Footnoted: trivia and fact pages with their sources showing

Trivia is more fun when you can trust it

Footnoted publishes fact pages on history, geography, nature and the human body, each one built from references you can check, and each one ending with a short quiz.

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Map of Europe and the Mediterranean with the territory of the Roman Empire shaded in green Featured · History

The largest empires in history

The British, Mongol and Russian empires and the rest of the list: peak areas, dates, where the estimates come from and why the ranking is less precise than it looks. Read the fact page

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A simple illustration of eight mountain peaks of falling height side by side, labelled Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, Puncak Jaya and Kosciuszko, each with its height in metresGeography

The Seven Summits

The highest peak on each continent, how high each really is, and why there are two lists.

 Terracotta rooftops of central Lisbon stretching to the river, with a red suspension bridge in the distance under a cloudy skyGeography

What a square metre costs in 10 cities

Paris, Hong Kong, Warsaw and seven more: guess the price per m², then see the official figure.

 A simple illustration of a three-tiered altar decorated with orange marigolds, white candles and a white skull, under a row of colourful cut-paper flagsPeople & Customs

Day of the Dead

Ofrendas, marigolds, sugar skulls and La Catrina: what Día de Muertos is, and is not.

 A simple illustration of a striped honeybee resting on golden hexagonal honeycomb cells of different shadesNature

How a honeybee colony works

Queen, workers and drones, the waggle dance, hexagonal comb and how a swarm picks a home.

 A simple diagram of the heart drawn as four rounded chambers, teal on the left and red on the right, with valves between them and arteries leaving the topHuman Body

How the heart works

Four chambers, four valves, two circuits and the electrical spark behind every beat.

 A plain stone throne at the top of six stone steps inside a dimly lit cathedral galleryHistory

Holy Roman Emperors

From Charlemagne to Francis II: how emperors were elected and crowned, 800 to 1806.

 The wide calm Nile under a pale sky, with white-sailed feluccas and buildings on the far bankGeography

The longest rivers in Africa

The Nile, Congo, Niger, Zambezi and the rest of the top ten, and why lengths vary.

 Satellite view of a vast deep-blue lake with scattered white clouds over its shoresGeography

The largest lakes in the world

Caspian, Superior, Victoria and Baikal, ranked by area, depth and volume.

 Close-up of two large hornets with orange heads and striped abdomens on tree barkNature

The giant Asian hornet

Vespa mandarinia: size, venom, hive raids, and how North America eradicated it.

 A grey hairless Chinese Crested dog with white tufts on its head, tail and feet, standing on a lawnNature

Hairless dog breeds

Xolo, Chinese Crested, Peruvian and American Hairless, and the genetics behind bare skin.

 An old copperplate engraving of a full human skeleton standing in a landscape, one arm resting on a spadeHuman Body

Bones of the body

Why adults have 206 bones and babies more, and how they split across the skeleton.

 A pale wax model of a human brain with its folds and a few removable sections, on a dark grey backgroundHuman Body

The central nervous system

Brain and spinal cord: how they are built, protected and wired, with the numbers worth knowing.

 Black and white photograph of British and German soldiers in greatcoats standing together on a muddy fieldHistory

The Christmas truce of 1914

What really happened on the Western Front at Christmas 1914, football matches included.

 A carved pumpkin lantern glowing orange, with smoke curling out of its eyes and mouthPeople & Customs

How did Halloween start?

Samhain, All Hallows' Eve, guising and turnip lanterns: where the holiday comes from.

Five questions per page

Test yourself

Each fact page ends with a five-question quiz. Answers are checked against the sources listed on the page, every answer comes with a short explanation, and nothing you click leaves your browser.

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History

Empires, emperors and the stories behind dates everyone half-remembers.

Geography

Rivers, lakes and the measurements behind ‘longest’ and ‘largest’.

Nature

Animals that make headlines, explained with what researchers actually know.

Human Body

Bones, nerves and how the body is put together, in plain language.

People & Customs

Festivals, gestures and the habits that differ from one place to the next.

How we source

Encyclopaedias, museums, agencies and journals, listed at the foot of every page so you can check them yourself.