Iguazu Falls Trivia
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36 free Iguazu Falls trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Iguazu Falls trivia quiz covers the largest waterfall system on Earth, on the border of Argentina's Misiones province and Brazil's Paraná state. The easy questions are the ones any visitor knows: what the name means, which two countries share it, what the biggest chasm is called, what Eleanor Roosevelt is supposed to have said, and which river the Iguazu drains into at the Triple Frontier. From there it moves into the geology of the basalt steps, the number of separate cataracts, which side has most of the falls, and the two national parks and their UNESCO dates. The hard end covers the record books and the surprises: the flow figures compared with Niagara and Victoria, the June 2014 record flood, the 2006 drought, the erosion rate, the engineer who first proposed protecting the falls in 1876, the conquistador who saw them in 1541, the swifts that roost behind the water, the ecological train, the flooded Guaíra Falls upstream and the films from Moonraker to The Mission that used the falls as a set. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the falls, the river, the parks and the surrounding region, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Forty-five questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 36 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A 2011 worldwide vote named Iguazu Falls a New Seven Wonder of Nature alongside which other South American wonder?
The Amazon
The Amazon, river and rainforest together. Angel Falls and the Galápagos reached the final 28 but missed the cut, leaving Iguazu the only waterfall among the seven winners.
Q 02What does the name Iguazu mean in the Guarani language?
Big water
Big water, from the Guarani y, water, and guasu, big. The first Spaniard to report the falls named them after Saint Mary, but his name never caught on and the Guarani one soon won out.
Q 03What is the name of the narrow chasm at Iguazu into which about half the river plunges?
The Devil's Throat
The Devil's Throat is the tallest drop at Iguazu, about 80 m. The border between the two countries runs straight through the middle of it, so each owns one side of the same fall.
Q 04The jungle around Iguazu is one of the last large remnants of which threatened South American forest?
The Atlantic Forest
The Atlantic Forest once ran down Brazil's coast and inland as far as Paraguay. Logging and farming have left only scraps of it, and the two parks at the falls guard one of the biggest.
Q 05The curving line of the Iguazu Falls is most often likened to which shape?
A horseshoe
A horseshoe, almost 3 km from end to end. Because the cliff bends back on itself, a visitor on one bank can look straight across at the falls pouring off the other.
Q 06In the legend of the Iguazu Falls' creation, how was a fleeing couple travelling when the river was split?
By canoe
By canoe. In the tellings the couple are paddling away from a jealous god, or a giant river serpent, who breaks the riverbed in fury, creating the falls and parting or dooming the pair.
Q 07Which Spanish conquistador, on his way to govern a colony, became the first European to describe the Iguazu Falls?
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca had already survived a wrecked expedition to Florida and eight years of wandering across North America. He came upon the falls in the early 1540s while marching overland to his new post.
Q 08The Spaniard who first described the falls was marching overland to govern from which inland colonial capital?
Asunción
Asunción. He left his ships on the Brazilian coast and walked there along native trails instead of sailing up the rivers, a route that led him to the falls.
Q 09The Iguazu Falls drop over stepped layers of which rock, left by enormous floods of lava?
Basalt
Basalt. The layers wear away at different rates, and that uneven erosion has cut the cliff into a giant two-step staircase.
Q 10What splits the Iguazu Falls into some 275 separate cascades?
Wooded islands
Wooded islands along the lip of the cliff part the river into separate streams. Soaked by permanent spray, they carry dense forest right up to the brink.
Q 11What did US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaim on seeing Iguazu?
"Poor Niagara!"
"Poor Niagara!" is the remark credited to her, though it comes down only as hearsay. The comparison holds: Iguazu's drops are taller than Niagara's, and its rim is nearly three times as wide.
Q 12Iguazu is wider than Victoria Falls, but Victoria holds which record?
The largest single curtain of water
The largest single curtain of water: Victoria falls as one sheet more than 1.6 km wide and over 100 m high, while Iguazu, though wider, reaches its cliff as hundreds of separate falls.
Q 13In which season of the southern year do the Iguazu Falls usually carry the most water?
Q 21Visitors on the Argentine side of Iguazu ride to the falls on which means of transport?
A rainforest ecological train
A rainforest ecological train. Its quiet locomotives, electric or gas-powered to spare the forest, pull open carriages through the jungle, so the ride doubles as a look at the wildlife.
Q 22Which bird is famous for flying straight through the Iguazu Falls to roost on the wet cliffs behind them?
The great dusky swift
The great dusky swift. Its colonies nest and roost on the rock face behind the falling water, so the birds dive through the cascade every time they come home.
Q 23Which large cat, along with tapirs, ocelots and harpy eagles, lives in the Iguazú National Park?
Jaguar
Summer
Summer. The heaviest rains fall between about November and March, when the river can swell to several times its usual flow; it runs lowest in late winter and spring.
Q 14Which cataract, once among the highest-flow on Earth, was drowned in 1982 by the Itaipu reservoir, moving Iguazu up the rankings?
Guaíra
Guaíra: Brazil and Paraguay had both claimed the falls, and their treaty to build the dam together ended the quarrel by drowning them. Thousands of people came for a last look as the water rose.
Q 15Below the falls, the Iguazu River drains into which major river, South America's second-longest?
Paraná
Paraná. The two rivers meet about 20 km below the falls, at the exact point where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay touch, so the confluence is a three-country frontier.
Q 16The Iguazu River rises in the Serra do Mar near which Brazilian city?
Curitiba
Curitiba. The river is born in coastal mountains only a short way from the ocean, yet it turns its back on the sea and winds west across the whole width of southern Brazil before it reaches the falls.
Q 17Why are the big migratory fish of neighbouring rivers naturally missing from the upper Iguazu River?
The falls block their way
The falls block their way. Cut off above the drop, the river's fish went their own way, and well over half of its species are found nowhere else on Earth.
Q 18Which international status did the national parks on both banks of the Iguazu Falls gain in the 1980s?
UNESCO World Heritage Site
UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Argentine park in 1984, the Brazilian one in 1986. UNESCO noted the spray as well as the falls: its clouds keep the riverside forest permanently soaked, so the growth there is lush and dense.
Q 19A Brazilian engineer urged a national park at Iguazu in 1876, four years after the world's first was created where?
Yellowstone
Yellowstone. André Rebouças, an engineer and anti-slavery campaigner, wanted the falls kept for 'future generations', but Brazil took until 1939 to create the park he had asked for.
Q 20Which activity, offered on the Brazilian side of Iguazu, was stopped on the Argentine side because of the disturbance it caused?
Helicopter tours
Helicopter tours. Argentina keeps its visitors closer to the water instead: walkways run out over the river, and inflatable boats nose right up under the falls.
Jaguar. The big cat is endangered in this part of South America, and the two parks around the falls are among its last refuges, along with the tapir and the giant anteater.
Q 24Which riverside tree at Iguazu bears the red blossom that is the national flower of both Argentina and Uruguay?
Ceibo
Ceibo, the cockspur coral tree. It thrives where the ground floods and tolerates waterlogged soil, which is why it crowds the low banks of the river here.
Q 25The Brazilian gateway to the falls is Foz do Iguaçu; what does the Portuguese word 'foz' mean?
River mouth
River mouth. The town is named for the spot where the Iguazu ends by flowing into a bigger river, about 20 km downstream of the falls that made it famous.
Q 26As of 2020, the Itaipu Dam near the falls ranked second in the world for hydroelectric output, behind which dam?
Three Gorges
Three Gorges, in China. Itaipu has far less generating capacity, yet it held the world record for a year's output until the Chinese dam beat it in 2020.
Q 27At the Triple Frontier where the rivers meet, each country has erected what in its national colours?
An obelisk
An obelisk. Each one stands on its own bank where the two rivers meet, painted like its country's flag, and from any of the three a visitor can see the other two countries at once.
Q 28Which dictator was the Paraguayan city facing Foz do Iguaçu formerly named after?
Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner ruled Paraguay from 1954, and the border town founded in 1957 as Puerto Flor de Lis was renamed Puerto Presidente Stroessner in his honour. After the 1989 coup that overthrew him, it became Ciudad del Este, East City.
Q 29Which Roger Moore James Bond film was shot partly at the Iguazu Falls, which the story moves to a distant jungle?
Moonraker
Moonraker. The crew tried to send a real boat over the falls for Bond's river chase, but it stuck fast on rocks at the edge, and a model at Pinewood Studios took the plunge instead.
Q 30In the 1986 film The Mission, Father Gabriel climbs the Iguazu Falls and reaches out to the Guarani by playing which instrument?
An oboe
An oboe: one of the Guarani snaps it in two, but the others, captivated by the music, lead the priest to their village. The film was shot at the falls themselves.