What is the word or phrase below?
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I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?

In a university, a professor gave a set of three problems to the three brilliant students of his class. See the image for the questions.

It can't be seen, can't be felt, can't be heard, and can't be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after, Ends life, and kills laughter.
What is it?

One day, I thought of ways that can be used for creating a palindrome. So I decided that I will turn into a larger number by adding the reversed digits to the original number and keep doing it till I finally obtained a palindrome.

I am not sure if this process will always result in a palindrome eventually but I was able to produce a four-digit palindrome. Can you guess my starting number?

The great emperor Akbar once ruled India. He was well known for his intelligence. But along with that, he was known for the Nine Gems in his court. One of the nine gems was Birbal, a quick witted and extremely intelligent man. The stories of his wit were widely popular.

Once a king ruling in a distant land heard of Birbal. To check his wit, he sent an invitation and called him to visit his land. Akbar allowed Birbal to go and he took off on the journey.

Upon reaching that kings kingdom, he was welcomed with flowers. He was then escorted to the palace of the king. Upon entering the palace, Birbal found that there were six people sitting in front of him adorning the same robe. They were also lookalike and it was hard to judge who the real king was.

After a couple of minutes, Birbal approached one of them and bowed in front of him greeting him.

That was the real king. How did Birbal know who was the real king ?

There are two candles. Both will only burn exactly for an hour. How will you use these two candles to measure forty-five minutes?

A river should be crossed by a father, a mother and their two sons and two daughters.
There are some rules that should be followed while crossing the river. There can be only two people in the raft while crossing. The daughters cannot be with their father unless there is the presence of the mother. The sons cannot be with their mothers unless the father is present. Unless the guard is on the board, the criminals cannot be with any of the family members. Only the adults like the father, the guard, and the mother knows to use the raft.

How will they cross the river?

There is a jar in which there are two types of candies.
20 blueberries and 16 strawberries. You perform the following steps:
1) You take out two candies.
2) If the two candies are of the same flavour, you add a blueberry one otherwise, you add the strawberry one.

You repeat these two steps till there is just one candy remaining in the jar. Which flavoured candy will be left?

It's a protector.
It sits on a bridge.
One individual can see directly through it, while others wonder what it hides.

What is it?