In the ancient Greek myth of Aphrodite's birth, she emerges from the water around Cyprus. The beaches outside the city of Pafos specifically claim to be the birthplace of the goddess of love. Located there is Aphrodite Rock, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Given its place in mythology, it's no wonder that Cyprus has been given the nickname "Island of Love."

N’Djamena is the capital of Chad, which is a landlocked country in north-central Africa. Much of Chad’s northern region is dominated by the Sahara Desert. N’Djamena is located in the southwestern corner of the country, near Lake Chad and the border with Cameroon.

At 13,170 miles long, the Great Wall of China is the longest structure ever built by humans. You may have heard that the Great Wall is the only human-made structure on Earth that can be seen from space, but according to NASA, the wall is generally not visible to the unaided eye because it tends to blend into the surroundings of the same color.

Newfoundland and Labrador is the newest of the 10 provinces, joining the confederation in 1949. While the island of Labrador shares its name with the beloved dog breed, it was actually named for João Fernandes Lavrador, a Portuguese explorer who sailed through the area in the late 15th century. The Newfoundland working dog also hails from this province of Canada.

The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range located in southern Costa Rica and western Panama. At its highest peak — Chirripó Grande — the mountains reach an elevation of 12,530 feet. The Talamanca range combines with La Amistad National Park to form a joint UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as the first binational UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

In the 15th century, Portuguese explorers named the Wouri River — one of Cameroon’s largest rivers — the Rio dos Camaroes, or “River of Prawns,” because of the abundance of the shrimp in the water. Over time, the appellation became Cameroon, and after the Germans took over in 1884, the name Kamerun was applied to their entire protectorate, which became modern-day Cameroon.

In 1974, a group of farmers digging a well in the northwestern Shaanxi province stumbled across perhaps the greatest archeological find in modern times: a vast underground collection with terracotta (a kind of clay) soldier statues. Archaeologists have since uncovered more than 600 pits across a 22-square-mile area filled with this “army” (including life-size terracotta horses) which stands guard over Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s final resting place.

The first baseball league in Latin America was founded in Cuba in 1878. The sport was introduced to the island nation the previous decade when students returned from the U.S. with a baseball and a bat — since then, it has become not only the national sport of Cuba but also a huge part of Cuban cultural identity.

Dubrovnik, Croatia, sits on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. One of the most spectacularly preserved cities in Europe, the "Pearl of the Adriatic" features medieval stone walls surrounding the old city, which were built around 500 years ago when Dubrovnik was a major military presence and home to one of the largest navies in the Mediterranean.

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the driest non-polar desert in the world, but its temperatures are mild compared to those of most deserts. The desert stretches about 600 miles between the Andes Mountains and the Cordillera de la Costa mountain range along the Pacific coast. The Atacama is also known for its stargazing — the clear skies have attracted some of astronomers’ most powerful telescopes to the area.

Occupying more than 15% of Canada's total area, Quebec is the largest of the country’s 10 provinces. The French-Canadian region covers more than 500,000 square miles of land and an additional 70,000 square miles of water. Nunavut is the largest of Canada’s three territories, covering more than 800,000 square miles in some of the country’s most extreme northern environments.

Colombia’s animal and plant life are some of the most diverse on Earth, but the country particularly shines in the area of bird species — with over 1,800 varieties of birds, Colombia has more than any other country on Earth. It also ranks first for orchid diversity, with 4,270 different species, and is home to a staggering array of butterflies, amphibians, freshwater fish, and plants.

As the largest religious structure in the world, the Khmer Empire’s 12th-century Angkor Wat temple complex spans 400 acres and once sat at the center of one of the most prosperous kingdoms in Southeast Asian history. Dedicated to the Hindu gods Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu, Angkor Wat also appears on the Cambodian national flag.

The Central African Republic, or CAR, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. The nation gained independence in 1960 and is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan and South Sudan to the northeast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congo to the south, and Cameroon to the west. CAR’s capital city is Bangui, located on the southern border.

Castles are a hallmark of medieval architecture and innovation. Situated across the Vltava River from Old Town and modern Prague, Prague Castle (also called Hradcany Castle) holds the Guinness record for largest ancient castle with a surface area of 18 acres. The original structure dates to around 880 CE, but most of its major buildings were built between the 10th and 14th centuries.

In 1951, six countries founded the European Coal and Steel Community, which later evolved into the European Union. Since then, the economic and political partnership has grown to include 27 total European countries. In 2013, it added its most recent member, Croatia, which became the second former Yugoslav Republic to join. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Serbia have all applied to join the EU since 2004 and their negotiations are still ongoing.

The Greater Antilles are made up of the larger, more northerly islands of the Caribbean, including Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. The Lesser Antilles are, as you can tell by their name, smaller, and include islands like Antigua, Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago near Venezuela. Together, the Antilles comprise all of the Caribbean's West Indies except for the Bahamas.

Winding 3,964 miles through Asia, the Yangtze River is the third-longest river in the world and the longest one on the Asian continent. Known as the Chang Jiang (“Long River”) in China, the Yangtze springs from the glacial waters of the Tibetan Plateau before flowing east to Shanghai, where it empties into the East China Sea.

The Andes Mountains extend along the western side of South America through the entire length of Chile, forming much of the country’s eastern border. The mountain range consists of two distinct parallel ranges of peaks with plateaus regions in between, including the Altiplano region. The Andes’ highest peak is Mount Aconcagua, at 22,831 feet above sea level.

Modern Toronto was created in 1998, when the city of Toronto merged with its five surrounding boroughs (North York, Scarborough, York, Etobicoke, and East York). Three years later, the new megacity passed Montreal to become Canada's most populous, with a present-day population of just under 3 million. That total also makes the Ontario capital the fourth-largest city in North America.