The hardest flags in the world to recognize

Most flags are stripes and stars, learned in seconds. A handful break every rule and stick precisely because of it. Know these and you already hold the meanest jokers in any quiz.

Nepal: the only non-rectangular one

Nepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is not a quadrilateral. It is made of two stacked pennants and goes back to two separate banners merged in the 19th century. The sun and moon on it stand, among other things, for the hope that the country lasts as long as those two celestial bodies. The exact proportions are even fixed in the constitution with a geometric construction guide.

Belize: the painting among flags

Belize holds the record for the most colours on a national flag, twelve in total. The reason is the detailed coat of arms in the centre with two woodcutters, tools and a mahogany tree. That also makes Belize one of the very few flags depicting human figures.

Mozambique: a flag with an assault rifle

Mozambique is the only country whose flag shows a modern assault rifle, an AK-47 with a bayonet, crossed with a hoe and resting on a book. The symbols stand for defence, agriculture and education. A redesign has been debated for years, but the rifle has stayed.

Bhutan, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the bag of tricks

Bhutan's flag carries the Druk, the thunder dragon that also gives the country its name: Druk Yul, land of the thunder dragon. Saudi Arabia's flag shows the Islamic declaration of faith and a sword, is never flown at half-mast and is printed on both sides so the script reads correctly from either direction. And Cyprus is one of only two flags worldwide that depict the outline of their own country.

In a quiz, exceptions like these are gifts: seen once, never forgotten. In CountryRush they appear between the standard tricolours, and suddenly the hard question is the easiest one.