Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is a South Caucasus country on the Caspian Sea, blending Soviet, Persian and Turkic influences with vast oil and gas wealth that funded Baku's striking modern skyline.
Azerbaijan is a South Caucasus country on the Caspian Sea, blending Soviet, Persian and Turkic influences with vast oil and gas wealth that funded Baku's striking modern skyline.
The Bahamas is a Caribbean archipelago of 700 islands and 2,400 cays just off Florida's coast, famous for turquoise shallows, the swimming pigs of Big Major Cay, and offshore finance.
Bahrain is a small archipelago kingdom in the Persian Gulf, connected to Saudi Arabia by a 25 km causeway, and one of the most liberal of the Gulf states with a strong banking and pearl-diving heritage.
Bangladesh occupies the densely-populated Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in South Asia, a low-lying, river-laced country defined by monsoon rains, rice fields and the world's largest mangrove forest.
Barbados is the easternmost Caribbean island, famous for white-sand beaches, world-class rum distilleries, and a parliament dating to 1639 — the third-oldest in the Commonwealth.
Belarus is a landlocked Eastern European country between Russia and Poland, characterised by vast forests, lakes and a Soviet-influenced political and architectural legacy.
Belgium is a Western European federation split between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and bilingual Brussels — itself the de-facto capital of the European Union.
Belize is a small Central American country on the Caribbean Sea, the only one with English as the primary official language, with the world's second-largest barrier reef just off its coast.
Benin is a slim West African nation between Togo and Nigeria, the historic kingdom of Dahomey, and is widely regarded as the birthplace of Vodun (voodoo) religion.