25th November: Bosnia and Herzegovina's national day

Today is Bosnia and Herzegovina's national day - so here are some little known facts about the country.

1. The Capital and largest city is Sarajevo, sometimes nicknamed the "Olympic City" because it hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics or "European Jerusalem".
2. Since 1995, Sarajevo has hosted a film festival, which has has become the largest and most famous film festival in the Balkans and South-East Europe.
3. The name "Bosnia" is probably derived from the name of the Bosna river or a word meaning water, while Herzegovina means "Dukedom", Herzog being the German word for "duke". Bosnia is in the north of the country and Herzegovina in the south.
4. They have a unique constitutional term for the main ethnic groups - constituent peoples. There are three of these: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. This means that none of them can be considered a minority. Each group speaks a different language, Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian. While there is no official language, these three languages have equal status. Speakers of any of these languages can generally understand and communicate with speakers of the other two and have in the past been lumped together as "Serbo-Croatian."
5. The country is vaguely heart-shaped and is sometimes nicknamed the “Heart Shaped Land”.
6. The Flag is blue with a Yellow triangle. Seven white stars are placed along one side of the triangle. The three points of the triangle are understood to stand for the three constituent peoples. The stars represent Europe, and the fact that two stars are half stars at the top and bottom edges of the flag, represents infinity.
7. The longest river is the Sava. The highest peak is Maglic Mountain at 2,386 metres and is found in the Sutjeska National Park, the oldest park in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
8. Also in the park is the last remaining jungle in Europe at Perućica. This ancient forest is 6 kilometres long and 1–3 kilometres wide, with an area of 1,400 hectares. Some of the trees are 300 years old, and the forest itself is said to be 20,000 years old. In some places the forest growth is almost impregnable.
9. Bosnia and Herzegovina is tenth in the world for per capita Coffee consumption with many coffee houses in the cities.
10. The country is home to the third most popular Christian pilgrimage site in Europe at Međugorje in the mountains near Mostar. In 1981, a small group of young people in the village began reporting seeing visions of the Virgin Mary on a nearby hillside.