Himalayas Trivia
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54 free Himalayas trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Himalayas trivia quiz covers the greatest mountain range on Earth from the plains of India to the Tibetan Plateau. The easy questions are the ones any geography fan can handle: the continent, the highest peak, the meaning of the name, the countries the range crosses and the ape-like creature said to roam its snows. From there the set digs into how the mountains came to be: the Indian plate racing north at 20 centimetres a year, the nappes of old sea floor stacked into peaks, the two anchor mountains that bend the Indus and the Tsangpo, and the five millimetres the range still rises every year. The harder end is for mountain lovers and mountaineers: the four parallel ranges, the Kali Gandaki gorge that splits east from west, the 15,000 glaciers of the Third Pole, the highest snow line in the world, Kangchenjunga's climbers who stopped short of the summit to keep a promise, the Rupal Face, Hermann Buhl's solo push on the Killer Mountain, the fourteen eight-thousanders and who climbed them first, the Sherpas' Nyingma Buddhism, the snow leopard that cannot roar, and the 1921 expedition that gave the yeti its Abominable name. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the range, its peaks, its peoples and its wildlife before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Mount Everest, Nepal and world geography quizzes next.
30 of 54 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Mount Everest, once called Peak XV, is named after George Everest, who held which post in India?
Surveyor General of India
Surveyor General of India was his post from 1830 to 1843, yet he said his own surname as EVE-rest, unlike the mountain named for him.
Q 02What does the Sanskrit name Himalaya mean?
Abode of snow
Abode of snow joins Sanskrit hima, snow, and alaya, abode, yet the climate at the range's base is tropical.
Q 03Which five countries do the Himalayas span?
Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and Pakistan
Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and Pakistan share the range, and in 2008 China closed Everest's north side to other climbers while its team carried the Olympic torch to the top.
Q 04Which TV survivalist reached the top of Mount Everest in 1998, aged 23?
Bear Grylls
Bear Grylls made the climb after breaking his back in a parachuting accident in Africa while serving with the SAS.
Q 05How did Chipko protesters stop loggers felling Himalayan forests?
Hugging trees
Hugging trees was the tactic, and the protests led Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to ban felling in Himalayan forests in 1980.
Q 06Which long-haired Himalayan herd animal has much larger lungs and heart than lowland cattle?
The yak
The yak's big lungs and heart suit thin air, but with almost no working sweat glands it struggles to thrive at lower, warmer altitudes.
Q 07Before reaching the top of Everest in 1953, Edmund Hillary earned his living in New Zealand as what?
A beekeeper
A beekeeper by trade, he kept bees in summer and climbed in winter, and later built schools and hospitals for Sherpas through his Himalayan Trust.
Q 08Sherpa comes from Tibetan words meaning what?
People from the east
People from the east is the meaning, and the word has travelled so far that aides who prepare world leaders for summit meetings are now called sherpas.
Q 09In 1975, who became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest?
Junko Tabei
Junko Tabei was buried by an avalanche at camp on 4 May 1975, yet 12 days later she stood on the summit with her Sherpa guide.
Q 10Which mountain range to the northwest, home to K2, is generally considered separate from the Himalayas?
The Karakoram
The Karakoram gave K2 its name: Thomas Montgomerie tagged the range's peaks K1, K2 and onward, and K2 was the second one he measured.
Q 11Which Jon Krakauer book recounts the deadly May 1996 storm on Mount Everest?
Into Thin Air
Into Thin Air grew from an Outside magazine assignment on paid guided climbs, but Krakauer joined a guided team himself and survived the storm.
Q 12The rock salt sold as pink Himalayan salt is mined in which country?
Pakistan
Pakistan's Salt Range, where the salt is dug, lies south of the Himalayas rather than within them, yet the pink salt still carries the range's name.
Q 13Why do villagers in Ladakh build tall cones of ice known as ice stupas?
To store water for farming
Q 21Which glacier in Uttarakhand is the source of the Bhagirathi River?
Gangotri
Gangotri ends at Gaumukh, a snout said to resemble a cow's mouth, which Hindus revere as where the Ganges begins.
Q 22News of Everest's first ascent reached London on which royal occasion?
Coronation
Coronation Day, 2 June 1953, brought the news, and within a week Hillary and expedition leader John Hunt were knighted.
Q 23Because it holds so much ice, the Himalayan region is nicknamed what?
The Third Pole
The Third Pole holds more ice and snow than anywhere after the Arctic and Antarctic, and it feeds 10 major rivers.
To store water for farming, the cones freeze winter stream water that would otherwise go unused, then melt when crops need it and streams run dry.
Q 14The eastern side of Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, lies in which Indian state?
Sikkim
Sikkim was a kingdom ruled by its chogyal kings until 1975, when the monarchy ended and it became a state of India.
Q 15Why did the 1955 first ascensionists of Kangchenjunga stop just short of the true summit?
Out of respect for local beliefs
Out of respect for local beliefs, Joe Brown and George Band halted a few metres below the top of a mountain that people there hold sacred as a home of gods.
Q 16In 1968, which band travelled to Rishikesh, in the Himalayan foothills, to study meditation?
The Beatles
The Beatles studied at the Maharishi's ashram, but Lennon left disillusioned and turned his guru into the target of the song Sexy Sadie.
Q 17As of 2025, which mountain is regarded as the world's highest unclimbed peak?
Gangkhar Puensum
Gangkhar Puensum, Bhutan's highest peak, turned back early expeditions, and in 1994 Bhutan banned climbing peaks above 6,000 metres.
Q 18Which sacred mountain is revered by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bonpo alike?
Kailash
Kailash draws pilgrims on a circuit of about 50 km around its base, which Hindus and Buddhists walk clockwise but Bonpo walk counterclockwise.
Q 19Which city has the largest metropolitan area in the Himalayas?
Kathmandu
Kathmandu saw parts of its centuries-old temples collapse, including at Durbar Square, when the April 2015 earthquake struck central Nepal.
Q 20Which hill station served as the summer capital of the British Raj?
Shimla
Shimla drew the British with its cool mountain climate, and for decades the government of British India ran the country from there each summer.
Q 24India's oldest national park, in the Himalayan foothills, is named after which hunter and writer?
Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett won fame shooting man-eating tigers, yet the park named for him became the first to come under India's Project Tiger.
Q 25Which large lake straddles the India-China border at the far western end of Tibet?
Pangong Tso
Pangong Tso is salty, yet it freezes over in winter.
Q 26In 1965, climbers working with the CIA left what near the top of an Indian Himalayan peak?
A nuclear spy device
A nuclear spy device, meant to pick up signals from Chinese missile tests, was left behind when a storm forced the climbers down, and searchers never found it.
Q 27Which Nepalese region, sheltered by the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri massifs, gets only about 300 mm of rain a year?
Upper Mustang
Upper Mustang, once the Kingdom of Lo, was forbidden to foreigners until 1992, so few outsiders had ever seen its villages.
Q 28The rain shadow of the Himalayas is believed to help create which Central Asian deserts?
The Taklamakan and the Gobi
The Taklamakan and the Gobi are famous deserts, yet much of the Gobi is bare rock rather than sand.
Q 29Besides helping it balance, how does a snow leopard use its long tail?
As a blanket
As a blanket, the tail gets wrapped around the cat's body, holding in warmth against the severe mountain chill.
Q 30Which Himalayan animal's males grow long, fang-like tusks?
The musk deer
The musk deer has these tusks instead of antlers, and males are poached for a musk pod that perfumers prize.