What do the names of some countries say? Countries of the world - an amazing etymology Which African country is translated country of hippos
Do you think about the names of the countries of the world when you read them in geographical maps? Probably not! Meanwhile, many of them translated into Russian are quite interesting, sometimes even unusual. True, most of the names, as it should be, fully or partially correspond to certain characteristics of the countries, but there are also those that, on the contrary, cause surprise by their striking discrepancy.
Let's go on a short trip on a geographical map and consider the content of the "surnames" of some states.
About the features geographic location tell, for example, the following names: Norway ("Country of the Northern Route"), Vietnam and Australia ("Country of the South"), Japan ("Country of the Rising Sun", that is, "Eastern"). Austria - translated from German "Osterreich" means "Eastern Power", while in reality it is located in the very center of Europe. Say what you like, there was an obvious overlap here. The name Ireland comes from "air", that is, "western island".
As for the name of the South American country Ecuador, it is easy to guess that it means "equator".
But the name of Syria even has a cosmic origin. It is associated with the brightest star in our firmament, Sirius, which means "brilliant" in Latin. But, as you know, there are many hotter and sunnier countries on Earth.
The whole phrase - "Eight islands that stand side by side" - translates the name of the small country Tuvalu, which arose in the Pacific Ocean on the site of the former English colony - the Gilbert Islands.
The names of the Netherlands ("lowland") and Iraq ("Lowland") speak about the peculiarities of the earth's surface, and the name of the island Central American state of Haiti is the only thing that remains of the indigenous population of the Arawaks, destroyed by the colonialists, in whose language it means "mountainous country ".
The names of a number of countries reflect the peculiarities of their flora or fauna. For example, the name Brazil comes from the mahogany paubrasil growing here .. It is interesting that the name of the capital of this state - Bamako is no less exotic and means "a village on the back of a crocodile". The city's coat of arms is decorated with images of crocodiles in memory of the times when many of these animals lived in the waters of the Niger River. And the name of the capital of another African country Uganda - Kampala - means "antelope".
Abu Dhabi is the name of a small oil-rich principality in the United United Arab Emirates located on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf. Translated, its name means "gazelle". Once upon a time there were many of these animals.
The name of the state of Somalia, according to some scholars, comes from the words "sao somao", which in the local language means: "go milk a cow." There are so many cattle in this African country that it is said to have more milk than water. The overwhelming majority of the country's population is engaged in cattle breeding.
Do not be surprised, but the name Spain means "country of rabbits" in translation from ancient Carthaginian. Indeed, many of these rodents were once found here. Rabbits were even depicted on local coins.
The names of many states of the world are the same with the names of individual natural objects located on their territory: mountains, rivers, lakes, etc. These geographical names-duplicates are typical primarily for young independent states... For example, the Republic of Cameroon in Africa inherited its name from the eponymous volcano.
The names of the rivers give rise to the "surnames" of countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Congo, as well as the South American country of Paraguay. "River" origin and the name India (from the great Indus River), although only a relatively small section of the river belongs to this power. The Indus flows mainly in neighboring Pakistan.
The name of the state of Namibia comes from the desert of the same name.
The name of one of the African republics comes from the famous Lake Chad. The unique combination of the names of the lake (Tanganyika) and the island (Zanzibar) resulted in the name of the African country of Tanzania. The names of the islands on which countries such as Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada in Central America, Ireland, Iceland, Great Britain, Malta in Europe, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, the Philippines in Asia are located, became their names.
However, as you have already noticed, the names of not all states can be considered successful. Did you know, for example, that the name of the country Uruguay, although connected with the name of the local river, means for some reason "bird's tail", and Guatemala means "rotten tree"? The name of the Republic of Panama means "butterfly". However, with someone's light hand, it spread to the famous headdress. In fact, it was first produced in Ecuador, and Panama was only a transshipment base, from where hats, the so-called "Panamas", were exported to Europe.
The names of a number of other states are based on the peculiarities of the national composition of their population. For example, the name of the Republic of Afghanistan means "Country of Afghans", just like Thailand - "country of tai". But the name Romania comes from the Latin Roma (Rome). Thus, the Republic of Romania is called the capital of another European country - Italy. The name Romania appeared on the map of Europe in 1877 after the final liberation of the country by Russian troops from the Turkish yoke.
A South American country is named after another Italian city, Venice. In 1499, Spanish sailors saw on the shores of the Maracaibo lagoon in the northern part of the mainland an Indian village on stilts, like Venice, and called it Venezuela, that is, "Little Venice." there is a "liberator", in honor of the hero and leader of the liberation struggle of the peoples of Latin America against the Spanish colonialists Simon Bolivar. By the way, another South American country is named after him - Bolivia, of which he was the first president.
On a small island in the Caribbean there is a country that bears the name of the famous Spanish city - Grenada.
The names of some other states originated from their own names, for example, Saudi Arabia (in 1926) - after the name of its founder, King Ibn Saud. As for the name of the South American Republic of Colombia, it is probably self-explanatory.
The name of the West African Republic of Burkina Faso, translated from the Mosi language, its main population, means "country worthy people", and its capitals Wogadougou -" Welcome ".
A small country in West Africa is called Liberia, that is, "the land of freedom." And the name of the small island Pacific republic of Vanuatu (the former common Anglo-French colony of New Hebrides) means: "a country that is and will be independent."
It hardly needs to be said that these young states are in fact still in complete economic and political dependence on their former metropolitan countries. But names are names, and they testify to the desire of the peoples of these countries to achieve independence.
March 18th, 2015
Many people think that hippos are slow and clumsy because of their size, but this is a dangerous misconception. Here is a video showing a hippopotamus chasing a motor boat in national park Chobe in Botswana. The boat driver has time to accelerate before the huge animal emerges from the water.
In 2014, a hippopotamus attack on a boat on a river in Niger killed 12 schoolchildren - seven girls and five boys. Such data of the country's authorities are cited by Agence France-Presse. The incident took place near the capital of the country, Niamey. There were at least 18 people in the pie. Most of them are 12-13-year-olds on their way to a school across the Niger River. The authorities did not specify how exactly they died.
Hippos looking for deep places in Niger, they often approach Niamey, frighten the locals. Experts note the strongest aggressiveness of adults when their cubs are near them. In such situations, hippos often attack large livestock that graze on the banks of the river.
Let's find out more about these animals ...
Photo 1.
Hippos are rightly ranked among the most dangerous African animals. But they pose a danger only to those who themselves try to threaten them. In fact, the personality of a hippopotamus has traits that many of us would envy. In this article we will try to tell you more about these amazing animals.
The life of a hippopotamus is somewhat reminiscent of the life of a retired heavyweight boxer. Calm, outwardly clumsy and phlegmatic, a little gloomy, but not aggressive couch potato. There are practically no enemies, all the neighbors know him well and greet him first, and those who do not know, try to stay away just in case. He does not offend the little ones, he can even provide help on occasion. Home, family, prosperity - he has everything, and he does not need anything else. But if the "gopniks in the gateway" bother, then ...
Photo 2. 
Don't believe me? Judge for yourself: predators are afraid of attacking a hippopotamus because it is painfully terrible in anger, and it is well-armed. Despite the fact that the hippopotamus is a herbivorous animal, its teeth are perhaps the scariest one can imagine, especially the lower canines. They grow all their lives and reach a length of over half a meter. In a fit of rage, the hippopotamus easily bites a giant Nile crocodile in half.
The African fat man also has a lot of cunning and ingenuity. There is a known case when a lion attacked a hippopotamus when it was grazing on the shore. Probably, the king of beasts was too hungry, or something happened to his head, because the lions of hippos are usually bypassed. But, one way or another, this lion coveted a hippopotamus chewing grass, for which he paid. He did not even begin to tear him with fangs and trample with his strong legs, but simply grabbed the scruff of his neck and dragged him into the water, where it was deeper. There, the poor lion and choked.
Photo 3. 
And here is another case: a hippopotamus resting in the river was attacked by ... a shark. It was a fairly large (about two meters) specimen of the so-called herring shark, which lives mainly in the ocean. But by some miracle it was carried not just into the Mediterranean Sea, but also into the Nile Delta. And I must say, the herring shark is extremely aggressive and dangerous. Her teeth are long, sharp, bent back and form a solid palisade. In her element, she does not let anyone in: a fish, a sea animal, a person - everything goes to feed her.
And this predator decided to feast on a hippopotamus, but literally attacked the wrong one. Unlike the case with the lion, the hippo did the opposite with her - he dragged the sea monster ashore and trampled it there. Who now doubts that hippos have brains?
Photo 4. 
Of course, there is a predator on earth - cruel and merciless, capable of lime at the root of any animal. This is a man. But people, oddly enough, do not need anything from hippos (as, in fact, hippos from people). They have no valuable tusks or horns, their teeth are not quoted on the market. Everything a hippo has is just meat, and even then it is far from a delicacy. In the days of slavery, whips were made from the skin of hippos to drive off slaves, but slavery was officially abolished, and the production of whips disappeared with it. So even people don't touch hippos.
Photo 5. 
Hippos lead a secluded life. You can walk several kilometers along the banks of the Nile and not meet a single hippo, and then suddenly it turns out that you have passed dozens of animals and simply did not notice them. You can swim in a boat a couple of meters from the hippopotamus and not pay attention to it. Among the debris that the Nile carries in the sea, to make out a pair of small black "floats" oh, how difficult it is - this is a hippopotamus escaping the heat, putting out only its eyes and nostrils. During the day, the animals lie at the bottom of the river. Their ears are "plugged" with special membranes that prevent water from entering. So in the daytime, the hippopotamus is starving, and only goes to the promenade at night, and here, in terms of feeding, it comes off in full. To feed itself, a hippopotamus has to eat 50-60 kilograms of grass per day.
Photo 6. 
Of course, in the environment of hippos, as in any other, there are conflicts. Sometimes during the mating season or when distributing places to feed, the matter ends in a fight, and blood is shed. But often the dispute over brides and territory is resolved in a completely peaceful way. Male hippos periodically find out which of them is bigger. Usually, a contender for power approaches the commander-in-chief of the clan and stands next to him. Both hippopotamuses look at each other attentively, and the one who did not come out in height shyly retires, and the larger specimen becomes (or remains) the "boss". A war can only start if both contenders have the same weight class.
Photo 7. 
As for such traits of a hippopotamus as kindness and generosity, here are some examples.
The famous zoologist Dick Rekassel witnessed how a crocodile attacked one of the antelopes who came to drink. A hippopotamus, resting nearby, came to the aid of the animal beating in the alligator's teeth. He fought off the antelope from the crocodile, pulled her ashore and began ... to lick her wounds. “The rarest case in the animal kingdom,” Rekassel comments. - The most real manifestation of mercy, and to a representative of a completely different kind! Alas, help came too late. Half an hour later, the antelope died of shock and blood loss. But the hippopotamus remained near her for another quarter of an hour, driving away the flocked vultures, until the sun forced him back into the river. "
Photo 8. 
And more recently, visitors to a nature reserve in Kenya had a chance to observe the actions of a hippopotamus - almost a professional rescuer. Here is how it was. Wildebeests and zebras crossed the Mara River. The antelope cub, separated from its mother by the current, began to sink. Then a hippopotamus emerged from the water and began to push the baby to the shore. Soon he safely got out on land and joined his mother, who all this time could only helplessly watch what was happening. Less than ten minutes later, the same hippopotamus rescued a drowning zebra. He helped her keep her head above the water and, like the "antelope", pushed her towards land.
So these hippos are not so simple animals.
Photo 9. 
Common hippos spend almost all their time in water, most often in fresh water. Occasionally they can go out to sea.
If earlier the animal was found in many parts of the world, now a very small number of them have survived only in regions south of the Sahara. But even in Africa they are becoming less and less due to the fact that they are exterminated in large numbers by the local indigenous population. Hippopotamus meat is their main meat food.
Hippos adapt well to captivity, which is why almost all zoos contain this interesting animal.
Photo 10. 
Who are the hippo and hippo? Many people do not even know that these words mean the same animal of the artiodactyl genus. The first name is translated from the ancient Hebrew language as "beast", possibly because of the massiveness of this beast. The second is translated from Greek as "river horse" - hippos really love water.
Photo 11. 
His body resembles a huge barrel, his legs are thick and so short that his stomach almost drags along the ground when he walks. The length can be up to 4 m, and the weight is simply fantastic - up to 5 tons! After elephants, the hippopotamus is in second place in size, like the rhinoceros.
The tail is short, but rather mobile, with the help of it it sprays droppings and urine - marks the territory.
On the paws there are 4 toes with a webbing. When walking in the mud, the fingers are spread out, and the stretched membrane helps not to slip or fall through.
Photo 12. 
The ears are small, but with them he constantly tries to ward off insects. The head resembles a roughly carved rectangle, and the muzzle is covered with special sensitive hairs. In many photos, the hippopotamus is captured with its mouth wide open - and indeed he can open it up to 150 degrees.
In it, a frightening-looking 36 canine teeth are visible. He uses them as protection or digs the ground.
The eyes are very small, around them are large folds of the eyelids.
Photo 13. 
These animals communicate with each other unusually - by voice. They even have their own sound signals to indicate fear, aggression, danger. They express them with a roar, sometimes sounds like a horse neighing or grunting. The roar of hippos is very loud, it spreads far across the African expanses.
Photo 14. 
Hippos live for about 40 years and die more often from diseases. In nature, they are not afraid of anyone but a lion. No one else dares to attack them. Yes, and a lion that has encroached on a cub, a female in a rage can drown in silt mud or simply trample.
Photo 15. 
The greatest threat is humans. Poaching because of the meat, fangs and bones of the hippopotamus significantly reduces their livestock. Despite the fact that any child knows the phrase "oh, this is not an easy job - to drag a hippopotamus out of the swamp", these animals have been little studied. Most likely, this happened because they are difficult to observe, because they spend most of the day in the water.
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Do you know what the hippo is doing on this GIF? I'll tell you now.
Hippos do not like to travel, they do not search for food in distant lands, but prefer to grow grass themselves, in their, so to speak, "vegetable garden". They do it as follows: restricting a certain area for food for themselves and their family, these animals regularly and diligently fertilize it with their own feces. And in order for the fertilizer to be evenly distributed, the animal "in the process", so to speak, strongly twirls its tail, like a propeller. As a result, the "vegetable garden" of the hippopotamus, like that of a good farmer, is always fertilized with high quality and yields an excellent harvest. And you don't have to go far for him.
It is worth noting here that female hippos, while looking for a betrothed, meticulously follow not the ability of males to look after the opposite sex, but precisely their success in agriculture. The more powerfully the tail of the male hippopotamus twists, the more it gives out feces and the further it scatters them, the greater the chances of the groom: it means that his family will live in prosperity and will not die of hunger. A real marriage of convenience. But, probably, in this case, this is the right approach.
How does a giraffe sleep? or maybe you don't know what it looks like. Find out more why and be sure The original article is on the site InfoGlaz.rf The link to the article this copy was made from is
Questions:
1. Which of the animals is the thickest?
2. How do baboons (a kind of monkey) drink water?
3.How fast does a three-toed sloth move on the ground?
4.How fast does a three-toed sloth move through trees?
5. What is the smallest flying mammal?
6. What is the size of the smallest flying mammal?
7. To what height can the African leopard jump?
8. Can goats graze on tree branches?
9. How many years do horses live?
10. What kind of cats are called "poodle cats"?
11. Why is the "poodle-cat" called that?
12. The Danish artist Gottfried Mind painted only one "model" for many years. Who exactly?
13. What name of the beast did the ancient Russian coin bear?
14. How many cereal grains does a hamster store for the winter?
15. How many times the fat content of rabbit milk exceeds that of cow's milk?
16. To whom the riddle is dedicated:
In rich clothes,
Yes, he himself is blind.
Lives without a window
Have you seen the sun?
17. What does the name of the African country Mali have to do with animals?
18. What does the name of the African country Somalia have to do with animals?
19. What is the color of a horse?
20. What color is called a bay horse?
21. What color is called a black horse?
22. What animal do sailors call "sea canary"?
23. For what features is the "sea canary" so called?
24. Who are the lines of E. Trutneva's poem dedicated to?
Here she jumps along the branches,
Flashed over the bush
Like a lively red ball,
With fluffy fur and a tail?
25. Monuments to which animal are installed in Germany, Scotland, France, Russia and some other countries?
26. What are the names of one-humped camels?
27. What are the two-humped camels called?
28. From which country does the name of the dog breed "spaniel" come from?
29. How do these folk signs end:
a) The dog curls up and lies in a ball - to ...
b) The horse snorts - to ...
c) Sheep knock their foreheads - to ...
30. Title famous painting the great artist Leonardo Da Vinci "Lady with an Ermine" is wrong. Why?
31. What animals are on the staff (that is, are the official employees) of the London Post Offices?
32. The name of what breed of dog is translated as "bull dog"?
33. Why is the bulldog called that?
34. Is there a boss-subordinate relationship in a herd of cows?
35. How do these proverbs end:
a) The hare is not a coward, but himself ...
b) Sees a wolf a goat, forgot and ...
c) The fox and in the dream have ears ...
36. Which animal was first domesticated?
37. Who is a hinnie?
38. Who is a mule?
39. Can a goat be the leader of a flock of sheep?
40. What is the record-breaking length of an elephant's tusk?
41. What is the record-breaking recorded length of a rhino horn?
42. What animal was the symbol of the Munich 1972 Olympics?
43. What animal was the symbol of the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow?
44. The name of which animal can be found on the chessboard, on the roof of a wooden house and in the gym?
45. Who owns these lines:
Why are you laughing, my zealous horse,
That you dropped your neck
You don't shake your mane
Aren't you chewing on your own bits?
46. What Russian artist painted the famous painting "Bathing the Red Horse"?
47. What artist painted the painting "Strigons at the Watering Hole"?
48. In which country is the horse courier mail monument erected?
49. When they say so:
a) The horse was not lying around;
b) Do not feed the horse;
c) Not whoa, not well?
50. What famous writer is the story "Mustang the pacer" from?
Answers
1. Nile hippopotamus. His skin is 2.5 cm thick.
2. Moisten the tail in water, and then suck on it.
4. Up to 3 m / min.
5. Thai bumblebee bat.
6. Body length - about 30 mm, wingspan - 160 mm, weight - about 2 g.
8. In the Atlas Mountains (Africa), goats have learned to climb the branches of low-growing, almost dwarf trees.
9. About 55 years old.
10. Rex cats.
11. For curly hair.
12. Your cat with her next family.
13. Martens. The coins were called "kuna".
14. From 4 to 6 kg.
15. 6 times.
17. The name translates as "country of hippos".
18. "Go milk the cow."
19. This is her color.
20. Red with a black tail and mane.
21. Black.
22. Beluga.
23. For white with yellow color and rather musical "chants".
25. The dog.
26. Dromedaries.
27. Bactrians.
28. Spain.
29. a) to the cold; b) warmth; c) to a strong wind.
30. The painting depicts not an ermine, but a furo - a domesticated albino black ferret.
31. Cats. They protect correspondence from mice and rats and receive a salary for this.
32. Bulldog.
33. Since they were originally used for baiting bulls and other large animals.
34. Yes, in the herd there is a cow-leader, “close” and “lower class”.
35. a) protects; b) thunderstorm; c) on the crown.
36. Dog.
37. A hybrid (option - offspring) of a stallion and a donkey.
38. Hybrid (option - offspring) of a donkey and a mare.
39. Yes, quite. An experienced goat leader is a good helper for the shepherd. The sheep obey him in everything.
40.3 m 48 cm.
41.1 m 58 cm.
43. Bear.
44. A horse is a chess piece, decoration of the roof of a hut, a sports equipment.
45. A.S. Pushkin.
46.K.S.Petrov-Vodkin.
47.V.A.Serov.
49. a) Nothing has been done; b) something is not good; c) neither there nor here.
50. E. Seton-Thompson.
Countries of the world
There are names on maps, similar to the inscriptions on the exhibits of the huge museum. See how accurate and expressive the name is Netherlands -"Low-lying country", "low-lying land". In Holland there are places where storks' nests on the roofs are located lower than the waters of the sea: the whole country is a flat lowland reclaimed from the sea. By the way, the name also speaks about the features of the earth's surface. Iraq -"lowland".
Or Poland... In Polish it is called Polska. To understand this name, you should remember that we have an old town in the Vladimir region Yuryev-Polsky. Before the name of the town sounded Yuryev-Polskoy, that is, located not in the forest wilderness, but among the open space of fields, on the plain. Close to this and the meaning of words Polska, Poland -"Land of fields".
For example, the following names tell about the peculiarities of the geographical location: Norway -"Country of the north" Vietnam and Australia -"Country of the south" Japan -"Land of the rising sun", that is, "eastern", Austria - sterreich -"Eastern power" (although it is located in the very center of Europe), Ireland -"Western island".
As for the name of the South American country Ecuador, it is easy to guess that it means "equator".
And here is the name Syria associated with the brightest star in our firmament Sirius which means "brilliant" in Latin.
The names of a number of countries reflect the peculiarities of their flora or fauna. Quite strange and curious situations often arose. Here's an example. Rivals of the Spaniards in South America- Portuguese - named their colony Brazil, apparently, through the thickets of mahogany - "Brazil", which in those days promised the fastest enrichment ... Time passed. The mahogany gave way to completely different plants - the rubber hevea, the coffee bush; but the country remained Brazil -"Krasnodrevia" ...
African country name Mali in translation from the local language Malinkov means "the country of hippos". The name of the capital of this state is Bamako no less exotic and means "the village on the back of a crocodile."
Abu Dhabi - this is the name of a small oil-rich principality in the state of the United Arab Emirates, located on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf. Translated, its name means "gazelle". Once upon a time there were many of these animals.
State name Somalia, according to some scientists, comes from the words sao somao, which means "go milk the cow" in the local language. There are so many cattle in this African country that it is said to have more milk than water. The overwhelming majority of the country's population is engaged in cattle breeding.
Surprisingly, but the name Spain means in translation from the ancient Carthaginian "country of rabbits". Indeed, many of these rodents were once found here. Rabbits were even depicted on local coins.
The names of many states of the world coincide with the names of individual natural objects located on their territory: mountains, rivers, lakes, etc. These geographical names-duplicates are characteristic primarily of young independent states. So, the republic Cameroon in Africa got its name from the eponymous volcano.
The names of the rivers come from the names of countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Congo, as well as a South American country Paraguay."River" origin and name India(from the great Indus River), although only a relatively small section of the river belongs to this power. Most of the Indus flows into neighboring Pakistan.
State name Namibia comes from the desert of the same name. From the famous lake Chad comes the name of one of the African republics.
The names of some countries are based on the peculiarities of the national composition of their population. For example, the name of the republic Afghanistan means "country of Afghans", as well as Thailand -"Tai country".
And here is the name Romania - Romania - comes from Latin R? Ma(Rome). At the beginning of our era, part of the territory of modern Romania was turned into a Roman province and underwent significant Romanization. Therefore, the Romanian language belongs to the group of Romance languages. Name Romania originated on the map of Europe in the 19th century.
By the name of another Italian city - Venice - named a South American country. In 1499, Spanish sailors saw on the shores of the Maracaibo lagoon in the northern part of the mainland an Indian village on stilts, like Venice, and named it Venezuela, that is, "little Venice". Soon this name spread to the surrounding area, and then to the whole country.
On a small island in the Caribbean, there is a country that bears the name of the famous Spanish city - Grenada.
The names of some states originated from the names of historical persons, for example, Saudi Arabia(in 1926) - named after its founder, king Ibn Saud... In honor of the hero and leader of the liberation struggle of the peoples of Latin America against the Spanish colonialists Simon Bolivar named South American country Bolivia, of which he was the first president. As for the name Colombia, then it is probably self-explanatory.
However, there are many names on the map of our planet that appeared as a result of misunderstandings or mistakes. So, in 1434, the French navigator Jacques Cartier, exploring the northeastern shores of the New World, as America was then called, reached the mouth of an unknown deep river. Having landed on its wooded shore, where there were several Indian wigwams, he asked the residents who came out to meet the name of this area. Those, not understanding the stranger, answered: "Kanata" or "Canada". The navigator applied this word ( Canada) as the name of the country on your map. He did not know that in translation from the Iroquois language, the word spoken to him means “settlement, settlement”.
Or here's another curiosity. Having captured the country of the ancient Incas of Peru, the Spaniards moved to its southern borders. Here they asked the local Indians, pointing to the south into the mountains, which country lies further. The Indians, considering that this question concerns the snow-capped peaks of the Andes, replied: "There is chili" ("It's cold there"). The foreigners decided that this was the name of the neighboring country. This is how the name of the country appeared on the map Chile.
In the southwestern part of Africa is located Angola... When in 1560 the first Europeans - Portuguese colonialists landed on the coast of this country, it was called Ngondo, and its ruler had the title ngola... The invaders, however, took the title as the name of the country and distorted it somewhat.
The Portuguese made the same mistake with the name of another country - Mozambique, mistaking for its name the distorted name of the then ruler of a small coastal island Musa ben Mbika.
Another mistake is related to the name of a small African state. Djibouti located on the shores of the Red Sea. It is said that when the first French conquerors landed on the rocky shore, they stumbled upon only one family of nomads, camped around a campfire on which stew was being cooked in a pot, and asked in broken Arabic: “Where have we got to? What it is?" The father of the family, who understood only the second question, without taking his eyes off the fire, answered in Afar: "Djibouti" ("My bowler hat"). So, according to some scientists, this name was mistakenly extended to the port that appeared here, and after the proclamation of independence in 1977 to the new state.
The name of a small republic located in Central America Costa Rica translated from Spanish means "rich coast". This is what Christopher Columbus called this area back in 1502, amazed by the abundance of gold jewelry among its inhabitants. Later it turned out that there were no deposits of this valuable metal, which foreign invaders were so eager to seize, and the gold jewelry of the Indians was of Peruvian origin. However, the erroneous name stuck on the map.