ErebusFact library / Countries
7 countries in South Asia, each with a picture to fix its place, shape or name in your memory.
Bhutan, a Himalayan kingdom between India and China, measures national progress with Gross National Happiness.
Picture it
A smiling BOOT ("BOO-tan") hikes high in the Himalayas between India and China. Instead of counting money, it counts smiles on a giant happiness meter.
Memory hooks
Nepal, home to Mount Everest, has the world's only non-rectangular national flag, and its capital is Kathmandu.
Picture it
High in the Himalayas, two red triangles flap on a flagpole, stacked like mountain peaks, the only national flag that isn't a rectangle. A CAT wearing a MANDOLIN ("Kath-man-DOO") strums on top of Everest.
Memory hooks
Sri Lanka is a teardrop-shaped island off the southern tip of India, formerly known as Ceylon.
Picture it
A huge TEARDROP falls off the southern tip of India and lands in the ocean. It's filled with fragrant CEYLON tea leaves, the island's old name, now brewed by Sri Lanka.
Memory hooks
Bangladesh lies on the vast Ganges–Brahmaputra delta, almost surrounded by India, with its capital at Dhaka.
Picture it
With a BANG, the Ganges and Brahmaputra crash into the sea, spreading a giant green delta almost entirely wrapped by India. In the middle, a boy plays a DHAK drum: DHAKA.
Memory hooks
Pakistan is home to K2, the world's second-highest mountain, and its capital Islamabad was purpose-built in the 1960s, replacing Karachi.
Picture it
In South Asia, up in the north, the jagged peak of K2 pokes through the clouds, the second-highest mountain on Earth. In the 1960s a brand-new capital is built from scratch below the hills: Islamabad, "city of Islam".
Memory hooks
India became the world's most populous country in 2023, and its capital is New Delhi.
Picture it
A huge diamond-shaped subcontinent juts into the Indian Ocean, holding the biggest crowd on Earth since 2023. At the top, a shopkeeper opens a NEW DELI counter and the queue stretches all the way to the Himalayas.
Memory hooks
The Maldives, about 1,200 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, is the world's lowest-lying country, and its capital is Malé.
Picture it
In the Indian Ocean south-west of India, about 1,200 coral islands poke out of the sea, so flat that a tall man standing on the beach is taller than the highest hill. A MALE diver waves from the capital, Malé.
Memory hooks