Charting the Unknown World Quiz

100 questions · by Qwiz Rush

Charting the Unknown World Quiz is a free 100-question multiple choice, letters and numbers quiz on Qwiz Rush, made by Qwiz Rush, split into 10 rounds. Test your knowledge on the daring adventurers who mapped our planet, crossed deep oceans, and ventured into the cosmos.

Host it live for friends, family, a class or a quiz night: everyone joins with a game code on their own device, no app needed. Or play it solo with Free Play and see how many you get right.

Every question runs on a 10-second countdown and the fastest correct answers score the most. All the questions and their choices are listed below so you can see what the quiz covers; the answers are revealed in the game. Want to change something? Make your own copy and edit it in your library.

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The 100 questions

  1. Which Moroccan scholar and traveler covered over 73,000 miles across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia during the 14th century?

    • Ibn Battuta
    • Marco Polo
    • Zheng He
    • Al-Idrisi

  2. The Norse explorer Leif Erikson is believed to have established a settlement in North America around 1000 AD. What did he name this coastal region?

    • Greenland
    • Vinland
    • Markland
    • Helluland

  3. Which 6th-century Byzantine merchant and monk traveled to India and Ethiopia, later writing the 'Christian Topography'?

    • Procopius
    • Cosmas Indicopleustes
    • John of Ephesus
    • Michael Psellos

  4. In the 2nd century BCE, which Chinese diplomat was sent by Emperor Wu of Han to form alliances in Central Asia, pioneering the routes that became the Silk Road?

    • Zhang Qian
    • Ban Chao
    • Xuanzang
    • Faxian

  5. Which 9th-century Persian geographer wrote the 'Book of Roads and Kingdoms', providing one of the earliest detailed maps and route descriptions of the Islamic world?

    • Al-Masudi
    • Al-Biruni
    • Ibn Khordadbeh
    • Ibn Hawqal

  6. Which Franciscan friar was sent by Pope Innocent IV on a diplomatic mission to the Mongol Empire in 1245, predating Marco Polo's travels by several decades?

    • William of Rubruck
    • Giovanni da Pian del Carpine
    • Odoric of Pordenone
    • John of Montecorvino

  7. In what year did the Viking explorer Leif Erikson famously land in North America, establishing the settlement of L'Anse aux Meadows around this approximate turn of the millennium?

    Answer with a number.

  8. In what year did Venetian merchant Marco Polo finally return to Venice after his 24-year journey through Asia and service to Kublai Khan?

    Answer with a number.

  9. Name the ancient Greek geographer and explorer from Massalia who made a voyage of discovery to northwestern Europe around 325 BCE and was the first to describe the Arctic and the Midnight Sun.

    Answer with a letter.

  10. Name the 10th-century Arab traveler and chronicler whose famous account of his diplomatic mission to the Volga Bulgars provides the most detailed contemporary description of the Viking Rus.

    Answer with a letter.

  11. Who was the Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe, though he himself was killed in the Philippines before the voyage's completion?

    • Ferdinand Magellan
    • Vasco da Gama
    • Bartolomeu Dias
    • Pedro Álvares Cabral

  12. What was the name of the research vessel commanded by Lieutenant James Cook on his first voyage of discovery to the Pacific from 1768 to 1771?

    • HMS Beagle
    • HMS Endeavour
    • HMS Resolution
    • HMS Bounty

  13. Which English navigator and privateer became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, completing the journey in 1580?

    • Francis Drake
    • Walter Raleigh
    • John Hawkins
    • Martin Frobisher

  14. Which French explorer led a major scientific expedition into the Pacific but mysteriously vanished with his entire crew near Vanikoro in 1788?

    • Louis Antoine de Bougainville
    • Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse
    • Jacques Cartier
    • Samuel de Champlain

  15. Which Italian explorer, sailing under the Spanish flag, made four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, opening the Americas to European exploration?

    • Amerigo Vespucci
    • John Cabot
    • Christopher Columbus
    • Giovanni da Verrazzano

  16. Which explorer is credited with the European discovery of the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, which he initially named the Sandwich Islands?

    • James Cook
    • William Dampier
    • Abel Tasman
    • George Vancouver

  17. In what year did Vasco da Gama first arrive in Calicut, India, successfully opening the sea route from Europe to Asia around the Cape of Good Hope?

    Answer with a number.

  18. How many ships did Ferdinand Magellan originally set sail with from Spain in 1519 for his historic voyage to find a western route to the Moluccas?

    Answer with a number.

  19. Name the Dutch explorer who became the first known European to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and New Zealand during his voyage of 1642.

    Answer with a letter.

  20. Name the highly maneuverable, shallow-draft sailing ship developed by the Portuguese in the 15th century that became the preferred vessel for early Age of Discovery voyages.

    Answer with a letter.

  21. Which famous Venetian merchant and explorer traveled the Silk Road to the court of Kublai Khan in the late 13th century, documenting his travels in a highly influential book?

    • Marco Polo
    • Ibn Battuta
    • William of Rubruck
    • Giovanni da Pian del Carpine

  22. Which Chinese diplomat of the Han dynasty is traditionally credited with opening up the Silk Road to the West after his imperial mission to secure alliances against the Xiongnu?

    • Zhang Qian
    • Ban Chao
    • Zheng He
    • Sima Qian

  23. What highly sought-after commodity from the Ferghana Valley did the Han Dynasty desperately seek to acquire via the Silk Road to bolster their military forces?

    • Heavenly Horses
    • Nephrite Jade
    • Roman Glassware
    • Damascus Steel

  24. Which desolate, hyper-arid desert in northwestern China, whose name is often translated as 'he who goes in does not come out,' was one of the most perilous obstacles on the Silk Road?

    • Taklamakan Desert
    • Gobi Desert
    • Karakum Desert
    • Kyzylkum Desert

  25. Which ancient overland trade route, a predecessor to parts of the Silk Road, was built by the Persian King Darius I to facilitate rapid communication across his vast empire?

    • The Royal Road
    • The Amber Road
    • The Incense Route
    • The Tea Horse Road

  26. What major city, situated at the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, served as the capital for multiple Chinese dynasties including the Han and Tang?

    • Chang'an
    • Luoyang
    • Hangzhou
    • Nanjing

  27. In what year did the German geographer and traveler Ferdinand von Richthofen coin the term 'Seidenstraße' (Silk Road) to describe these ancient trade networks?

    Answer with a number.

  28. Approximately how many thousands of miles long was the entire overland Silk Road network at its peak, connecting Chang'an to Rome? (Round to the nearest thousand miles)

    Answer with a number.

  29. Which ancient Uzbek city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, served as a central hub of the Silk Road and was famously captured by Alexander the Great and later rebuilt by Timur?

    Answer with a letter.

  30. What is the term for the fortified roadside inns found along the Silk Road where merchants, travelers, and their pack animals could safely rest and recover after a day's journey?

    Answer with a letter.

  31. Which explorer led the first expedition to successfully reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911?

    • Robert Falcon Scott
    • Roald Amundsen
    • Ernest Shackleton
    • Douglas Mawson

  32. What is the name of the active volcano located on Ross Island, Antarctica, known for its persistent lava lake?

    • Mount Erebus
    • Mount Vinson
    • Mount Terror
    • Mount Sidley

  33. Which international agreement, opened for signature in 1959, sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent?

    • The Svalbard Treaty
    • The Antarctic Treaty
    • The Madrid Protocol
    • The Geneva Convention

  34. What is the name of the deepest trench in the Southern Ocean, located near the South Sandwich Islands?

    • Mariana Trench
    • Puerto Rico Trench
    • South Sandwich Trench
    • Java Trench

  35. Which bird, known for its incredible migration, travels annually from its breeding grounds in the Arctic to the Antarctic and back?

    • Arctic Tern
    • Wandering Albatross
    • Emperor Penguin
    • Snow Petrel

  36. What is the name of the largest ice shelf in Antarctica, roughly the size of France?

    • Ronne Ice Shelf
    • Ross Ice Shelf
    • Filchner Ice Shelf
    • Larsen Ice Shelf

  37. In what year did the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache aboard the Belgica, begin the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic?

    Answer with a number.

  38. How many sovereign nations originally signed the Antarctic Treaty when it was first established in 1959?

    Answer with a number.

  39. Name the vast, treeless biome characterized by permafrost and low-growing vegetation that rings the Arctic Ocean.

    Answer with a letter.

  40. What is the name of the legendary, elusive sea passage through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans?

    Answer with a letter.

  41. In 19th-century exploration, which town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika was the site of the famous 1871 meeting where Henry Morton Stanley reportedly said, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

    • Zanzibar
    • Ujiji
    • Tabora
    • Kigoma

  42. Scottish explorer Mungo Park drowned during his second expedition to map the course of the Niger River. Near which rapids in modern-day Nigeria did this fatal incident occur?

    • Bussa Rapids
    • Victoria Falls
    • Boyoma Falls
    • Inga Rapids

  43. In what year did David Livingstone become the first European to view Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls)?

    Answer with a number.

  44. Which British explorer and ethnologist traveled extensively through West Africa in the 1890s, collecting fish specimens and famously climbing Mount Cameroon?

    • Mary Kingsley
    • Florence Baker
    • Alexandrine Tinne
    • Isabella Bird

  45. Name the massive African lake that John Hanning Speke identified as the source of the White Nile in 1858, naming it after the reigning British monarch.

    Answer with a letter.

  46. Led by Henry Morton Stanley, the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1887–1889 was mounted to rescue the besieged governor of which Ottoman-Egyptian province?

    • Equatoria
    • Darfur
    • Kordofan
    • Nubia

  47. In what year did French explorer René Caillié become the first European to return alive from the mysterious city of Timbuktu?

    Answer with a number.

  48. Who was the first European to cross equatorial Africa from sea to sea, traveling from Zanzibar to Benguela between 1873 and 1875?

    • Verney Lovett Cameron
    • Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza
    • Joseph Thomson
    • James Augustus Grant

  49. Name the major river basin explored extensively by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, which now shares its name with two modern African nations.

    Answer with a letter.

  50. Which German explorer wrote a detailed five-volume account of his extensive travels through the Sahara and Sahel regions between 1850 and 1855?

    • Heinrich Barth
    • Gustav Nachtigal
    • Georg Schweinfurth
    • Gerhard Rohlfs

  51. What traditional Micronesian navigation devices are made of stick charts using coconut fronds and shells to map ocean swell patterns and wave directions?

    • Rebbelib
    • Astrolabes
    • Sextants
    • Portolans

  52. Which legendary Polynesian navigator, originating from Raiatea, assisted Captain James Cook by drawing a map of the Pacific containing 74 islands?

    • Tupaia
    • Kamehameha
    • Ru
    • Kupe

  53. In 1521, which Portuguese explorer led the first European expedition to cross the Pacific Ocean, naming it the 'Mar Pacífico'?

    • Ferdinand Magellan
    • Vasco da Gama
    • Bartolomeu Dias
    • Francisco Pizarro

  54. What is the name of the Marshallese stick chart that shows only wave patterns around a single island or a small group of islands, used primarily as an instructional tool?

    • Mattang
    • Rebbelib
    • Meddo
    • Wapepe

  55. Which French explorer charted much of the Pacific in the 1760s and published a famous account of his circumnavigation describing Tahiti as an earthly paradise?

    • Louis Antoine de Bougainville
    • Jean-François de Galaup
    • Jacques Cartier
    • Samuel de Champlain

  56. What specific natural phenomenon did Polynesian navigators use to detect the presence of distant islands by observing the underside of clouds?

    • Cloud reflection of lagoons
    • Green flash
    • Bioluminescence
    • Aurora Australis

  57. In what year did Abel Tasman make his historic voyage of discovery, becoming the first European to reach Tasmania and New Zealand?

    Answer with a number.

  58. How many main islands (excluding smaller islets and offshore rocks) make up the archipelago of New Zealand, which Abel Tasman initially named Staten Landt?

    Answer with a number.

  59. What is the indigenous Maori name for New Zealand, commonly translated as 'the land of the long white cloud'?

    Answer with a letter.

  60. What is the name of the vast cultural and geographic region of the Pacific Ocean that forms a triangle with its corners at Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand?

    Answer with a letter.

  61. Which Native American woman served as an invaluable interpreter and guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1804 and 1806?

    • Pocahontas
    • Sacagawea
    • Sarah Winnemucca
    • Lozen

  62. Disguised as a man named Jean Baré, which French botanist became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe during Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition?

    • Jeanne Baret
    • Ida Pfeiffer
    • Mary Kingsley
    • Alexandra David-Néel

  63. In what year did Amelia Earhart become the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean?

    Answer with a number.

  64. Which English explorer and writer became the first female member of the Royal Geographical Society in 1892, famous for her travels in Asia and the Rocky Mountains?

    • Gertrude Bell
    • Isabella Bird
    • Marianne North
    • Freya Stark

  65. Identify the influential British explorer, writer, and archaeologist who played a major role in establishing the modern state of Iraq and mapping the Middle East in the early 20th century.

    Answer with a letter.

  66. Which American mountaineer and suffragist co-founded the American Alpine Club and scaled Peru's Mount Huascarán in 1908 at the age of 58?

    • Annie Smith Peck
    • Fanny Bullock Workman
    • Fay Fuller
    • Junko Tabei

  67. At what age did Dutch sailor Laura Dekker complete her solo circumnavigation of the globe in 2012, becoming the youngest person to do so?

    Answer with a number.

  68. In 1924, which French-Belgian explorer disguised herself as a beggar to become the first Western woman to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet?

    • Alexandra David-Néel
    • Ella Maillart
    • May French Sheldon
    • Lady Hester Stanhope

  69. Name the pioneering American journalist who completed a record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in 1889, beating the fictional record of Phileas Fogg.

    Answer with a letter.

  70. Which Icelandic explorer, known as the "far-traveler," explored Vinland (North America) around the year 1000 and gave birth to the first European child born in the Americas?

    • Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir
    • Freydis Eriksdotter
    • Olga of Kiev
    • Lagertha

  71. In 1845, Sir John Franklin set sail from England to map the Northwest Passage with two ships. What were the names of these two ill-fated vessels?

    • HMS Erebus and HMS Terror
    • HMS Adventure and HMS Resolution
    • HMS Discovery and HMS Endeavour
    • HMS Investigator and HMS Resolute

  72. British explorer Percy Fawcett vanished in 1925 while searching for an ancient lost city in the uncharted jungles of Brazil. What did he call this mythical civilization?

    • El Dorado
    • The City of Z
    • Paititi
    • Manoa

  73. Roald Amundsen, the legendary Norwegian explorer who first reached the South Pole, disappeared in what year while taking part in an Arctic rescue mission?

    Answer with a number.

  74. When John White returned to the Roanoke Colony in 1590, he found the settlement completely abandoned with only one cryptic word carved into a wooden post. What was this word?

    • CROATOAN
    • DARE
    • LOST
    • VIRGINIA

  75. Identify the British mountaineer who, along with Andrew Irvine, disappeared in 1924 near the summit of Mount Everest, leaving behind the enduring mystery of whether they reached the top.

    Answer with a letter.

  76. The French navigator Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, vanished in 1788. On which South Pacific island group were the wrecks of his ships eventually discovered in 1826?

    • Vanikoro
    • Tahiti
    • Fiji
    • New Caledonia

  77. How many total crew members (officers and men) were aboard the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror when Sir John Franklin's expedition departed England in 1845?

    Answer with a number.

  78. In 1872, the merchant brigantine Mary Celeste was found adrift and completely deserted in the Atlantic Ocean. To which European port was the ship originally sailing when it left New York?

    • Genoa
    • London
    • Lisbon
    • Gibraltar

  79. Name the Prussian explorer and naturalist who vanished without a trace in 1848 while attempting to cross the Australian continent from east to west.

    Answer with a letter.

  80. During her ill-fated 1937 circumnavigation attempt, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while flying toward which tiny Pacific island refueling stop?

    • Howland Island
    • Midway Atoll
    • Wake Island
    • Baker Island

  81. Who designed the bathysphere, which he used alongside Otis Barton in the 1930s to conduct the first deep-ocean dives observed by humans?

    • William Beebe
    • Jacques Cousteau
    • Auguste Piccard
    • Robert Ballard

  82. In 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Who was the US Navy Lieutenant who co-piloted the vessel alongside Jacques Piccard?

    • Don Walsh
    • Robert Ballard
    • James Cameron
    • Victor Vescovo

  83. In what year did Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh make their historic, record-breaking descent to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the bathyscaphe Trieste?

    Answer with a number.

  84. What is the name of the deep-submergence research submersible owned by the US Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that famously helped locate the wreck of the Titanic in 1985?

    • Alvin
    • Nautilus
    • Mir I
    • Shinkai 6500

  85. Identify the legendary American marine biologist, oceanographer, and explorer who was named Time Magazine's first "Hero for the Planet" in 1998 and founded the Mission Blue initiative.

    Answer with a letter.

  86. Which Swiss physicist and inventor designed the pioneering bathyscaphe Trieste after previously setting altitude records in pressurized stratospheric balloons?

    • Auguste Piccard
    • Jacques Piccard
    • Jean-Felix Piccard
    • Bertrand Piccard

  87. How many crew members were on board the Deepsea Challenger submersible when filmmaker James Cameron made his record-breaking solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 2012?

    Answer with a number.

  88. Which British Royal Navy vessel embarked on a landmark scientific expedition from 1872 to 1876, laying the foundation for modern oceanography by mapping the seafloor and discovering thousands of new marine species?

    • HMS Challenger
    • HMS Beagle
    • HMS Endeavour
    • HMS Discovery

  89. Name the deepest known point in the Earth's oceans, located in the southern end of the Mariana Trench.

    Answer with a letter.

  90. In 2019, which American explorer and retired naval officer completed the "Five Deeps Expedition," becoming the first person to reach the deepest points of all five of Earth's oceans?

    • Victor Vescovo
    • Richard Garriott
    • Hamish Harding
    • Michael Collins

  91. Which robotic lander, released by the Rosetta spacecraft, made history in 2014 by landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko?

    • Philae
    • Huygens
    • Spirit
    • Opportunity

  92. What is the name of the phonograph records containing sounds and images of Earth that were placed aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977?

    • The Golden Record
    • The Earth Disc
    • The Pioneer Plaque
    • The Cosmic Message

  93. Which moon of Saturn is famous for its active geysers that spray water ice and organic compounds into space from its south polar region?

    • Titan
    • Enceladus
    • Mimas
    • Iapetus

  94. Who was the first American astronaut to travel into space, performing a suborbital flight aboard the Freedom 7 capsule in 1961?

    • John Glenn
    • Alan Shepard
    • Yuri Gagarin
    • Neil Armstrong

  95. Launched in 2009, which NASA space observatory was specifically designed to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars by measuring stellar transit dips?

    • Kepler
    • Hubble
    • Spitzer
    • James Webb

  96. Which nation successfully launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit in October 1957?

    • Soviet Union
    • United States
    • United Kingdom
    • West Germany

  97. In what year did Apollo 11 land on the Moon, allowing humans to walk on its surface for the first time?

    Answer with a number.

  98. How many gravitational equilibrium points, known as Lagrange points, exist in any two-body orbital system (such as the Earth-Sun system)?

    Answer with a number.

  99. What is the name of the largest dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, which was also the first dwarf planet visited by a spacecraft?

    Answer with a letter.

  100. What is the name of the seventh planet from the Sun, known for its unique nearly 98-degree axial tilt?

    Answer with a letter.