1. Bucharest’s Palace of Parliament, also known as the People’s Palace, is the world’s largest civilian building with an administrative function and the second-largest building in the world after the Pentagon in the US. It covers some 330,000 sqm.
2. The famous British auto show Top Gear shot one of its episodes on Transfagarasan in 2009, naming it “the best road in the world”.
3. The Carpathian Mountains are home to one of the largest virgin forests in Europe. 400 unique species of mammals, including the Carpathian chamois, call the Carpathian Mountains home. 60% of European brown bear population lives in the Carpathian Mountains.
4. The earliest homo sapiens fossils, up to now, were discovered in 2002 in southwestern Romania, in the Cave of Bones. The fossil’s age is estimated at 37,800 to 42,000 years old.
5. The Danube to Black Sea canal in southeast Romania, is world’s third longest man-made navigation route, after the Suez and the Panama Canals.
6. The stone sculpture of Decebalus, the last king of Dacia, is the tallest rock sculpture in Europe. Located near Orsova, Romania, the statue carved in stone is 40-meter high.
7. The Danube Delta is the second-largest river delta in Europe and the best preserved on the continent. The delta hosts over 300 species of birds as well as 45 freshwater fish species in its numerous lakes and marshes.
8. Bucharest was the first city in the world illuminated by oil lamps (1895).
9. Romania’s famous Peles Castle, located in Sinaia mountain resort, was the first completely electrified castle in Europe. The electricity was produced by the castle’s own plant.
10. Romania is Europe’s richest country in gold resources and hosts Europe’s only museum dedicated to gold.