Europe is made up of 50
countries, each with its own language, culture and history. In this way the Old
Continent is placed as a wide and diverse territory, which hides peculiar and
curious data. We have compiled 10 amazing facts from Europe that you might not
know.
As its name indicates, the Old
Continent has a lot of history behind it. European science, art, culture extend
beyond its borders and its territory welcomes some of the most tourist
countries in the world.
It could be said that in
general we know a lot about Europe. But the truth is that this territory is a
vast and diverse space that also hides a good number of peculiar and curious
facts and data that you may not know.
The largest island in the world
is European territory
The largest island in the world
(after Australia which, being a country is not considered in this
classification) is Greenland, which although it is an autonomous region and
located in North America, belongs to the kingdom of Denmark.
Despite this, the independence
sentiment is strong in Greenlanders and this was demonstrated in 2008 when up
to 75% of the population of the island voted in favor of a statute that
recognizes the right to self-determination. But at the moment it still belongs
to Denmark.
As for its size, the largest
island in the world has an extension of exactly 2,130,800 square kilometers, of
which 85% of them are covered with ice.
Among other curiosities of this
region, as the journalist Paco Nadal in El PaÃs recounts, in Greenland there is
no right to own land, nor can roads be found that connect two inhabited nuclei
. For this it is necessary to travel by sled, plane or boat.
In Hungary never toast with
beer
Offering at celebrations or
social gatherings is a very common custom in many countries. In general in all
of them it is not well seen to bump the glasses with non-alcoholic drinks. But
in Hungary it is also not toast with beers.
It is said that the motive
dates back to 1848. At that time Hungary was trying unsuccessfully to become
independent from the Austrian Empire. Every time they got a victory it was
common to find the Austrians toasting with beer. The nationalist sentiment
makes that in Hungary, toasting with beer still reminds of these past times and
is not well received.
Europe has the town with the
longest name in the world
It is in Wales and the name in
question is, nothing more and nothing, less than
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Try saying it, it's
really complicated, right? Such is the way the town's website even includes a
section to tell us how to pronounce it.
Although to make things easier
the town appears marked as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and is known by the locals as
Llanfairpwll or Llanfair. PG According to its history, collected on its own website
, before acquiring this huge name, it was known as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, which
in Welsh comes to say something like 'The church of Mary by the pond near the
White Hazels'.
It was not until 1850 with the
development of the railway that the name change took place. The people sought
to become a benchmark that made travelers stop in it and thus help its
development. It was then that in a local committee one of the members proposed
the change of denomination. As has the bright idea to be attributed to a shoemaker
in the region of Menai Bridge. Already at that time that man came up with a
great marketing plan that remains to this day.
There are areas in Europe where
the human being has not entered
These are the primary forests,
virgin and wild forest extensions where ecological processes still follow a
natural dynamic. It is hard to believe that man has never set foot inside, but
as such, these primary forests are characterized by not showing signs of human
activity in them.
This was commented in a press
release, the ecologist of the University of Humboldt, Francesco Maria Sabatini,
lead author of the research responsible for developing the first maps on the
primary forests of Europe. A study that revealed, by the way, positive data, to
discover that these forested regions are more frequent in the old continent
than previously thought. The research was able to detect more than 13,759
kilometers in 34 European countries, a finding that was published in the
Diversity & Distributions magazine in May 2018.
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