Answers for 17 September 2026
Atlas Daily #16, Thursday 17 September 2026: five places, each with clues from hardest to easiest. Try to name each place before you open the answers.
The clues
Round 1
- Its Atlas ranges catch enough snow for a ski resort within sight of the Sahara's edge.
- A 1912 treaty split its territory into French and Spanish protectorates.
- Its northern tip faces Europe across a strait barely 14 kilometres wide.
- Tanneries in its old imperial city of Fez have dyed leather in open pits since the medieval period.
Hint: which continent?
Africa
Round 2
- The most populous Central American country, where more than 20 Mayan languages are still spoken.
- A 36-year civil war ended in 1996 after about 200,000 deaths.
- Its former capital was abandoned after earthquakes in 1773 and is now a colonial showpiece.
- A jungle city of pyramids called Tikal flourished here before AD 900.
Hint: which continent?
North America
Round 3
- Its cattle outnumber its people three to one on grasslands beside a wide river estuary.
- It was created as a buffer state between two larger neighbours after a war ended in 1828.
- It hosted and won the first football World Cup in 1930.
- It legalised cannabis nationwide in 2013 and gets almost all its electricity from renewables.
Hint: which continent?
South America
Round 4
- A sultanate whose empire once stretched to an East African island famous for cloves.
- It guards the southern shore of a strait through which a fifth of the world's oil passes.
- Frankincense trees grow in its southern region, once the source of a trade route to Rome.
- It is the oldest independent state in the Arab world and is ruled by a sultan.
Hint: which continent?
Asia
Round 5
- One of its two official languages is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet.
- Its prehistoric temples are older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza.
- A military order of knights ruled it for more than 250 years after being driven from Rhodes.
- The whole island was awarded the George Cross in 1942 for withstanding months of bombing.
Hint: which continent?
Europe
Answers
Round 1 answer
Morocco · Africa
Clue 5: The location is Morocco.
The High Atlas rises to over 4,000 metres, and the Oukaïmeden resort near Marrakesh runs lifts while the desert bakes to the south. France and Spain carved the country into protectorates in 1912; independence returned in 1956. From Tangier the Spanish coast is visible on a clear day across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Round 2 answer
Guatemala · North America
Clue 5: The location is Guatemala.
Around 18 million people live here, more than in any other country between Mexico and Colombia. Antigua served as capital until the Santa Marta earthquakes of 1773. Tikal’s Temple IV rises 70 metres above the Petén forest.
Round 3 answer
Uruguay · South America
Clue 5: The location is Uruguay.
Britain brokered its independence in 1828 as a buffer between Brazil and Argentina. The 1930 World Cup final was played in Montevideo's Estadio Centenario, built for the country's centenary. Pasture covers most of the land, and by the 2020s wind, hydro and biomass supplied nearly all of its electricity.
Round 4 answer
Oman · Asia
Clue 5: The location is Oman.
Omani sultans ruled Zanzibar from the 1690s until 1856, when the empire was split between brothers. The Musandam peninsula reaches into the Strait of Hormuz. Frankincense from Dhofar was traded to Egypt, Greece and Rome, and the trees still grow wild in Wadi Dawkah.
Round 5 answer
Malta · Europe
Clue 5: The location is Malta.
Maltese descends from the Arabic spoken in Sicily a thousand years ago, layered with Italian and English words, and is the only Semitic language that uses the Latin alphabet. The Knights of St John arrived in 1530, survived the Great Siege of 1565 and built Valletta on the headland afterwards. The whole country is smaller than the Isle of Wight, and its 320 square kilometres hold half a million people.
Using this in class? See Atlas Daily for teachers. New to the game? Read how to play.