Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A river that shaped a capital

The Thames flows through southern England, passing through London on its way to the North Sea. For centuries it served as the city's main artery for trade and transport, and its banks became home to the Houses of Parliament, the Tower of London and the Globe Theatre. The river also gave its name to the "Thames frost fairs," festivals held on the frozen surface during especially cold winters in the past.

The vast belt south of the Sahara

The Sahel is a semi-arid strip of land that runs across Africa, forming a transition zone between the Sahara Desert to the north and the savannas to the south. Sudan lies within this belt, along with countries such as Senegal, Mali, Niger and Chad. The region is known for its dry climate, its grazing lands and the seasonal rains that shape life there.

Hardy's fictional Wessex

Thomas Hardy set much of his fiction in "Wessex," a fictional region closely modelled on the south-west of England. The Mayor of Casterbridge, published in 1886, is one of his best-known novels and takes place in a town based on Dorchester, where Hardy himself lived for much of his life. His novels often explore fate, class and rural life in a changing world.

The world's first political world organisation

The League of Nations was established in 1919, in the aftermath of the First World War, with the aim of maintaining peace through collective security. It was headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Although it scored some early successes, it struggled to prevent aggression in the 1930s and was effectively replaced by the United Nations after the Second World War.