4th October: Belgium Independence Day

Belgium, official name Kingdom of Belgium, is a small but densely populated country in Europe bordered by France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It became a constitutional monarchy on this date in 1815, so here are 10 things you might not know about Belgium.

1. Most people know that Belgium is famous for its Chocolate. It produces 220,000 tonnes of the stuff every year and the world's biggest chocolate selling point is Brussels National Airport - but you may not know that Belgium is the world's leading exporter of billiard balls. 80% of the world's Billiard balls come from Belgium. It also produces 800 different types of beer and the greatest variety of bricks in the world.
2. The highest point in Belgium is lower than the world's tallest building – the Signal de Botrange on the High Fens plateau in the far east of the country, is the highest point in Belgium at just 694 metres high.
3. It is compulsory to vote in Belgium. People get fined if they don't vote. On the subject of politics, Belgium has the highest proportion of female ministers in the world.
4. Belgium has more castles per kilometre than any other country in the world.
5. The Belgian motorway system is the only man-made structure visible from the moon (at night, due to the lights all along the motorway network). The one piece of art left on the Moon, Fallen Astronaut, is by the Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck.
6. Belgium is home to the longest tram line in the world (the Belgian coast tram (68 km), which opened in 1885 and operates between De Panne and Knokke-Heist, from the French border to the Dutch border), the smallest town (Durbay, which has a population of less than 500 but has never lost the status granted to it in medieval times) and (until recently) the deepest swimming pool (Nemo33, in Brussels, 35 metres deep).
7. In the town of Berlotte, there is a tiny museum dedicated to Carrots, with an associated Carrot Club which only men are allowed to join.
8. The actress Audrey Hepburn was born in Brussels.
9. Belgium has its fair share of inventors and pioneers. Oil painting was invented there (probably by Jan van Eyck); The word "gas" was proposed by Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont as a phonetic spelling of his Dutch pronunciation of the Greek word "chaos"; Inline Skates were invented by the Belgian John Joseph Merlin; and Belgian mathematician Lambert Adolphe Quetelet invented the Body Mass Index (BMI).
10. The word ‘spa’ for a health resort comes from the town of Spa in Belgium where the ancient Romans enjoyed the health-giving springs.