Can you see the Great Wall of China from the moon or outer space?

Many are familiar with the claim that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space or from the moon with the naked eye. This is simply not true.
From a low orbit of the earth, many artificial objects are visible on the earth, such as highways, ships in the sea, railroads, cities, fields of crops, and even some individual buildings. While at a low orbit, the Great Wall of China can be seen from space but it is not unique in that regard.

Furthermore, when leaving the earth's orbit and acquiring an altitude of more than a few thousand miles, no man-made objects are visible at all. NASA says, "The Great Wall can barely be seen from the Shuttle, so it would not be possible to see it from the Moon with the naked eye." Thus, it'd be tough to spot the Great Wall of China or any other object from the moon. Furthermore, from the moon, even the continents are barely visible.

How did Pakistan get its name?
The name of the country Pakistan has a fascinating history - it is essentially an acronym.
Prior to 1947, the country now known as Pakistan was a British colony. In 1947 the United Kingdom granted independence to the region under a new name, Pakistan. The name had been developed by a group of students at Cambridge University who issued a pamphlet in 1933 called Now or Never. They came up with the term "Pakistan" as "composed of letters taken from the names of our homelands: that is, Punjab, Afghania [North-West Frontier Province], Kashmir, Iran, Sindh, Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Balochistan. It means the land of the Paks, the spiritually pure and clean."

Although the suffix "stan" means country in Hindi and Persian, the students were able to fit the names of homelands to create an appropriate country name.

How new is New Delhi?
The British, who occupied India, moved the capital city from Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) Delhi in 1912. The government wanted to build a brand-new capital city so they constructed a new city adjacent to Delhi. The new city was completed in 1931 and became known as New Delhi. The original Delhi became known as Old Delhi.

What are the four main islands of Japan?
Japan's "mainland" consists of four primary islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.
Hokkaido is in the northeast and the home of the island's capital city of Sapporo.

Honshu is the largest island and the Japanese core area which includes Tokyo and Osaka-Kyoto. Honshu is the world's seventh largest island.

Shikoku and Kyushu are in the south (Kyushu is in the extreme southwest and Shikoku is to its east).

Besides these four islands, Japan includes 2,000 additional smaller islands.

What is Taiwan's relationship to mainland China?
In 1949, a group of Chinese who opposed the Communist revolution on mainland China, fled to the island of Formosa and established the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan. Led by Chiang Kai-shek, the group formed the Chinese Nationalist government. The United Nations, United States, and many other countries recognized Taiwain as being the rightful government of the Chinese people.
In 1971 the mainland People's Republic of China gained recognition from the international community and took over Taiwain's seat in the United Nations. Today, Taiwan lacks international recognition or a seat in the United Nations and is considered by China to be a wayward province. Thus, the status of Taiwan has yet to be resolved.

What is the highest point in the world?
The highest and tallest elevation on the earth's surface is the top of Mount Everest on the border of Nepal and China at 29,035 feet (8,850 meters).

What is the holiest site in Mecca?
Mecca is the holiest city of the Islamic religion and within Mecca, the Great Mosque (Haram) is the holiest site. The Great Mosque houses the sacred Black Stone (the Ka'abah).

What is the largest continent?
Asia is the world's largest continent at 17,300,000 square miles (44,806,812 square kilometers). If you're considering Europe and Asia combined as Eurasia, then it's the largest continent at 21 million square miles (55 million km2).

What is the largest landlocked country?
A landlocked country is a country that has no access to the ocean at its borders. Kazakhstan is the world's ninth largest country but is the world's largest landlocked country. It's 1.03 million square miles (2.67 million km2) and is bordered by Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the landlocked Caspian Sea.

What is the lowest point in the world?
The lowest point on land on earth is at the Dead Sea, on the border of Jordan and Israel. The Dead Sea lies at 1,312 feet (400 meters) below sea level.
The lowest point in the sea on earth is the Pacific Ocean's Marianas Trench. It's near Guam and is 35,840 feet (10,924 km) deep.

What is the meaning of the suffix "stan"?
The suffix "stan" means nation or land. Thus, Afghanistan means "land of the Afghans."
There are seven countries that end in the suffix "stan:" Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

What is the status of Hong Kong?
Hong Kong (also known as Xianggang) is now a Special Administrative Region of China. On July 1, 1997 it was transfered from being a colony of the United Kingdom and was returned to China.

What is the status of Macau?
Macau is now a Special Administrative Region of China. On December 20, 1999 it was transfered from being a colony of Portugal and was returned to China.

What is the status of Tibet?
While Tibet was once a theocratic Buddhist kingdom and an independent country after 1912, Tibet was invaded by China in 1950. Tibet was given mild autonomy under a puppet communist government and ethnic Chinese were moved into the region to moderate the influence of and to outnumber the Tibetan Buddhists.
China's Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) comprises less than half of historic Tibet and was created by China in 1965 for administrative reasons.

What is the world's largest lake?
A lake any body of water surrounded by land and very large lakes are sometimes called seas. The world's largest lake is the salty Caspian Sea at 143,200 square miles (370,886 km2). The Caspian Sea is surrounded by Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan.
The world's second largest lake, and the world's largest freshwater lake is North America's Lake Superior at 31,700 mi2 (82,103 km2).

What is the world's largest metropolitan area?
The world's largest metropolitan area is Tokyo, Japan. The Tokyo urban area is home to more than 28 million people, over one-fifth of Japan's total population.

What is the world's most densely populated island?
Indonesia's island of Java is the island that is most densely populated with a population density of 2,100 people per square mile (810 per square kilometer). Java is home to more than 107 million people and is 51,000 square miles (132,089 km2).

What is the world's most visited mountain?
Mount Fuji is a sacred and important volcanic mountain in Japan. It is the country's most popular tourist spot and the world's most visited mountain. Over 100,000 people climb Mt. Fuji each year, during a climbing season that lasts from July 1 to August 26.
Mt. Fuji last erupted in 1708 and is shaped like a low cone that rises 12,388 feet (3,776 meters).

What is the world's tallest building?
The world's tallest "building" is actually a pair of buildings - the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Each of the two Petronas Towers measure 1483 feet (452 meters) high.

What was the United Arab Republic?
The United Arab Republic was founded in 1958 as a union between non-neighboring countries Egypt and Syria. The union only lasted until 1961 when Syria decided to become its own country. Despite the split, Egypt retained the United Arab Republic name for another decade.

What's the difference between a Muslim and Islam?
A Muslim is a practitioner of the Islamic religion.

Where are Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims prevalent?
The Sunni and Shi'ite are the two sects of Islam and approximately 85% of Muslims of Sunnis and are distributed throughout the Muslim world. Iran is the center of the Shi'ite sect.

Where did Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras go?
In 1996, India renamed the cities of Bombay and Madras. Bombay became Mumbai and Madras became Chennai. Then, in 1999, Calcutta became Kolkata.

Where is Asia Minor?
Asia Minor, also known as Anatolia, is the peninsula that forms the larger part of Turkey, which lies in Asia proper and is east of the Strait of Bosporus.

Where is Bollywood?
Bollywood refers to India's film capital centered in the city of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay and thus the origin of the word Bollywood). Bollywood produces more films than anywhere else in the world, including Hollywood.

Where is Dum Dum Airport?
Each year, over 2.5 million passengers pass through Dum Dum Airport in Kolkata (Calcuta), India.

Where is Indochina?
Indochina consists of the countries occupying the peninsula of Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the mainland portion of Malaysia.

Where is the border between Asia and Africa?
The commonly accepted border between Asia and Africa is the one between Egypt and Israel, lying along the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. Thus, Israel is in Asia and Egypt is in Africa. However, both are commonly included in the region known as the Middle East.

Where is the place on land that is farthest from an ocean?
There's a place in northern China that is over 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers) from any ocean. It's at 46°17' North, 86°40' East.

Where is the world's deepest lake?
Russia's Lake Baikal, located north of the Mongolian border, is the world's deepest with a maximum depth of just over one mile (5371 feet / 1637 meters). Lake Baikal is so deep that it holds about one-fifth of the world's non-frozen fresh water supply.

Where is the world's largest enclosed building?
The world's largest enclosed building is Hong Kong's Container Freight Station, with over seven million square feet of enclosed space. Hong Kong's container port is the world's busiest container port.
For more information on large buildings, please visit this page.

Where is the world's largest theocracy?
The world's largest theocracy, or governmental rule by religious leaders, is Iran. Although there is a secular president elected, the president shared power with religious leaders.

Which country's highest elevation is the world's lowest?
The Indian Ocean island nation of Maldives has the world's lowest maximum elevation for a country. The country, composed of 19 clusters of atolls, has a maximum elevation of eight feet. As one can imagine, Maldives is very concerned about any possible rise in global sea level.

Which two countries have not signed a peace treaty ending World War II?
As of September 2000, Japan and Russia have yet to sign a peace treaty officially ending the state of war that began with World War II. The reason? A disagreement over a handful of small islands off the northern coast of Japan's Hokkaido island, which are part of the Kuril Island chain (known as the Northern Territories in Japan). For more information, please read my article about the Kuril and Sakhalin Island Controversy.

Who are the economic tigers?
Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea are considered Asia's economic tigers, known for their repidly developing economies. However, Hong Kong is now a Special Administrative Region of China and Tawain lacks international recognition as an independent country.

Why is the Aral Sea shrinking?
Since 1960, when the Aral Sea was the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea has lost 75% of its water volume. This loss is due to the agricultural diversion of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, the Aral's main sources of inflowing water. The Aral Sea is bounded by Kazakhstan on the north and Uzbekistan on the south.
The decrease in water level has led to severe environmental and salt problems which have changed the climate around the sea, resulted in dust storms that spread disease, and the deaths of many species in the salty lake.

Why was Pakistan a divided country between east and west?
In 1947, the British left South Asia and divided their territory into the independent countries of India and Pakistan. Muslim regions that were on the east and west sides of Hindu India became part of Pakistan.
The two seperate territories were part of one country but were known as East and West Pakistan and were separated by over 1,000 miles (1,609 km). After 24 years of turmoil, East Pakistan declared independence and became Bangladesh in 1971.

Why was the capital of China once called Peking but is now called Beijing?
Prior to 1958, the Chinese government used the Wade-Giles system to transliterate Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet. After 1958 the government switched, and the rest of the world followed, to the pinyin system of transliteration so now we call the capital city Beijing (pinyin) instead of Peking (Wade-Giles).

Why was the Taj Mahal constructed?
The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, after she died in 1631. Located in Agra, India, the top dome reaches over 240 feet (73 meters) high. The Taj Mahal was named a United Nations World Heritage site in 1983.