h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oops, re-solve, sorry Gnomon

1. A noble tribune
2. A pudgy sunbather
3. An easy name
4. Date human plank
5. Desirable barge
6. Drake lasagne
7. Engineer obtains auras
9. I await pantie
10. Ich bin GI Jane
13. Mr Unkissable
14. National sieve
16. On a rainy bike
19. Royal time
20. Who named a bikini

17 = Ankara, Turkey

19 = Rome, Italy

1 = Beirut, Lebanon

10 = Beijing, China

2 = Budapest, Hungary

3 = Sana'a, Yemen

I didn't know the capital of Yemen.

Sanaa's full of the Yemenis of the state.

4 = Kathmandu, Nepal

13 = Minsk, Belarus

I must confess I didn't know Sana'a either. I guessed Yemen and looked it up.

I think in retrospect that expecting us to know obscure capitals off the tops of our heads was expecting too much.

Well Sana'a is the only obscure one so far.

Minsk and Kathmandu might not occur to some people.

20 = Windhoek, Namibia

Kathmandu comes up in conversation fairly regularly because of the number of people who go on walking holidays in the Himalayas.

6 = Dakar, Senegal

And don't tell me that's obscure. The Paris to Dakar rally is one of the most famous off-road races in the world.

Sanaa’s on the news occasionally. Well, the internationalist bulletins like Channel 4 News in the UK. I doubt whether Fox News has heard of it.