This country produces the vast majority of the world’s opium. In 2007, 92% of the non-pharmaceutical grade opiates on the world market originated here.
More expats from this country live in the L.A. metro area than anywhere outside of their home country or Russia.
This is the only country with a capital on the shore of the Caspian Sea.
This country is connected to Saudi Arabia by a 25 km. bridge called the King Fahd Causeway.
In 2016, geologists found a fault under sediment in the Ganges & Brahmaputra river deltas in this country. It puts over 120 million people in danger of a mag. 9 earthquake.
This is the only carbon-negative country in the world. Its small population produces 2.2 million tons of CO2/year, but its forests absorb more than 4 million tons/year.
The realm of this country was most extensive between the 15th and 17th centuries, when it extended into the southern Philippines and throughout Borneo.
This is the only country in Asia - and one of only 3 in the world - that doesn’t use the metric system.
In the 70s this country’s government said it only needed 1-2 million people to create a communist utopia, so they buried over a million people alive, under orders to save bullets
Between 2011 and 2013, this country used more cement than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century.
A border dispute between this country and Russia led to a war in 2008. Though not recognized internationally, Russia claims its Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.
The world’s worst industrial disaster occurred in this country in 1984, when a Union Carbide factory released a toxic cloud of gas that killed thousands of people overnight.
This country has the highest level of biodiversity of any country except for Brazil.
In 2015, this country and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council + Germany came to an agreement to end economic sanctions due to its nuclear program.
In 750, the Abbasids assumed power & moved the seat of the Islamic caliphate from Damascus to this country’s capital, a center of world knowledge until Mongols sacked it in 1250.
Showtime’s TV series Homeland is based on a popular series called Hatufim, from this country.
In 1908, MSG was synthesized by a biochemist from this country, trying to replicate the savory taste of his wife’s seaweed-based soup. He called this new flavor 'umami.'
Notable films shot in this country include The Martian, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
When a sharpshooter from this country won an international competition in Kuwait, they mistakenly played the theme from Borat instead of its real national anthem.
Citizens of this country are grouped according to their Songbun, a status system based on the assessed loyalty to the regime of both the individual and their last 3 generations.
A musical artist from this country had the #1 most-viewed YouTube video from 2012-2017: a song named after a district of the capital city.
This country’s money, the dinar, is perennially the most highly valued currency in the world.
With around 500,000 lines, the Epic of Manas is one of the longest epic poems in the world (#1 in number of verses), and the centerpiece of the literature of this country.
Come here to see the Plain of Jars: hundreds of Iron Age megalithic stone burial jars. Untold numbers were destroyed though. The U.S. dropped more bombs here than in all of WWII.
Byblos, in this country, was the first major city of ancient Phoenicia. It’s where the first alphabet was invented, and from its name came words for paper, books, and the Bible.
In the movie Zoolander, Ben Stiller is brainwashed to kill the prime minister of this country in order to secure its continued supply of cheap labor in garment manufacturing.
This is the world’s lowest country. Its high point is 2.4 m above sea level. It’s likely that within 100 years the rising seas of global warming will completely inundate it.
This country’s capital is the coldest in the world, with a yearly average of -2.4º C (28º F). In winter, temperatures regularly dip to -40º C/F.
This is the only country currently with a non-rectangular flag.
This country’s capital is just 10 miles north of the Tropic of Cancer, making it the nearest of Asia’s capitals. Dhaka is a close second, at 20 miles north of the line.
At 17 years old, this country's Malala Yousafzai won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her work advocating education and women’s rights. She’s the youngest Nobel laureate ever.
Worldwide, there are about 6.5 million refugees from this country - ⅓ of all refugees on earth.
In addition to being one of the greatest boxers of all time, Manny Pacquiao was elected senator in 2016 to this, his home country.
This country will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It will be the first time the tournament is held Nov./Dec. instead of June/July, due to the unbearable heat of its summers.
A scientist from this country formulated the first periodic table of the elements, revolutionizing the way chemistry was studied. Element #101 is named after him: Mendelevium.
In the period from 2011-2015, this country purchased more U.S. arms than any other in the world.
Until recently, this country was home to the busiest port in the world. Now it ranks 2nd to the Port of Shanghai. It continues to trans-ship half of the global supply of crude oil.
When she was 6 months old, the musician known as M.I.A. moved to Jaffna, in this country, where her father was part of the Tamil resistance in the country’s civil war.
According to the Bible, Paul the apostle was on the road to the capital of this country when the resurrected Christ appeared to him.
The official name of this nation differs by just a single word from its closest neighbor. It is exactly one word shorter.
Dushanbe, the capital of this country, is named for the large bazar that occurred there every Monday. Dushanbe means Monday in Persian.
Exactly 3 Asian countries have gulfs bearing their names. Oman, Bahrain, and this country.
This is the only country in Asia where Portuguese is an official language.
In 2010, a team of evangelical Christian explorers claimed to have discovered the remains of Noah’s ark on Mount Ararat - this country’s tallest mountain.
Prior to 1929, this country used the Arabic alphabet. From 1929-1938, a latin alphabet was used. From 1938-1991, Cyrillic was official. Now the alphabet is Latinate.
This country is home to the world’s tallest structure: the Burj Khalifa. At 829.8 m (2,722 ft), it’s over 50% taller than One World Trade Center in New York.
This country has the 2nd highest proportion of its citizens in modern slavery, next to North Korea. It also made news recently for boiling prisoners alive.
This country is the site of Operation Babylift, an evacuation ordered by President Ford of ~10,000 orphans to be adopted by western countries.
This country was where the first cultivation and consumption of coffee took place. From its port city of Mocha, it exported the beverage to the rest of the world.
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