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SIde Trips
It's not what you think
By JANET K. KEELER
Published January 29, 2006
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[Photo: National Park Service]
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| Fort Jefferson National Monument. |
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[Photo: AP (1996)]
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| The running of the bulls |
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[Photo courtesy of Russiatours Inc.]
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| Moscow's Red Square |
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Strange, how bad information becomes fact.
Take, for example, the Statue of Liberty. It's in New York, right? Nope, Lady Liberty is in New Jersey. And Greenland isn't green, but named by the tricky Eric the Red to attract settlers. It's mostly snow white.
In Contrary to Popular Belief (Broadway, 2005), author Joey Green unmasks 250 facts for what they really are: Fakes. And many of them are about places we like to visit. Here are some false facts that aren't likely to make you change your travel plans but will make you look smart at a party.
- JANET K. KEELER, Times staff writer
Key West is not the westernmost Florida key.
West of Key West is the Marquesas Keys and farther out are the Dry Tortugas, home of Fort Jefferson National Monument.
The Black Hills of South Dakota are not hills.
The Black Hills are really mountains, rising 2,000 to 4,000 feet above the surrounding area. Harney Peak is the highest "hill" at 7,272 feet. Geologists define hills as rising no higher than 1,000 feet.
Maine is not the easternmost state in the United States.
Okay, here's a mind blower. Alaska is both the westernmost and easternmost state in the union. Some of the Aleutian Islands are west of the 180th meridian, the dividing line between the eastern and western hemispheres. That means they are farther east than Maine.
The world's largest pyramid in not in Egypt.
Quetzalcoatl, 63 miles southeast of Mexico City, rises 177 feet and covers nearly 45 acres. Compare that to the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, which is just 130 feet high and covers less than 13 acres. The Great Pyramid does win the battle for publicity.
People are not gored to death every year during the Running of the Bulls.
There's less than one goring death every six years. Between 1924 and 2004, 13 people were gored to death during the annual event in Pamplona, Spain. That's not to say people aren't injured by bull horns or by trampling during the human stampede.
Panama hats do not come from Panama.
If you want an original woven souvenir hat, you'll have to go to Jipijapa, Ecuador. The hat was dubbed a Panama in the 1800s when that country became a shipping hub, and Ecuador's signature topper got a Panamanian postmark.
Moscow's Red Square was not named by Communists.
The name comes from the red bricks used to pave the enormous plaza.
The Tower of London is not a tower.
The Tower of London is a walled fortress which includes towers Bloody, Beauchamp, Wakefield, Bell and White. There is no tower named London.
The temperature does not get hotter the closer you get to the equator.
Climate varies with many factors, including latitude, topography, winds and ocean currents. Quito, Ecuador, which is almost exactly on the equator, has an annual average of 55 degrees because it's 9,350 feet above sea level. Africa's Mount Kenya, also near the equator, is snow-capped all year. The Gulf Stream keeps some northern ports warm. For instance, palm trees grow in Cornwall, England, which is 3,500 miles north of the equator.
[Last modified January 27, 2006, 09:58:02]
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