Emerald Trivia
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41 free Emerald trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This emerald trivia quiz covers the green variety of beryl that has been prized for at least 4,000 years, from Cleopatra's Egyptian mines to the Colombian valleys that still supply most of the world's finest stones. The easy questions cover the colour, the birthstone month, the country most associated with the gem and the fictional city Dorothy walks to. From there the quiz moves through the mineralogy: the trace elements that make it green, its Mohs hardness, why almost every stone is oiled, the mossy inclusions dealers call jardin and the rectangular cut named after it. The hard end covers the mining districts of Muzo, Coscuez and Chivor, the trapiche stones with spoke-like patterns, Zambia's Kagem mines, the synthetic emeralds of Chatham and Gilson, and the famous individual stones: the 752-pound Bahia Emerald and its ownership saga, the Chalk Emerald in the Smithsonian, the Mogul Mughal Emerald with its Shi'a inscription and the Duke of Devonshire's uncut giant. A few questions cover the emerald in culture, from Ireland's nickname to Seattle's. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for emerald, beryl, Colombian emeralds and the named stones before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our ruby and gemstone quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 41 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Emerald is a green variety of which mineral?
Beryl
Beryl gave its name to the element beryllium, which the French chemist Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin found in emerald and beryl in the 1790s.
Q 02Trace amounts of which element are most often responsible for an emerald's green colour?
Chromium
Vanadium can also do the job, and iron shifts the hue toward blue or yellow.
Q 03Emerald is the traditional birthstone for which month?
May
May: jewellers liken emerald's green to the fresh growth of spring.
Q 04Which Roman writer declared that nothing is greener than emerald?
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder also wrote that gem engravers rested their tired eyes by gazing at emerald's soft green.
Q 05Which Roman emperor is said to have watched gladiator fights using an emerald?
Nero
Nero: the Roman account notes that flat emeralds reflect images like mirrors, so he may have watched the fights reflected in one.
Q 06In 1779, Siamese forces carried the Emerald Buddha off from which city?
Vientiane
Vientiane had housed the image for over two centuries before General Chakri, later King Rama I, seized it for Siam.
Q 07Which African country is the world's second-biggest emerald producer?
Zambia
Its Kagem mines near Kitwe supplied about a fifth of gem-quality output in 2004, with stones that tend to be cleaner and bluer than Colombian ones.
Q 08The word emerald ultimately derives from a Greek word meaning what?
Green gem
Green gem is what Greek smaragdos meant, but ancient writers used the word for several green stones, not only true emeralds.
Q 09What French word do gemologists use for the mossy inclusions inside an emerald?
Jardin
Jardin, French for garden: because nearly all emeralds have such inclusions, the trade accepts eye-visible ones even in fine stones.
Q 10What substance is traditionally used to fill surface cracks in emeralds to improve their clarity?
Cedar oil
Cedar oil has a refractive index close to emerald's, so oil seeping into surface cracks makes them far less visible.
Q 11Unlike diamonds, at what magnification are emeralds graded for clarity?
By eye
By eye, because nearly every emerald has inclusions, so a stone that looks clean to the naked eye counts as flawless and commands top prices.
Q 12What is the shape of the signature 'emerald cut'?
Rectangular step cut
A rectangular step cut: its corners are trimmed because sharp corners are weak points where a stone can crack.
Q 13Emeralds were mined in antiquity at Mount Smaragdus in which country?
Egypt
Egypt's Mount Smaragdus holds the oldest known emerald mines, though archaeology dates most of the digging to Roman and Byzantine times.
Q 21Emerald Bay, site of the Scandinavian-style mansion Vikingsholm, lies on which lake?
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe: before building Vikingsholm, owner Lora Knight and her architect toured Scandinavia to gather ideas for the house.
Q 22Unusually for a Mughal gem, the Mogul Mughal Emerald is engraved with prayers from which branch of Islam?
Shi'a
Shi'a prayers: since the Mughal emperors were Sunni, the stone likely belonged not to Aurangzeb but to one of his Shi'a officers or nobles.
Q 23The Mogul Mughal Emerald belongs to the Museum of Islamic Art in which Gulf capital?
Doha
Doha's museum holds it; mined in Colombia, it was sold in India, where emeralds were highly prized by the Mughal rulers.
Q 14Which Egyptian queen was said to be particularly fond of emeralds?
Cleopatra
Ancient owners believed the stones sharpened intelligence, protected marriages and let their wearer see the future.
Q 15Which town is one of Colombia's three main emerald mining areas?
Muzo
Muzo's emerald riches fuelled rivalries that erupted into Colombia's bloody 'emerald wars', in which thousands were killed.
Q 16What name is given to rare Colombian emeralds with ray-like spokes of dark impurities?
Trapiche emerald
Trapiche emeralds take their name from the Spanish word for a sugar mill, because their dark spokes resemble a grinding wheel.
Q 17Boston's 'Emerald Necklace' chain of parks was designed by which landscape architect?
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted combined landscaping with sanitary engineering to turn a foul-smelling tidal creek and swamp into the Back Bay Fens.
Q 18The giant Bahia Emerald reportedly survived which 2005 hurricane while stored in a US warehouse?
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina reportedly hit a warehouse where it was stored; the stone was later reported stolen and traced to Las Vegas.
Q 19The emerald ash borer, a beetle that has killed millions of North American ash trees, is native to where?
East Asia
East Asia: in its native range it does little serious damage, yet in North America it has killed tens of millions of ash trees.
Q 20The 37.82-carat Chalk Emerald ring, recut by Harry Winston, is on display at which institution?
The Smithsonian
The Smithsonian got it in 1972 from its owner, who reportedly turned the ring around at a White House dinner so as not to upstage Queen Elizabeth II.
Q 24From which ruler did the 6th Duke of Devonshire acquire his namesake emerald in 1831?
Emperor Pedro I of Brazil
Emperor Pedro I of Brazil had come to Europe after giving up his throne when the stone passed to the duke.
Q 25In Baum's original 1900 novel, why did everything in the Emerald City look green?
Everyone had to wear tinted spectacles
Everyone had to wear tinted spectacles, locked on with a key, and the Wizard admits the city is really no greener than any other.
Q 26Which US city has used 'The Emerald City' as its official nickname since 1982?
Seattle
Seattle's tourism bureau adopted it in 1982, retiring 'the Queen City', a nickname a Portland real estate firm had given it in 1869.
Q 27Which Caribbean island is nicknamed 'the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean' for its Irish heritage?
Montserrat
Montserrat's St Patrick's Day is a national holiday that also commemorates a failed slave uprising planned for 17 March 1768.
Q 28The Emerald Buddha of Bangkok is actually carved from what?
Jasper or jade
The 66 cm statue is the sacred palladium of Thailand and is housed at Wat Phra Kaew in the Grand Palace.
Q 29Which Spanish conquistador reportedly had an emerald looted from Mexico engraved with a Bible verse?
Hernan Cortes
The writer Brantome called the engraving sacrilege and blamed it for the man's later misfortunes.
Q 30The alchemical Emerald Tablet, source of 'as above, so below', is traditionally attributed to whom?
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary sage, though the oldest known versions of the text are Arabic works from the 8th to 10th centuries.