1. What is the capital city of Saudi Arabia?
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia, in the centre of the country.
2. What is the capital city of Pakistan?
Islamabad
Many people guess Karachi, since it is Pakistan's biggest city, but the capital is actually Islamabad.
3. Which city is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, even though many people assume it is Dubai?
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE. Dubai is more famous internationally, but it is not the capital.
4. Belgium's capital, Brussels, is also the headquarters city for which major international organisation of European countries?
The European Union
Brussels hosts the main institutions of the European Union, as well as NATO's headquarters.
5. South Africa is unusual in having how many capital cities, each handling a different role of government?
Three
South Africa has three capitals: Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial).
6. Which country's official capital is Dodoma, even though its largest and best known city is Dar es Salaam?
Tanzania
Tanzania's official capital is Dodoma, though Dar es Salaam remains the country's largest city and main port.
7. Which country has a national flag that is not a rectangle, but two triangular pennants stacked on top of each other?
Nepal
Nepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is not a rectangle, made of two stacked triangular pennants.
8. The flags of Australia and New Zealand both include a small Union Jack, honouring their history as former colonies of which country?
The United Kingdom
Both flags carry the Union Jack in the corner as a link to their shared history as British colonies.
9. Which river is usually considered the longest in the world, flowing through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea?
The Nile
The Nile, flowing north through north east Africa, is usually considered the longest river in the world.
10. Which mountain is the tallest above sea level in the world, found in the Himalayas?
Mount Everest
Mount Everest, on the border of Nepal and Tibet, is the highest mountain above sea level on Earth.
11. The Amazon River flows mainly through which continent?
South America
The Amazon flows through several South American countries and carries more water than any other river in the world.
12. Which is the largest hot desert in the world, covering much of northern Africa?
The Sahara
The Sahara Desert stretches across much of northern Africa and is the world's largest hot desert.
13. Which mountain range, running through several South American countries, is the longest mountain range on land?
The Andes
The Andes run down the western edge of South America and form the longest continuous mountain range on land.
14. Which desert, found along the coast of Chile, is often called one of the driest places on Earth?
The Atacama
The Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the driest places on Earth, with some areas that almost never see rain.
15. Which cold, high desert covers a large area of Mongolia and northern China?
The Gobi Desert
The Gobi Desert is a cold desert, unlike the hot Sahara, and covers parts of Mongolia and northern China.
16. Which river, flowing through China, is Asia's longest river?
The Yangtze
The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world, flowing through central China.
17. How many continents are there, most commonly taught?
Seven
The seven continents are usually listed as Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Oceania.
18. Which is the largest ocean on Earth?
The Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean, covering more area than all the continents combined.
19. Which continent is almost entirely covered by ice and has no permanent population?
Antarctica
Antarctica is a continent almost entirely covered by ice, home only to scientists at research stations, not permanent residents.
20. Which ocean lies between Africa, Asia and Australia?
The Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean stretches between the east coast of Africa, southern Asia and Australia.
21. Which continent is also a single country, and the smallest of the seven continents?
Australia
Australia is unusual in being both a continent and a single country, and it is the smallest of the seven continents.
22. Which two continents are joined on one continuous landmass, sometimes called Eurasia?
Europe and Asia
Europe and Asia sit on one continuous landmass, so geographers sometimes refer to them together as Eurasia.
23. Which scientist is famous for describing gravity, supposedly after watching an apple fall?
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton described the laws of motion and gravity in the late 1600s.
24. Which scientist developed the theory of evolution by natural selection, after studying wildlife including on the Galapagos Islands?
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, explaining how species change over time through natural selection.
25. Which scientist developed the theory of relativity and is famous for the equation E = mc²?
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, including the equation E = mc², changed how scientists understand space, time and energy.
26. Which scientist's experiments with pea plants helped found the modern study of genetics?
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel's careful experiments breeding pea plants in the 1800s revealed the basic rules of how traits are inherited.
27. Which scientist discovered radioactivity alongside her husband, and was the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences?
Marie Curie
Marie Curie's research on radioactivity won her Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry.
28. Which scientist's X-ray images were crucial evidence in working out the double helix structure of DNA?
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin's X-ray images of DNA gave vital clues that helped James Watson and Francis Crick work out its double helix structure.
29. Which scientist developed an early vaccine against rabies and showed that heating liquids like milk could kill harmful germs, a process now named after him?
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur developed the process now called pasteurisation and also created an early vaccine against rabies.
30. Which scientist accidentally discovered a mould that killed bacteria in his lab, leading to the antibiotic penicillin?
Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming noticed in 1928 that a mould killed bacteria growing near it, leading to the development of penicillin.
31. Which invention, credited to Johannes Gutenberg in the 1400s, allowed books to be produced much faster than by hand?
The printing press
Gutenberg's printing press, developed around the 1440s in Germany, made it possible to print many copies of a book far faster than copying by hand.
32. Who is usually credited with patenting a practical telephone in the 1870s?
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell patented a working telephone in 1876, though others were experimenting with similar ideas at the same time.
33. Which invention, made practical by Thomas Edison and others in the late 1800s, gave people electric light in their homes?
The electric lightbulb
Edison and other inventors developed a long lasting, practical electric lightbulb in the late 1800s, changing how homes and streets were lit.
34. The Wright brothers made history in 1903 by achieving what?
The first powered aeroplane flight
Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first sustained, controlled flight of a powered aeroplane in 1903 in the United States.
35. Roughly when was the World Wide Web invented, making the internet easy for ordinary people to use?
Around 1990
Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web around 1989 to 1991, building a way to link and browse pages over the internet.
36. Which ancient invention, first used for pottery before being used for transport, is considered one of the most important in human history?
The wheel
The wheel was first used to shape pottery, long before anyone thought to attach it to a cart for transport.
37. Which ancient civilisation built the pyramids and the Sphinx, and was ruled by pharaohs?
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt, along the Nile River, built enormous pyramids as tombs for its pharaohs thousands of years ago.
38. Which ancient civilisation, based around the city of Rome, built a huge empire across Europe and controlled the Mediterranean?
The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire grew from the city of Rome to control territory across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
39. Ancient Greece is often credited with developing an early form of what system of government, where citizens could vote?
Democracy
Ancient Athens developed an early form of democracy, in which some citizens could vote directly on decisions.
40. Which river valley civilisation, in what is now Iraq, is often called one of the earliest, and developed an early writing system called cuneiform?
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is often considered among the earliest civilisations, and its cuneiform writing is one of the first writing systems.
41. The Indus Valley Civilisation, one of the world's earliest, grew up along a river now mainly running through which present day countries?
Pakistan and India
The Indus Valley Civilisation flourished along the Indus River, in what is now mostly Pakistan and part of north west India.
42. Which ancient civilisation in Central America is known for accurate calendar systems and step pyramids, and had a writing system only fully deciphered in recent times?
The Maya
The Maya civilisation, in what is now Mexico and Central America, built step pyramids and developed one of the most accurate calendars of the ancient world.
43. What is the name of the star at the centre of our solar system, which the Earth orbits?
The Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of our solar system, and every planet, including Earth, orbits it.
44. What is the correct term for the huge collection of stars, including our Sun, that we belong to?
A galaxy
Our Sun is one of hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
45. Which of these correctly lists the four planets closest to the Sun, in order?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
Moving out from the Sun, the four rocky inner planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, in that order.
46. What is the term for a large object, smaller than a full planet, that orbits the Sun but has not cleared its orbital path of other objects, like Pluto?
A dwarf planet
Pluto is classified as a dwarf planet rather than a full planet because it has not cleared its orbit of other similarly sized objects.
47. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are often grouped together because they all trace their origins back to which figure?
Abraham
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are often called the Abrahamic religions because each traces its roots back to Abraham.
48. Which religion's central holy text is the Quran, believed by its followers to have been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad?
Islam
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which followers believe was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over about 23 years.
49. Buddhism traces its origins to the teachings of a spiritual teacher known as the Buddha, who lived in which part of the world?
The Indian subcontinent
The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, lived in what is now Nepal and northern India around 2,500 years ago.
50. Jerusalem is considered a holy city by which three major world religions?
Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Jerusalem holds deep religious significance for Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions alike, each with important historic sites in the city.