Places – Amazing Facts 4 u

Burj Khalifa

Amazing Facts 4 U — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:30:09 +0000

30 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Burj Khalifa | Amazing Facts 4U

Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world with an architectural height of 2717 feet or 828.0 meters. Its people occupied height is 1918 feet or 584.5 meters.
The design of the tower is inspired by the shape of the Hymenocallis flower. The flower is known for its long petals extending out from its center.
The total cost of building Burj Khalifa was $1.5 billion.
Located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this tower was initially named as Burj Dubai but was renamed to Burj Khalifa in honor of UAE president Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The construction work started in 2004 and was completed in 2010.
Burj Khalifa is the tallest tower in Dubai, UAE, Middle East and World beating the next tallest building by more than about 1000 Ft. It is 3 times as tall as Eiffel Tower,15 times the highest point at Niagara Falls and 2 times taller than Empire State Building.
The tower also holds world records for: ‘tallest free standing building’, ‘highest occupied floor’, ‘highest number of stories’, and ‘second highest outdoor observatory deck’.
Burj Khalifa holds the record of 504 metres longest travel distance elevator in the world. It has 58 functional elevators that run at the fastest speed in the world at 18 meters per second.
The observatory deck of the building is located at a height of 1483 feet or 452.1 meters , the second highest in the world. Record for highest outdoor observation deck is now held by Canton Tower which opened in 2011.
There are 163 floors located above the ground and it has only one floor located below the ground.
Burj Khalifa has highest swimming pool installed on the 76th floor, highest mosque in the world at 158th floor and tallest nightclub at 144 floors.
The building is so tall that you can see it from 60 miles away. Entire Dubai and even neighboring country Iran can be seen from top of Burj Khalifa.
At the top in Burj Khalifa temperature drops 6 degrees from base to peak and the winds at the top can reach whooping 90 miles an hour.
Burj Khalifa can accommodate 35,000 people at a time.
It has 2909 stairs from ground floor to 160 level.
Amazingly it has 11 hectares of park area.
Burj Khalifa has 37 office floors. Office space pricing at Burj Khalifa is about $3000 to $5000 per square feet.
Burj Khalifa has Armani Hotel Dubai with 160 guest rooms and suites, 144 Armani private residences and 900 Burj Khalifa residences.
Burj Khalifa has about 3000 parking spaces.
There is a dining restaurant at 122 level at 442 m height and world’s second highest swimming pool at 76 level.
The Gross Floor Area of the tower is 3,331,140 ft2 or 309,473 m2. The Gross Floor Area is the area within the footprint of the tower and does not include connected buildings and adjoining podiums.
Emaar is the developer/owner of the tower and its design architect is American firm Skidmore Owings & Merill.
Turner Construction was the project manager for Burj Khalifa while Besix, Arabtec and Samsung C&T Corporation were its main contractors. Dow Corning Corporation supplied sealants for the tower while Otis Elevator Company supplied the elevators.
During peak construction days, 12,000 workers were engaged every day.
22 million man-hours, 55,000 ton steel bars and 110,000 ton concrete were used to complete the construction of the tower in 6 years.
Steel bars used in the construction of Burj Khalifa if laid down end to end, the total length would be one quarter of the earth circumference.
Total aluminum used in the tower weighs as much as five A380 aircrafts while total concrete used weighs as much as 100,000 elephants.
26,000 glass panels cut individually were used to create the exterior of the building which were fitted by 300 Chinese cladding experts to withstand Dubai’s summer heat.
The building has 12 machines of 13 tons each moving along tracks constructed outside the building.36 cleaners board these machines clean the 26,000 reflective glass panels.
The antenna at the top has a length of 220 meters carrying weight of 3,500 tons.
Burj Khalifa requires a supply of 950,000 liters of water every day through 100 Km of pipelines and total electricity consumption is equivalent to 360,000 bulbs of 100-watt each burning together.

Visit and subscribe to our blog! Get enriching & uplifting quotes right in your inbox: www.wisdomlifequotes.com

~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

Cities

Amazing Facts 4 U — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 09:30:56 +0000

75 Amazing and Unknown Facts about Cities | Amazing Facts 4U

The amazing fact is that if you die in Amsterdam with no next of kin to attend the funeral, a poet will write a special poem for you and recite it at your funeral.
Bangkok, Thailand’s real name is amazingly the longest city name on Earth written with 163 symbols.
The fact is breathing the air in Beijing has the same health risks as smoking 21 cigarettes a day.
Blue Canyon, California is the snowiest city in the USA.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa is the only city in the world to have its government located on an island.
Amazingly Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world after Warsaw.
Amazingly in Churchill, Canada, residents have to leave their cars unlocked as an escape for pedestrians to escape a polar bear attack!
The fact is Damascus, Syria was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC.
Amazingly in Detroit most police station are closed to public for 16 hours resulting in response time of about one hour compared to national average of 10 minutes.
Dinosaur is a town in Colorado.
Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel amazingly provides guests with Gold i-pads.
High Wycombe is a town in the UK that weighs their mayor before and after their term as a tradition! The ceremony began in 1678 and has continued on to this day. It started because citizens were angry because they believed public officials were stealing money they didn’t deserve and getting fat of it.
Honk Kong has the biggest number of Rolls-Royce cars per resident in the entire world.
Amazingly Honolulu is the only place in the United States that has a royal palace!
Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world that lies in two continents.
Juneau , Alaska is the “largest” city in the United States covering about 3,000 square miles.
La Paz , Capital city of Bolivia is the highest capital in the World at 17000 Ft. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere is barely able to support fire.
The fact is the city of Las Vegas has the most hotel rooms in the world.
The 315,000 watt light beam shining from the top of the Luxor hotel , Las Vegas is the most powerful in the World visible from amazing distance of 250 miles.
Amazing fact is Latvia has a prison hotel where Guests are treated like convicts and hotel rooms are like prison cells.
London is technically one of the smallest cities in the UK with only 7,000 residents! That’s because the City of London is a city within the greater London. The city’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since it was founded by the Romans in 47 AD and today it covers only 1.12 square miles.
Do you know that in London average tourist is being caught on surveillance cameras about 300 times a day ?
Amazingly to be a London black cab driver , you are expected to know 25000 roads and 50000 points of interest and pass a test called “Knowledge”. To pass the exams applicants usually need 12 appearances and has to prepare for 34 months.
Fact is when We think of Big Ben in London , We think of the clock. Actually it is the bell.
Amazing fact is the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London has been going on uninterrupted since the 14th century !
Los Angeles’s is named after river named “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula”. And can be abbreviated to two letters , “L.A. , just 3.6% of full name.
Amazingly in the city of Mackinac islands , Michigan , cars have been banned since 1898.
Madrid is the only European Capital city not situated on river.
Marion , Ohio , USA has the only popcorn museum in the world .
Mexico City is amazingly sinking at a rate of 6 to 8 inches a year because it’s built on top of an underground reservoir.
In Mexico City, the average square yard of a sidewalk contains about 70 discarded gums.
Mexico City has the most museums in the world, with more than 160, almost all of which are free on Sundays! The city also has over 100 art galleries, and 30 concert halls.
Amazingly “Monowi” is a town of Nebraska which has a population of 1. The mayor pays taxes to herself.
Montreal has an underground city, which has over 2,000 shops and 26 kilometers of walkways. This is in fact the largest underground network for any city.
Amazingly Montreal is the second largest French speaking city after Paris.
Moscow is the city with the most number of billionaires with 78 of them.
In 1626, the Dutch purchased Manhattan Island from the Lenape Native Americans for 60 guilders (about $1000). The English conquered the city from the Dutch in 1664, and “New Amsterdam” became “New York.”
Amazingly in 1698, New York City only had a population of 4,937 people.
New York’s Wall Street was named such due to the 1340 Ft long and 12 Feet tall wall erected in 1653 by Dutch colonists for protection against enemies.
Fact is New York city was briefly the U.S. Capital from 1789 to 1790.
Amazing fact is there are enough restaurants in New York for you to eat out every night for 54 years and never visit the same place again.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
There’s a restaurant in New York called “The Exchange Bar & Grill” where menu prices amazingly rise and fall based on demand just like the Stock Exchange!
The New York subway system is the largest mass transit system in the world with 468 stations and 842 miles (1355 km) of track.
Unlike most major subways systems around the world, the New York Subway runs 24 hours a day. About 40% of the New York Subway system is above ground. The first underground section of the Subway was opened in 1904.
The New York street network is in fact the longest in the world. It exceeds 10,000 km.
The city of New York paid only $5 million for the land that would become central park . The land is now valued at $ 550 billion. It is visited by more than 25 million visitors per year.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (“The Met”) contains over 2 million works, making it one of the largest art museums in the world. It contains one of the most comprehensive collection of Asian art in the West.
Hartsdale , New York amazingly has a pet cemetery with more than 12,000 pets buried.
There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Japan’s Okinava island has more than 450 persons living above the age of 100 and is the healthiest place on earth.
Amazingly Paris is the only city in the world, where the «M» of the famous McDonalds logo is not written in yellow but with white because authorities insisted that yellow environment is tasteless as advised by the city’s artists.
Pierre, the capital of South Dakota, is the only state capital name that shares no letters with the name of its state.
Fact is Sparta , a Greek city had 500,000 slaves and only 25,000 citizens att the height of its power (400 BC).
Rome , Italy was the first city in the World to reach a population of 1 million people in 133 B.C.
Every year visitors throw approx. 1.1 million Euros into the Trevi fountain in Rome. The fund is used to operate supermarket for the needy.
The San Francisco Fire Department uses handmade wooden ladders for safety as the streets of San Francisco are filled with low-hanging power lines. Also wood ladders are much heavier, and remain stable when strong winds come in.
Amazingly there is not a single graveyard within the city of San Francisco .
Seoul has been the capital city of Korea for more than 600 years.
Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means “the capital” in the Korean language.
Shani Shinganapur is a town Maharashtra , India having population of 15000 that has no doors . There are only door frames even in toilets.
St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest city in the US.
Amazingly there is a town in Alaska , Talkeetna , which has had a cat as a mayor for 15 years.
With more than 37.5 million people living in greater Tokyo, the city is the largest metropolitan area in the world. Due to limited space , a typical size of a one bedroom apartment is usually not more than 15 square meters (170 square feet). Most Japanese apartments have sliding doors.
Tokyo is known for tiny hotel rooms in unique “Capsule hotels”. You get nothing more than a capsule or a box to sleep in.
Tokyo’s subway is one of the busiest in the world. Millions of people use the subway and railway daily, and they even have staff cramming passengers inside the trains. In fact Japan has 82 of the 100 busiest train stations in the world!
Toronto was the first city in the world with a computerized traffic signal system.
The vatican city is home to only ATM that gives instructions in Latin.
Venice has an underwater Train.
The city of Venice stands on about 120 small islands.
There are no skyscrapers in Washington D.C. The height restriction amazingly stems from a 1910 law prohibiting buildings from being any taller than the width of the adjacent street, plus 20 feet.
Washington D.C. is dotted with parks that impede the flow of traffic. The city’s 19th century architects placed the parks at inconvenient locations to serve as impediments to any army invading from the water.
Washington D.C. is home to 74 museums, including the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the most heavily visited museum in the world!
Amazing fact is Washington D.C. has 1 lawyer for every 19 residents, and 74 lobbyists for every Senator.
Most of Washington’s streets are named for letters and numbers. But there is no “J” Street because in Colonial times, the letters “J” and “I” were interchangeable. “J” was not yet a fully recognized letter.

Visit and subscribe to our blog! Get enriching & uplifting quotes right in your inbox: www.wisdomlovequotes.com

~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

USA

Amazing Facts 4 U — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 09:30:38 +0000

75 Amazing Facts that will surprise you About USA | Amazing Facts 4U

The word “America” comes from the European explorer “Amerigo Vespucci.
Amazingly at their closest point, the Russian and U.S. borders are just less than two miles apart.
Denmark is the only other country in the world to celebrate the United States birthday, July 4th.
The amazing fact is that the USA spends more money on its military than the next thirteen countries on the list combined.
The fact is the largest air force in the world is the US Air Force. The second largest air force in the world is the US Navy.
The border between Canada and the U.S. is the world’s longest frontier. It stretches amazing 3,987 miles (6,416 km).
An amazing fact is the murder rate in the United States is 200 times greater than in Japan. In Japan, no private citizen can buy a handgun legally.
With 2.2 million people behind bars, the United States has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners. China comes a close second at 1.5 million while Russia comes third at 870,000.
Amazingly USA population in 1776 was just 2.5 million.
The fact is thousands of Americans migrated to the USSR in the 1930s during the Great Depression.
Four corners are the spot in the USA where a person can amazingly stand in four states at the same time.
Americans save less than 1 % of their income.
There are amazing 16 million inventions under active patent in the USA.
It’s estimated that Americans generate roughly 20 % of the World’s garbage.
The amazing fact is one American consumes as many resources as 32 Kenyans.
About 20 million Americans live in mobile homes.
It’s completely legal for minors to smoke cigarettes in the U.S. but they can’t purchase them.
Smoking causes 1 in every 5 deaths in the U.S. every year.
Amazingly every tweet Americans sent is being archived by the Library of Congress.
7% of Americans claim they never bath.
Ho-Ho-Kus in New Jessey is the only town in the USA which has two dashes in its name.
In AspenColorado, you can have a maximum income of $104,000 and still receive government-subsidized housing.
The University of Alaska stretches over 4 time zones.
Americans take an average of just ten days per year vacation.
Do you know that the USA bought Alaska from Russia for amazing 2 cents an acre?
In 1819, the USA purchased Florida from Spain for the cancellation of a $5 million debt.
Maine is the only state in the lower 48 that touches only one other state.
Amazingly Point Roberts in Washington State is cut off from the rest of the state by British Columbia, Canada. If you wish to travel from Point Roberts to the rest of the state or vice versa, you must pass through Canada, including both Canadian and U.S. customs.
The exact geographic center of the United States (USA) is near Lebanon, Kansas.
The fact is before 1863, postal service in the United States (USA) was free.
When the U.S. War Department was established in 1789, there were just 840 soldiers in the regular army. Their job was to supervise public lands and guard the Indian frontier.
The amazing fact is that at the outbreak of World War I, the American air force consisted of only fifty men.
Amazingly the longest election in US history lasted over 315 days and was nearly won by just Two votes!
Workers at Ground Zero found an 18-century ship underneath the World Trade Center rubble.
The amazing fact is it used to be legal to send kids in the mail. When domestic parcel post service was introduced in the United States in 1913, Americans were finally able to send packages across the country at an affordable rate. At least two people sent their stamp-covered children through the mail before this was banned.
There is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States!
Amazingly it’s OK for television companies to lie to their viewers.
The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
The United States (USA) is the only country that has Exxon gas stations. They’re called Esso everywhere else.
It’s amazing that the average American family uses 35 times as much water as the average African family.
Florida has two rivers with the same name called “Withlacoochee River.
The United States (USA) amazingly still does not have an official language. It is the de facto, official language because 82% of people claim it as their mother tongue.
The fact is the White House wasn’t called “the White House” until 1901 almost 100 years after it was built.
School buses in the US are yellow because our eyes pick up yellow faster than other colors. In fact, your ability to detect yellow is 1.24 times greater than red.
It’s amazing that 15 percent of Americans are living on food stamps!
In 1913 the US Postal Service began the parcel sending service. Soon after a businessman in Utah decided he would build a bank. A man mailed 80,000 bricks to build a bank 120 km away because it was the cheapest option at one-fourth cost! He had the bricks carefully wrapped in crates, each weighing less than 50 pounds for delivery.
Amazingly Manhattan had 47% more people in 1910 (About 2.3 million) than in 2014 (1.6 million)!
If you turn in a tax cheat, the IRS will give you at least 15% of what they collect!
Amazingly in 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in space that was 100 times more powerful than Hiroshima.
Do you know that over 60 % of the US urban water consumption is used for watering lawns?
Amazingly there’s a salt mine 1,200 feet below the surface of Detroit, Michigan spread over 1,400 acres. They have over 50 miles of roads covering them. This is enough salt to last us for 70 million years!
The U.S. military uses secret Velcro that is 95 % quieter than all other Velcro!
The only state in the U.S that grows coffee beans is Hawaii in what’s known locally as the Kona district. Hawaiians usually call coffee Kope and Hawaiian coffee is some of the most expensive in the world.
Disneyland amazingly does not sell chewing gum as Walt Disney did not want guests inconvenienced by stepping on gum purchased in the park.
Amazingly the United States, Burma & Liberia are the only countries that haven’t yet adopted the Metric system as the standard of measurement.
The amazing fact is that the top richest 1% of Americans own 42% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 80% own just 7%.
The fact is if you have no debts and $10 in your pocket, you are wealthier than 25 % of the Americans.
Amazingly there are 5 times more vacant houses than homeless people in the United States.
In 1999, the U.S. government paid the Zapruder family $16 million for the film of JFK’s assassination.
In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks, and spoons.
North Dakota has never had an earthquake.
Today 2 out of 3 Americans are overweight.
Amazingly Alaska has a longer coastline than all of the other 49 U.S. states put together.
Montana has three times as many cows as it does people.
The United States has 850 motor vehicles for every 1,000 people which is the highest in the world.
The U.S. Government spends the US $1.8 billion per year printing documents.
The grizzly bear is the official state animal of California. The amazing fact is that no grizzly bears have been seen there since 1922.
One out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.
The United States has a teen pregnancy rate of 22 percent – the highest in the world. New Zealand is number two at 14 percent.
It took from the founding of the nation until 1981 for the U.S. national debt to cross the one trillion dollar mark. Today, the national debt is well over 15 trillion dollars and more than a trillion dollars is added to debt every single year.
The United States (USA) had $ 0 debt only once in 1835 when president Andrew Jackson paid it all off.
Amazingly Philadelphia was the first capital of the United-States. Over the years the capital of this country has been through Philadelphia, New York to return to Philadelphia and then permanently to Washington DC.
The fact is there are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is man-made.
The fact is the USA has spent enough in Afghanistan and Iraq to wipe out world poverty for 10 years.
An unknownfact is that the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition in the 20s and 30s, killing over 10,000 people.

Visit and subscribe to our blog! Get enriching & uplifting quotes right in your inbox: www.informativequotes.com

~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

Panama

Amazing Facts 4 U — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 09:30:50 +0000

30 Amazing Facts about Panama | Amazing Facts 4U

Land & Geography

Panama is one of the largest countries in Central America. However amazingly Panama has the smallest population anywhere in Central America at about 3.2 million.
Panama is one of the smallest countries in the world but the most advanced in Central America.
Panama is in a unique position in Central America. From one side of Panama, you are on the Atlantic Ocean and you can watch the sunrise. Then with just a couple of hours of trip to the Pacific, you can watch the sunset.
At its narrowest distance, only 80 kilometers is the land in Panama, which separates the Atlantic from the Pacific Ocean.
With 5,637 kilometers of coastline and more than 1,518 islands, Panama has more beaches than one can imagine.
The amazing fact is that Panama shelters more birds than the United States and Canada combined. It is one of the most diverse locations in the world for exotic wildlife. There are plants, animals, and other natural occurrences that only happen in Panama and nowhere else in the world.
The amazing fact is that Panama houses over 10,000 different plant species, including 1,200 varieties of orchids, 678 ferns, and more than 1,500 varieties of trees.
Panama is home to the second-largest rainforest in the Western Hemisphere located in Panama City. Amazingly the capital is the only one in the world to boast a rainforest within the city limits.

History

Columbus did not stop at the Caribbean when he landed in the new world he went on to explore most of Central America and even Panama in 1502.
Panama declared independence from Spain in 1903.

Places / Architecture

The Panama Canal is the most popular destination in Panama.
One of the greatest man-made structures ever built in Central America is the amazing Panama Canal. It is now considered one of the world’s 7 modern wonders. The canal generates fully one-third of Panama’s entire economy.
Amazingly work on the Panama Canal was started by the French in 1882 excavating 30 million cubic yards spending $ 260 Million Dollars and losing 20,000 lives.
The U.S. paid the French $ 40 million for the Panama Canal rights and paid $ 10 million to Panama for Canal Zone by a treaty in 1904. The Panama Canal was completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914 excavating 232 million cubic yards at a cost of $ 375 million Dollars losing about 5600 lives.
The U.S. paid $ 250,000 per annum as initial rent to Panama beginning in 1913.
Panama Canal was officially opened on August 15, 1914. It was taken care of by the U.S. troops until December 1999 when Panama assumed full control of the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal is in fact one of mankind’s greatest feats. Literally separating two continents, the canal allows ships voyaging between New York and San Francisco to save 7,872 miles of travel. The Canal stretches 80 kilometers from Panama City on the Pacific coast to Colón on the Atlantic side. Providing passage for nearly 14,000 ocean-going vessels per year.
An amazing fact is the Panama Railroad was the most expensive railroad ever built, as it cost 9 million dollars and took 5 years to build and was completed in 1855, its length being 47 miles. More than 12000 people died in the construction of the railroad. It is the oldest operating railway in the world.
Panama is the main location in Central America where you can experience the rich cultural, historical, and traditional experiences of the Mayan and Aztec cultures.
Panama is one of the only locations in all of Central America with the richest and most historical cathedrals are located. Many bishops came to help with the construction of the first cathedrals in Central America and were there to advise the construction.

People Customs & Culture

Nearly 85% of the people in the country are Catholics and the remaining 15% are Protestants.
Panama has more United States Expats than any other country in the world.
The Panama hat originated in Panama (Indiana Jones hat).

Politics/ Legal

Panama has had a mainly male-dominated political system since its independence that all changed when in 1999 Panama named its first woman president, Mireya Moscoso.
Amazingly Panama is one of only a few countries in the world that decided by constitution not to have a military force. Instead, Panama has Panamanian Public Forces that were created to police the country.
Panama is one of the few countries in the world to use 2 different types of currency. The Currency used in Panama is the Balboa and Dollar.
An amazing fact is the Panamanian constitution gives foreigners and citizens the same right to own property.
Most of the land rights in Panama are protected rain forests instituted by the government in 1970.

Economy

Panama has the second-largest duty-free zone in the world. It is also the second-largest registrant for offshore companies.

Sport

Panama’s past time is soccer is has been the official sport of Panama since its inception in the early 1900s.

A great thought to start your day! Follow our blog on: www.delightfulquotes.com

~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

Uruguay

Amazing Facts 4 U — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 09:30:34 +0000

30 Amazing Facts About Uruguay | Amazing Facts 4U

Land & Geography

The name of the country when translated means “river of painted birds”.
It is a small, heart-shaped country sandwiched between Argentina to the west and south and Brazil to the north. The Atlantic Ocean forms its eastern border.
The area of Uruguay is 176,215 square kilometers.
Uruguay is one of the most cultured countries in South America with its high literacy rate, refined manners, and high quality of life.
In English, the country name is unique in having the letter ‘U appear three times within the first five letters.
About 4 million people live in Uruguay.
Montevideo is the capital and also the chief port of the country with a population of 1.7 million. It is one of the largest capital in South America outside of Brazil.
Montevideo was originally founded in the eighteenth century as a military stronghold by the Spanish colonizers.
Uruguay has a coastline of about 500 kilometers, which offers some of the most beautiful and scenic beaches. Most of the good beaches are located on the Atlantic Ocean.
Uruguay has over 400 medicinal herbs.

History

Prior to colonization, the residents of Uruguay were the Charrua Indians. The Spanish entered Uruguay in search of gold and silver deposits.
A staggering 88% of the people are from European descendants mainly immigrants from Spain and Italy during the 19th and 20th centuries. In fact, Uruguay is the only European-style nation in all of South America.

People Customs & Culture

The official language of Uruguay is Spanish.
The majority of people are Roman Catholic however there is no official religion in Uruguay.
The life expectancy at birth is 75.2 years which is the highest in South America.
Uruguay has one of the highest literary rates in the world hovering close to 98% of the population.
The word for Uruguayan cowboys in Spanish is Gauchos.
The national day is celebrated on August 25 as they gained their independence in 1825 on that day.
Dueling was legalized in 1920 in a bid by the Government to control the bloodshed. Amazingly it was legal until 1992. The limited amount of gunpowder that could be used and the fact that contests involving swords must be stopped at first blood prevented any further deaths until it was banned.

Politics/ Legal

Jose Gervasio Artigas was an Uruguayan hero because of his strong stance in the independence war against brazil after Portugal annexed it to them. Uruguay gained its independence from Brazil in 1825.
When Uruguay established the first government after the civil war with Spain. It chose to become a constitutional republic modeled after the USA.
Uruguay readjusted the Electoral College in the country in 1999. This helped the country establish new governing rules for elected presidents.
There are two traditional national parties and branches in Uruguay the National (“Blanco”) and Colorado parties, which were founded in the early 19th century.
The Uruguayan flag has nine strips and sun in the upper left-hand corner with a human face.
Uruguay is rated as the least corrupt country in Latin America, along with Chile.
In 2009, Uruguay became the first nation in the world to provide every school child with a free laptop and wireless internet.

Economy & Corporates

The official currency of Uruguay is the peso.
The largest of its exports is agricultural products as which constitutes 70% of current exports.
In Uruguay, there are 3 cows for every one person.

Sports

The leading sport in Uruguay is football. Uruguay held its first FIFA world cup in 1930 Uruguay which Uruguay won. Uruguay is the smallest country in the world in terms of population to win a FIFA cup.

Visit and subscribe to our blog! Get enriching & uplifting quotes right in your inbox: www.wisdomlovequotes.com

~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

Amazon Rainforest

Amazing Facts 4 U — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 09:30:40 +0000

35 Amazing Facts about Amazon Rainforest | Amazing Facts 4U

The Amazon rainforest gets its name from the Amazon River, the life force of the rainforest. It is the world’s largest tropical rainforest located in the Amazon basin of South America. There are so much abundance and variety of flora and fauna that much of it is yet to be documented.
The Amazon rainforest has existed for at least 55 million years.
At over five million square kilometers, the Amazon rainforest is the largest in the world covering 2/5th of South America. This is the equivalent to approximately 2/3 of the continental USA.
Amazingly the Amazon rainforest accounts for 54% of the entire world’s remaining rainforests.
Brazil has 60%, Peru has 13%, and Columbia has 10% of the Amazon rainforest. It also stretches into the countries of Venezuela, Bolivia, Suriname, Guyana, French Guyana, and Ecuador.
The basin is drained by the Amazon River, the world’s largest river in terms of discharge, and the second-longest river in the world after the Nile. The river is made up of over 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are longer than 1000 miles.
The Amazon River once poured into the Pacific Ocean. When the Andes Mountains have formed 15 million years ago, the Amazon River’s flow was slowly blocked until huge freshwater lakes were formed. Approximately 10 million years ago, the river changed its course to pour into the Atlantic ocean.
Very little sunlight makes it through the dense canopy of trees and foliage covering the Amazon rainforest. On the ground, it is nearly completely dark. Amazingly only 2% of sunlight makes it to the bottom. In fact, if it started raining, it would take ten minutes before you even got wet!
Out of all the energy that goes into the Amazon, 9/10ths of it are stored in tree leaves and tissues.
The Amazon Rainforest receives about nine feet of rain every year.
Approximately 200,000 people live in the Amazon rainforest the vast majority of them indigenous Indians. In fact 500 years ago about 10 million indigenous Indians lived there.
Among these 200,000 people, there are 50 tribes that have never been in contact with the outside world. There are approximately 170 different languages spoken by the Amazon natives. The Yanomami tribe is the largest tribe in the Amazon today.
The number of edible fruits found in the rainforest is estimated at 3,000. Amazon natives consume more than 1,500, but only 200 are cultivated for use today.
The amazing fact is that the Amazon rainforest is home to over two and a half million different species of insect, more than forty thousand varieties of plant, one and a half thousand bird species, and over two thousand fish species.
Candiru fish is a nasty little creature also called the toothpick fish, which has been reported to swim up the urethra of bathers and lodges itself therein. Removal by surgery is the only treatment.
About 25% of all drugs are derived from rainforest ingredients and this is just from the 10% that have been tested for medicinal properties. In fact of the plants known to have anti-cancer properties, 70% are found in the rainforest.
Most of our food in fact came originally from the rainforests of the Amazon. Amazon-derived products in fact include bananas, black pepper, chocolate, coffee, corn, pineapple, rice, and tomatoes.
Over 500 different mammals live in the Amazon rainforest including capybaras, which are the largest rodents on earth, jaguars, spider monkeys, vampire bats, and sloths. There are also over 300 different species of reptile including the anaconda snake and the caiman, a species of crocodile.
The world’s largest species of bat called the fishing bat has large claws. It’s also called the bulldog bat because of its dog-like snout. In the dark of night, it swoops down on fish whose surface ripples it detects using its sonar. It is the only bat species to be able to fish.
The glass frog’s flesh is entirely transparent, allowing you to see the internal organs, including the heart pumping away. It takes on the hue of surrounding vegetation, making it hard to see.
In the Amazon river itself, there are about 30 times as many different species of fish as in all European rivers combined. These include freshwater catfish called pirarucu that can grow to over 10 feet long and electric eels capable of stunning a man besides carnivorous red-bellied piranha fish.
Located in the Amazon is a 300-pound fish known as the Arapaimam which is covered in armor-like protective scales that protects them from a Piranha bite.
One-third of the world’s species of birds live in the Amazon rainforest, amongst them macaws, toucans, herons, and parrots.
The Toucan, the loudest bird in the Amazon rainforest, can be heard from a distance of half a mile away.
A variety of evergreen broad-leaf trees make up most of the Amazon rainforest. Amazingly variety is so much that you can find over 200 different species in just one hectare of rainforest. Amazon water lily can measure over 7 feet across. These trees and other rainforest plants produce 20 percent of the world’s oxygen.
Amazon river approximately 4000 miles long drains an area equivalent in size to the United States and it has 16% of the World’s river water. During the high water season, it can be 30 miles wide and the river’s mouth maybe 300 miles wide, and every day up to 500 billion cubic feet of water ( About 5.8 million cubic feet/sec) may flow into the Atlantic. This daily flow into the Atlantic is enough to supply New York City’s freshwater needs for nine years. The force of the current from sheer water volume alone causes Amazon River water to continue flowing amazing 125 miles out to sea before mixing with Atlantic saltwater.
The river current carries tons of suspended sediment all the way from the Andes. It is calculated that 106 million cubic feet of suspended sediment are swept into the ocean each day. The result from the silt deposited at the mouth of the Amazon is Majaro island, a river island about the size of Switzerland.
Of the top 8 largest rivers by the volume of water discharge, the Amazon River is bigger than all the others combined.
The full moon causes a tidal wave to roll up the Amazon river once a day and once a night for a period of only three weeks once a year, resulting in a continuous 4-meter high wave that can be surfed for up to 13 km.
It is believed that there is an underground river running below the Amazon, about 4 km underground and almost as long.
It is unfortunate that an estimated number of 2,700 million acres of the rainforest are burned each year.
Amazingly in 2011, a fungus, Pestalotiopsis microspora, was found in the Amazonian Forest which can survive on a diet solely consisting of polyurethane (plastic).
A 17-year-old woman, Juliane Koepcke, fell 3 km into the Amazon rainforest when her plane crashed. She survived & walked 10 days before being rescued. All 91 of her other co-passengers died.
The first “found footage” film was “Cannibal Holocaust” from 1980. It was filmed in the Amazon Rainforest using real indigenous tribes interacting with the actors.
A man named Martin Strel swam the 3273-mile length of the Amazon in a record-breaking 66 days.

Visit and subscribe to our blog! Get enriching & uplifting quotes right in your inbox: www.wisdomlifequotes.com