed Densmore's Mountain, after the first non-native Alaskan to reach its base. Then in 1896 a gold prospector named William Dickey decided it should be renamed McKinley, in honour of the man he supported as candidate for the presidency of the United States. Mount McKinley became the official name in 1917, but in 1975 the Alaskan government reverted to the local name of Denali. This was also enacted as the official name at the federal level in 2015, a decision that was considered controversial by some and reversed by President Trump in 2025. The state stuck with Denali.

This dormant volcano is the highest volcano in the Eastern Hemisphere, and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world - all higher peaks being part of mountain ranges which form the bulk of their height. Kilimanjaro stands all on its own, rising nearly a kilometre from a plateau that is 4900m above sea level.

The original meaning of its name is unclear, as it could have been adapted from any of several groups living on the lower slopes, some of whom spoke Bantu, some Swahili. Kilimanjaro is actually composed of three distinct volcano cones, with the elevation measured on the rim of the crater of the highest one, Kibo. This name, meaning spotted, is used by the Bantu people in reference to the snow on its peak. The second-highest cone is called Mawenzi, meaning broken top, a reference to its jagged crater.

Some geographers would consider Mount Elbrus to be in Asia (it's an arbitrary line, in many senses, that divides the single land mass of Eurasia). If that is the decision, the highest point in Europe is Mont Blanc (in the Alps), at 4807m. This would make Europe's highest point lower on the list than is the case when Elbrus is included in Europe.

Mount Elbrus is a dormant stratovolcano located in Russia (just), in the Caucasus Mountains about 100 kilometres from the Black Sea and 350 kilometres from the Caspian Sea. It is the highest volcano in the Eurasian landmass. It has two peaks, with the western cone rising about 20m higher than the eastern one. The crater of the eastern cone has filled with snow and ice, producing a number of glaciers. The largest one, Bolshoi Azaou, is the source of multiple rivers from glacial runoff.

The Vinson Massif, named after a US congressman who had provided generous support for Antarctic exploration, was first identified in 1958 by US Navy airplanes. It is located in the Ellsworth Range, about 1200 kilometres from the South Pole (and undiscovered since it was not along the path used by overland expeditions to the pole).

Some sources list the entire Massif as including the highest point, but in 2006 the US government declared that Mount Vinson and the Vinson Massif were separate entities.

In any case, this peak near the northern end of the massif's plateau is the highest point in Antarctica.

Located on the island of New Guinea, Puncak Jaya (Indonesian for Glorious Peak or Victorious Peak) was dubbed Carstenszpiramide by the Dutch in honor of the explorer Jan Carstenszoon, the first European to report sighting the glaciers on its peak in 1623. He was ridiculed for years (Glaciers so near the equator? Nonsense!), but vindicated. The indigenous Amungme call it Nemangkawi Ninggok, meaning Peak of the White Arrow, a clear reference to those same glaciers.

Not only is Puncak Jaya the highest peak in Oceania, it is the highest mountain peak on any island.

This listing is possibly the most debatable one, as many people exclude the Pacific islands located on the continental shelf around the country of Australia, and assign as the highest peak of the seventh continent Mount Kosciuszko, the highest peak on the mainland at 2,228m. In either case, this is the lowest high point of the seven continents, given the decision that was made about where to draw the border between Europe and Asia.

While there are many island countries with a minimum land height of 0m, the Maldives have the unenviable distinction of possessing the lowest highest point in the world. The highest point on any island of the Maldive archipelago is a mere 1.5m above sea level - an average adult could stand on the shore and look over the top, if they were in the right spot!

So there they are, right in the middle of things, with a highest point less than that of any of the seven continents, and a lowest point at sea level - every continent has at least some area that is below sea level.

The lowest point on the land surface of Australia-Oceania lies on the Australian mainland, which is notoriously flat when compared to other continents. The highest point on the mainland is the lowest continental high point, and the lowest point of Kati-thanda / Lake Eyre is the highest low point.

Kati-thanda is an ephemeral lake, which means it is sometimes completely devoid of water, and fills up again as the rivers that feed into it return water. Since it is endorheic (lacking an any natural outlet), the water accumulates over time, but it is almost always pretty much empty. The water that enters during flood seasons spreads out over an area of 9,5000 square kilometres, creating a very large but shallow lake on the southern edge of the Simpson desert. It only filled completely three times between 1860 and 2025, at which time the water was roughly as salty as sea water; as the water evaporates, it becomes much saltier. When it is empty, the flat lake floor is covered with salt deposits, making it an attractive site for land speed record attempts to be made.

The Caspian Sea has a coastline in both Europe and Asia, making its coast the lowest point in Europe (but not in Asia, which has some points that are further below sea level). Although it is called a sea, due to its size, it is actually an endorheic lake, fed primarily by the Volga River. It has a salinity about a third that of sea water, although some regions are much saltier.

Like the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea is thought to have been part of the inland sea that covered a large part of Europe about 30 million years ago. Tectonic changes led to the larger sea disappearing, with the Caspian left as a landlocked remnant about five million years ago. It is named after the Caspi people who lived on its southern side in antiquity (a term which means roughly between 700BCE and 500CE).

It is hard to be sure about Antarctica, as so much of its land surface is hidden by ice, and rather inaccessible, but the shoreline of Deep Lake, located in the Vestfold Hills, is currently considered to be the lowest land point on the continent. It is an extremely salty lake located near the Ingrid Christensen Coast of Princess Elizabeth Land, which is currently claimed by Australia, but without any official international recognition of this. The Russian research station Vostok is located not too far away.

The Vestfold Hills were first discovered by a Norwegian whaling captain, Klarius Mikkelsen, in 1935. He named them after a county in Norway where the headquarters of the Norwegian whaling industry was located. The lake's name is pretty self-explanatory!

While the lowest point in North America is usually just given as Death Valley, it would be more precise to identify the Badwater Basin, another endorheic basin, as the location of the lowest point. That point is a few kilometres west of the spring-fed pool whose salinity lends its name to the entire basin.

The sign marking the low point is near the pool (which is only slightly closer to sea level than the lowest point), due to the fact that the actual low point shifts slightly with rain and evaporation, and also because the intervening salt flats are treacherous.

They look solid, but the salt crust is only thin, covering the mud underneath. The hexagonal pattern that the salt forms due to repeated cycles of freezing and thawing are a spectacular sight. Yes, it does freeze, despite Death Valley being infamous for its scorching heat in the summer; desert nights get really cold.

Until recently, the lowest point in South America was thought to be the edge of a salt lake on the Valdes Peninsula on the eastern coast of Argentina, at an elevation of -40m. Now, however, the honour goes to Argentina's Laguna del Carbón, about 50 kilometres from the city of Puerto San Julian, significantly further south but still near the coast of Patagonia.

This is yet another endorheic salt lake - not really surprisingly, since it is below sea level, making it hard for an outflow to be established! It is located in a depression of the desolate Gran Bajo de San Julián, a plateau situated between the Chico River and the Atlantic Ocean. There is not a lot of information available about Laguna del Carbón, presumably both because it is located on private land, so is not readily visited, and because its geographical significance was only recently established. If anyone can tell me why it is called Coal Lagoon, I would love to hear from them! The nearby area has lots of Cretaceous dinosaur fossils, so presumably at least at some time there was a viable deposit of coal in the area - but that is just guesswork.

Lake Assal is a crater lake located on the Horn of Africa, in Djibouti. It is (don't gasp in astonishment) a salt lake; in fact, it is one of the saltiest lakes in the world. Due to its extreme saltiness, it does not support marine life other than bacteria, and there is little vegetation nearby aside from thorny shrubs and bushes. Have I made it sound too attractive for words?

The lake increases in size seasonally, before the hot (up to 50C, or 120F) summer days cause increased evaporation, and it shrinks, leaving an addition to the thick layer of salt which is commercially mined. This has become an increasingly valuable commodity in the 21st century, and therefore increasingly industrialised, but the local Afar people are still allowed to harvest salt for trade.

You knew we had to get here eventually! The coast of the Dead Sea, located between Israel and Jordan, is not only the lowest point on the land surface of Asia, it is the lowest point on land anywhere on the surface of the Earth. (There are, of course, many deeper points under the oceans, but that's another quiz.)

Unlike some of the extreme points we have visited, the Dead Sea is in a populated area, and has been exploited for many years. It was one of the first health resorts on record, as bathing in its waters was reputed to have curative powers - not to mention the fun of floating with virtually no effort! It is also a good source of asphalt, which floats up from the bottom and can be harvested from the surface; this was used by the Egyptians in the process of mummification. More recently, the range of minerals dissolved in the waters are extracted and used for agriculture and cosmetics. The reason for its name is straightforward - like Lake Assal, it is so salty that the only living plants and animals in it are microscopic. It has, historically, also been called the Salt Lake and the Asphalt Lake, in various languages.