50 pc Brits think Everest is UK's highest mountain

London, Mar 13 (ANI): One in five British adults don't know which countries make up the UK and more than 50 percent think that Everest, which is in the Himalayas, is UK's tallest mountain, a new study has revealed.

According to the study, other gaffes committed by them included believing the Australian desert landmark Ayers Rock was located in England, while five percent thought Stonehenge was a foreign site.

Additionally, while those surveyed showed a good knowledge of foreign cities, but closer to home their knowledge was less than impressive.

In the survey of 2,000 people, 20.6 percent could not list England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as the four countries comprising the United Kingdom.

Some of the howlers included more than a third of the nation saying they believed the Home Counties of south-east England circle Manchester, Birmingham or Glasgow.

More than half of British adults - 58.6 percent - confessed they thought Ben Nevis and Snowdon are actually in England, rather than Scotland and Wales.

10 percent of those polled had no idea that the Angel of the North, the huge Antony Gormley structure, is even in the UK, let alone in the north-east of England.

Almost a quarter of Brits think Ayers Rock is in Britain, while one in 20 confessed they had no clue that Wiltshire's Stonehenge is also in Britain.

Astonishingly, one in five Brits confessed they don't know where Blackpool, is located. And the majority, 53 percent, have no clue where Balmoral Castle is.

Almost a third of the nation, 32.3 percent, don't know that Canterbury, home to the world famous Canterbury Cathedral, is based in the county of Kent.

Many experts believe that advances in technology and the easy availability of online search engines that provide instant answers to any question anywhere, any time, means people now don't need to store geographical information like they did before the internet.

"We were astounded that while Britons clearly have an enviable and broad general knowledge of famous cities abroad - New York, Paris, Rome and many others - they seem to display a lack of geographical awareness when it comes to their own nation," the Daily Mail quoted Karen Gee, managing director of tour operator Journeys of Distinction as saying.

"It's such a shame because the UK has so many national treasures for people to experience, right here on their doorstep," Gee added. (ANI)