Other Countries
In Canada, the standard unit of comparison is often Prince Edward Island (5,683 km2/2,194 sq mi), the smallest Canadian province.
In Russia, France (551,695 km2/213,011 sq mi) is often used as a comparison for regions of Siberia. This was so popular in the Soviet era that the phrase "как две Франции" (twice the size of France) became a stock phrase to denote any large area.
The country of Belgium (30,528 km2/11,787 sq mi) has also often been used when comparing areas, to the point where it has been regarded as a meme and where there is a website dedicated to notable areas which have been compared to that of Belgium.
The Isle of Wight (380 km² or 147 sq mi), an island off the south coast of mainland England, is commonly used to define smaller areas.
Read more about this topic: List Of Unusual Units Of Measurement, Area, Various Countries, Regions, and Cities
Famous quotes containing the word countries:
“I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“All my life I have lived and behaved very much like [the] sandpiper—just running down the edges of different countries and continents, “looking for something” ... having spent most of my life timorously seeking for subsistence along the coastlines of the world.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)