Did you know that Stratford-upon-Avon has vanished from the face of the Earth? Or that Sydney's famed Bondi Beach has been moved inland? Or that San Francisco has a French Quarter?

That's what people using the mapping app on the new version of Apple's mobile software were being told in September.

With breathtaking ineptitude, the map fiasco deflated Apple's can't-miss reputation, cost the map manager his job and proved what we've been saying for years: Ignore geography at your peril.

Which brings us to our annual geography quiz. As always, it's not so much a serious test of knowledge as a way to highlight some fun facts we stumbled upon over the past 12 months. Above all, it's a reminder that our planet is an endlessly fascinating place and well worth getting to know better.

As always, there are no prizes for acing the test - just the quiet satisfaction of knowing your grasp of geography is far better than that of those geniuses at Apple.

1. Egypt is synonymous with pyramids, but its neighbor to the south actually has more of them. Which country?

2. The River Danube flows out of Germany's Black Forest and passes through or alongside 10 countries. What body of water does it empty into?

3. The Italians call it Monte Cervino. What does almost everyone else call it?

4. Who gazes down upon Trafalgar Square in London?

5. One of the world's major rivers was named for a group of women who were said to have undergone voluntary mastectomies. Which river?

6. In 1974, a nickel would buy you a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. What does it cost now?

7. True or false: Brazil is the only country in the world named after a nut.

8. What U.S. city's subway system uses the CharlieCard, and why is it called that?

9. The French call this La Manche, but the English-speaking world knows it as something else. What?

10. In what country would you find the Great Slave Lake?

11. Where can you ride the narrow-gauge "toy train" past tea plantations with views of Kanchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain?

12. Most of this nation drives on the right, but two of its most densely populated parts drive on the left. Which country?

13. Which nation issues a banknote with Mount Everest on one side and a pair of yaks on the other?

14. Officially called "Liberty Enlightening the World," this French-built monument grew out of a plan for a lighthouse at the Mediterranean entrance to the Suez Canal. After the Egyptian sultan balked at the notion, where did it end up?

15. Where can you find the only North American walled city north of Mexico?

16. What freshly minted country joined the United Nations last year?

17. Through what capital city does the River Liffey flow?

18. Does any part of the continental U.S. extend south of the Tropic of Cancer?

19. Alaska and Hawaii were the last states to join the Union, but they didn't join at the same time. In fact, they joined 7½ months apart. So which one was actually last?

20. Sixty percent of the world's active geysers are located in one place. Where?

21. What's the largest country (in terms of land mass) entirely south of the equator?

22. In Kenya, the "Lunatic Express" train connects Nairobi to what port city?

23. The aid organization known as the Red Cross goes by a different name in Islamic countries. What is it?

24. If you wanted to pull a heist with the Crown Jewels, where specifically in London would you go to find them?

25. Which is colder - the North Pole or the South Pole?

26. What is the only country named for a line of latitude?

27. What Australian state might be best described as "the land down under the land Down Under?"

28. Which is longer - the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal? Which is older?

29. Where is "the abode of snow"?

30. In what U.S. state could you make a breakfast out of Bacon, Coffee and Peach counties?

31. What's the only nation on the South American mainland that's a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, that has English as its official language and that drives on the left?

32. Orchard Field in Chicago is now much better known as what?

33. What country claims Magyar as its national language?

34. In France, can you check into a nice double en suite room at a hotel de ville?

35. Where is the "Wine Dark Sea," and who originally called it that?

36. What U.S. state capital was founded near a river landmark known as La Petite Roche?

37. Which is farther from sea level: the summit of Mount Everest or the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean?

38. Where would you find the black, cube-shaped building known as the Kaaba?

39. What departed Gare de l'Est in Paris and arrived 80 hours later in Sirkeci Station in Istanbul?

40. They call their country Sverige. What do we call it?

41. Two U.S. states do not observe daylight saving time. Which ones?

42. Does water really swirl down a sink in one direction in the Northern Hemisphere and the opposite way in the Southern Hemisphere?

43. Which is larger in terms of square mileage - Asia or the surface of the moon?

44. What are the only two nations in South America that don't border Brazil?

45. The Pentagon, the world's largest office building, has twice as many restrooms as a structure its size needs. Why?

46. What city has been called the Manchester of Japan?

47. What nation's flag used to have a yarn-spinning wheel in the center but now has the Buddhist Ashoka Chakra, the wheel of law?

48. Which is farther north - Cannes, on the French Riviera, or Milwaukee?

49. What nation's prime minister went for a swim in the ocean on Dec. 17, 1967, and was never seen again - an event residents of this black-humored nation sometimes refer to as "the swim that needed no towel"?

50. What is the only continent without an active volcano?

ANSWERS

1. Sudan is estimated to have about 225 pyramids, compared with about 140 in Egypt. Those in Sudan are typically shorter and steeper than their Egyptian counterparts.

2. The Black Sea.

3. The Matterhorn. The peak straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy but is not nearly as distinctive looking on the latter side.

4. A statue of Adm. Nelson, who commanded the British fleet that destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleets near Cape Trafalgar, Spain, in 1805. Nelson died in the battle.

5. The Amazon was named for the female warriors of Greek mythology who supposedly had their right breasts removed to improve their archery or their javelin throwing, depending on the story. Historians note that the mastectomies were not part of the original legend and don't make much sense anatomically or athletically, either.

6. It's free.

7. False. Brazil was named not for the Brazil nut, but for the brazilwood tree (which is not where Brazil nuts come from). And no other nations are named for a nut, either.

8. Boston uses the CharlieCard in honor of a fictional passenger in a song made famous by the Kingston Trio. Charlie was riding the subway when the fare went up, and, without an extra nickel to pay the newly imposed "exit fee, " was forced to "ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston." In the song, Charlie's wife goes down to the Scollay Square station each day and hands him a sandwich through an open window. Why she doesn't just hand him a nickel is a question best left to a marriage counselor.

9. The English Channel.

10. Canada - it's in the Northwest Territories.

11. Darjeeling, India.

12. China drives on the right, except for the former British colony of Hong Kong and the former Portuguese colony of Macau, which drive on the left. (The latter because it used to import most of its cars from the former.)

13. Nepal, the 5-rupee note.

14. In New York Harbor, where it is more commonly known as the Statue of Liberty.

15. Quebec City.

16. South Sudan, which split off from Sudan in July 2011.

17. Dublin, Ireland.

18. No. The Tropic of Cancer runs a few miles north of Havana and Cabo San Lucas.

19. Hawaii, on Aug. 21, 1959.

20. Yellowstone National Park.

21. Australia.

22. Mombassa.

23. The Red Crescent.

24. The Crown Jewels are kept in the Tower of London.

25. The South Pole is colder because it's 9,000 feet above sea level, thanks to very thick sheet ice. The North Pole sits on just a few feet of ice and occasionally on open water.

26. Ecuador is named for the equator - zero degrees latitude.

27. Tasmania.

28. The Suez Canal is longer and older. It was 102 miles long when it opened in 1869 but later lengthened to 120 miles. The Panama Canal is 48 miles long; it opened in 1914.

29. "The abode of snow" is the literal translation from Sanskrit of "Himalaya."

30. Georgia.

31. Guyana, which obtained its independence from Britain in 1966.

32. O'Hare Airport. Its original name, Orchard Field, is why the airport code is ORD.

33. Hungary. People outside of Hungary usually call the language "Hungarian."

34. No. In France, a hotel de ville is a city hall.

35. The Aegean; Homer.

36. Little Rock, Ark.

37. At its deepest point, the Mariana Trench is about 36,000 feet below sea level. The summit of Everest is a bit over 29,000 feet above sea level.

38. In Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It's the most sacred shrine in Islam.

39. The Orient Express. A private company, Venice Simplon-Orient-Express Ltd., occasionally operates a luxury excursion train along the same route.

40. Sweden.

41. Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii. Also, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.

42. Alas, no. The Coriolis Effect, created by the Earth's rotation, causes hurricanes and ocean currents to rotate clockwise south of the equator and counterclockwise north of it, but sinks, bathtubs and swimming pools are far too small to be affected.

43. Asia, which is a little over 17 million square miles, is larger than the surface of the moon, which is a bit under 15 million square miles.

44. Ecuador and Chile.

45. At the time of the Pentagon's construction in 1941-42, segregation laws in Virginia, where it is located, required separate bathrooms for whites and blacks. Signs identifying them as such were never put up, probably because President Franklin Roosevelt had banned discrimination in the federal government.

46. Osaka. Each is the third-largest city in its nation and, at the time the nickname caught on, both were heavily industrialized.

47. India.

48. Cannes is about 10 miles farther north than Milwaukee.

49. Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. Melbourne later named its municipal swimming pool after him.

50. Australia.

John Flinn is the former travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.