ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Which country is the farthest from a coastline?

QUESTION: Which country is the farthest from a coastline?

This is Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked ­c­ountry in Central Asia, bordering Kazakhstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The shortest distance from Kyrgyzstan to the nearest ocean is around 1,500 miles, from the southern border to the coast of Pakistan.

Kyrgyzstan is compensated by the fact that it has a stunning landscape.

There are forests of walnut and fir, deserts, meadows, mountains and lots of water, in the form of alpine lakes.

Lake Issyk-Kul is the largest lake in Kyrgyzstan and the second-largest mountain lake in the world, after Lake Titicaca in South America.

It is known as the ‘Pearl’ of Kyrgyzstan and a ­stunning alpine landscape surrounds it.

Intrepid travellers to the region can enjoy watersports, hiking, horse riding and visiting the old Soviet bath houses and sanatoriums. 

Its crystal clear water is slightly saline, so it doesn’t freeze in winter and can reach a balmy 24 degrees in summer.

The most distant point from an ocean, known as the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility, is in China. It is in the Gurbantunggut Desert, in the Xinjiang region near the border with Kazakhstan, 1,645 miles from the nearest coastline.

Giles Smith, Cambridge

QUESTION: Why is an unplayable ball in cricket called a ‘jaffa’?

The origin of this is unknown but Jaffa was an ancient port in Israel, then a large orange, grown near that port. 

Perhaps the rare sweetness of the fruit links to the near-perfect delivery of the ball. At any rate, ‘jaffa’ came to supersede ‘corker’ in cricket during the 1980s.

Arguably the most famous jaffa of all was Shane Warne’s ball of the century that bamboozled Mike Gatting during the 1993 Ashes.

Lee Brown, Bradford

Shane Warne bowling for Australia during the sixth Test match between England and Australia at The Oval, London, 19th August 1993

QUESTION: Was Tarzan’s famous call in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s books or added later by film-makers?

Further to the earlier answer, the famous yodel created by Johnny Weissmuller was not the first attempt to put Tarzan’s call on film.

Tarzan The Tiger was a 1929 film released with a partial soundtrack. It featured Frank Merrill as Tarzan and he makes his call after dispatching a lion.

Merrill’s call sounded as if an elephant had trodden on his toes, and went ‘Yaaargh! Yaaargh!’.

Olivia Curtis, York  

Is there a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here?

Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk