Istanbul Trivia
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49 free Istanbul trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Istanbul has been Byzantium, Constantinople and capital of four empires, and it is still the only major city that sits on two continents. This quiz starts with the Greek colonists of 657 BC and works through Constantine's New Rome, the Fourth Crusade, Mehmed II dragging his fleet over a hill in 1453, Suleiman's architect Sinan, the last sultan's exile and the 1930 law that made the name official. The landmarks get their due: Hagia Sophia and its changing status, the Blue Mosque's six minarets, Topkapı and Dolmabahçe, the Grand Bazaar's 4,000 shops, the Galata Tower and its legendary glider, the Basilica Cistern's Medusa heads, the Maiden's Tower, the Bosphorus bridges and the Marmaray tunnel. There are questions on Galatasaray versus Fenerbahçe, the 2005 Champions League final, the Orient Express, gecekondus, yalıs and the city's famous street cats. Easy questions ask which strait the city straddles and what the Blue Mosque is; hard ones want Orban's nationality, the founding year of Galatasaray High School and what the Grand Bazaar first sold. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city and its monuments, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Try our Turkey and Ancient Rome quizzes next.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Istanbul lies on the strait between the Black Sea and which smaller inland sea?
The Sea of Marmara
The Bosporus links the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, which opens through the Dardanelles to the Aegean; about two-thirds of the city's 15 million people live on the European shore.
Q 02Which city replaced Istanbul as Turkey's seat of government in 1923?
Ankara
The Republic chose Ankara as capital in 1923, but Istanbul remains the economic, cultural and historical centre.
Q 03The city was founded around 657 BC by Greek colonists from Megara under what name?
Byzantium
Byzantium was founded by colonists from Megara around 657 BC; legend traced them to Byzas, son of Poseidon and the nymph Ceroëssa, and a Thracian village called Lygos may have stood there first.
Q 04Which Roman emperor refounded the city in 324 AD, initially calling it New Rome?
Constantine the Great
It was proclaimed capital of the Roman Empire on 11 May 330 and kept his name for 1,600 years.
Q 05The name 'Istanbul' is commonly held to derive from a Medieval Greek phrase meaning what?
To the city
Istanbul comes from the Greek eis tḕn Pólin, 'to the city', since it was the only major city around; the Ottomans also nicknamed it Dersaadet, the 'Gate of Felicity'.
Q 06Which Byzantine dynasty retook Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261?
Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos's general Alexios Strategopoulos slipped into the city on 25 July 1261, ending the Latin Empire; the Palaiologan dynasty then ruled Byzantium until 1453.
Q 07Which crusade was diverted in 1204 to sack Constantinople and set up the Latin Empire?
The Fourth
The Fourth Crusade, originally bound for Egypt, was diverted to Constantinople and sacked it in April 1204, setting up the Latin Empire; much of the loot, including the bronze horses of San Marco, went to Venice.
Q 08Which Ottoman sultan captured Constantinople on 29 May 1453?
Mehmed II
Mehmed II, 'the Conqueror', took the city on 29 May 1453 after a siege of 53 days; the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, died in the fighting, and Mehmed styled himself Kayser-i Rûm, Caesar of Rome.
Q 09During the 1453 siege, how did the Ottomans get their ships past the chain blocking the Golden Horn?
Dragged the fleet overland on greased logs
The fleet slid over the Galata hill on 22 April; the floating chain itself had been ordered by Constantine XI to prevent a repeat of the 1204 crusader breach.
Q 10Orban, who cast a giant bombard for the Ottoman siege of 1453, is usually described as what nationality?
Hungarian
Orban is usually called a Hungarian, though Wallachian and German origins have also been claimed; he first offered his services to the Byzantines, who could not pay him, and Ottoman founders such as Saruca cast most other siege guns.
Q 11Who was the chief architect of Suleiman the Magnificent's reign, designer of the Süleymaniye?
Mimar Sinan
Mimar Sinan, chief royal architect from 1538 until his death in 1588, designed the Süleymaniye, completed in 1557, and hundreds of other buildings across the empire.
Q 12The name Constantinople was officially changed to İstanbul in which year, inspiring a later novelty song?
1930
The Turkish Postal Service Law of 28 March 1930 made İstanbul the sole official name and renamed Smyrna as İzmir; the Four Lads' novelty hit 'Istanbul (Not Constantinople)' followed in 1953.
Q 13The last Ottoman sultan left the city into exile aboard a British warship in which year?
1922
Mehmed VI sailed from Istanbul aboard HMS Malaya on 17 November 1922, sixteen days after the Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate; he died in Sanremo, Italy, in 1926.
Q 21The name Topkapı, given to the palace in the 19th century, means what in Turkish?
Cannon Gate
Topkapı means 'Cannon Gate', after a shore gate by the vanished Topkapı seaside pavilion; it was originally the 'New Palace', distinct from the Old Palace at Beyazıt Square, and its treasury holds the Spoonmaker's Diamond.
Q 22The Grand Bazaar's Turkish name, Kapalıçarşı, translates as what?
Covered Market
Kapalıçarşı means 'Covered Market': the bazaar has 61 covered streets and more than 4,000 shops, and in 2014 it topped Travel + Leisure's list of the world's most-visited attractions with over 91 million visitors.
Q 23The Grand Bazaar's core began in 1455/56 as a hall for trading which goods?
Textiles and jewels
Q 14Which future president launched his political career as mayor of Istanbul in 1994?
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul in March 1994 for the Welfare Party and became prime minister in 2003 and president in 2014; his AKP lost the mayoralty to Ekrem İmamoğlu in 2019.
Q 15What is a native or resident of Istanbul called in English?
Istanbulite
English uses Istanbulite; in Turkish it is İstanbullu, and the name is spelled with a dotted capital İ, which the Turkish alphabet distinguishes from the dotless I.
Q 16Hagia Sophia was completed in AD 537 under which Byzantine emperor?
Justinian I
Justinian I commissioned it after the Nika riots of 532 and dedicated it in 537; Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles gave it a pendentive dome over what was then the world's largest interior space.
Q 17In which year was Hagia Sophia's museum status revoked and the building redesignated as a mosque?
2020
A presidential decree of 10 July 2020 annulled the 1934 museum status and reopened Hagia Sophia for Muslim worship; it had been the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years and a mosque from the 1453 conquest.
Q 18The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, built 1609–17, is popularly known by the name of which colour?
Blue
Thousands of İznik tiles and painted floral motifs in blue give it the nickname; Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa built it for Ahmed I, facing Hagia Sophia.
Q 19The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is unusual for having how many minarets?
Six
Folklore says the architect misheard the sultan's request for 'altın' (gold) minarets as 'altı' (six), a number until then unique to the mosque at Mecca.
Q 20Topkapı Palace was the Ottoman administrative centre until the court moved to which palace in 1856?
Dolmabahçe
Sultan Abdülmecid I moved the court to Dolmabahçe, completed in 1856 on the Bosphorus shore; Topkapı kept the treasury, library and mint before becoming a museum in 1924.
Mehmed II's Cevâhir Bedestan, the 'Bedesten of Gems', opened in 1461 as a hall for trading textiles and jewels; it was endowed to the charitable foundation of the Hagia Sophia mosque.
Q 24The Spice Bazaar has been Istanbul's main spice market since which century?
The 17th
The Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı) dates from the 17th century, completed in 1664 as part of the New Mosque complex at Eminönü; the open-air Mahmutpaşa Bazaar links it to the Grand Bazaar.
Q 25The Galata Tower was built in 1348 as a watchtower by colonists from which Italian city?
Genoa
Colonists from Genoa built it in 1348 as the Christea Turris, crowning their walled colony of Galata; at 66.9 metres it was then the city's tallest building, and the Ottomans later used it as a prison and fire lookout.
Q 26Who supposedly strapped on wings in 1638 and glided from the Galata Tower across the strait to Üsküdar?
Hezarfen Ahmed
Evliya Çelebi's account credits Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi with gliding from Galata to Doğancılar in Üsküdar in 1638, a tale of doubtful authenticity; Istanbul's Hezarfen Airfield keeps his name.
Q 27Istanbul's Basilica Cistern is famous for column bases carved with whose head?
Medusa
Two columns in the north-west corner rest on Medusa heads, reused from an earlier building and set sideways and upside down; the French scholar Petrus Gyllius publicised the forgotten cistern in the 1540s after being rowed among its columns.
Q 28The Maiden's Tower on its islet off Üsküdar is also known by the name of which figure from Greek myth?
Leander
It is also called Leander's Tower, after the Hero and Leander legend that properly belongs to the Dardanelles; another tale has a princess locked there to dodge a prophesied snakebite, killed by an asp in a fruit basket.
Q 29The first bridge across the Bosphorus, linking Europe and Asia, opened in which year?
1973
The Bosphorus Bridge, renamed 15 July Martyrs Bridge in 2016, opened on 30 October 1973; the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge followed in 1988, the Marmaray rail tunnel in 2013, and the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and Eurasia tunnel in 2016.
Q 30The Marmaray, opened in 2013 beneath the Bosphorus, was the first rail link between which two regions?
Thrace and Anatolia
The Marmaray tunnel, opened on 29 October 2013, was the first rail link between Thrace and Anatolia, the European and Asian halves of Turkey; from 2019 it has carried the commuter line from Halkalı to Gebze.