Cul-de-sac
A cul-de-sac is a street with only one end, which it uses for both arriving and leaving.
Windmill
A windmill is a tall building that waves at everyone all day and has never once been waved back at properly.
Bus stop
A bus stop is a place where a bus stops and, far more often, a place where a bus has not yet stopped.
Panama Canal
Ships crossing the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific travel south-east, which nobody believes.
Roundabout
A roundabout finds your exit by first ruling out every exit you didn’t want, which can take several laps.
Venice
Venice is built on millions of wooden piles driven into the mud, many of them centuries old.
Sahara
It has snowed in the Sahara, and only about a quarter of it is covered in sand dunes.
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls stopped in 1848 when ice blocked the river, and in 1969 engineers turned part of it off.
Moai
The famous ‘Easter Island heads’ have bodies; many are simply buried up to the shoulders.
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is not golden but ‘International Orange’, a colour that began as its primer.