Illustration by Arnie Bermudez

· In the famous Parker Brothers game "Monopoly," the space on which a player has the greatest statistical chance of landing is Illinois Avenue. This is followed by B & O Railroad, then Free Parking, Tennessee Avenue, New York Avenue and the Reading Railroad.

· There is only one river in the world that has its source near the equator and from there flows into a temperate zone: the Nile. For some reason, the flow of most rivers is in the opposite direction.

· In 1867, when Secretary of State William Seward purchased Alaska, one of the most resource-rich areas in the world, for the unbelievably low price of $7.2 million, he was showered with abuse by the American people and was almost forced to resign. Newspapers dubbed the acquisition "Seward's Icebox," "Walrussia" and "Icebergia." Seward, however, stood by his decision and named the country Alakshah, which means "great country" in the Aleut language.

· The needle of a compass does not point directly north. It points either a little to the east or a little to the west, but not enough to make any difference to the average hiker. The difference is known to navigators as the "variation of the compass," and they take it into consideration when making critical geographical calculations. The phenomenon is due to the fact that the magnetic north and south poles do not coincide with the geographic north and south poles.

· Of the 25 highest mountains on Earth, 19 are in the Himalayas.

- Compiled by Jill Holt