Jordan Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
99 free Jordan trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Jordan packs a rose-red city carved by the Nabataeans, the lowest point on dry land, a desert that has doubled for Mars and Arabia on film, the reputed baptism site of Jesus and the mountain where Moses saw the Promised Land into a country not much bigger than Portugal. It has also been ruled by one family since 1921 and has taken in more refugees per head than almost anyone. This Jordan trivia quiz covers all of it. Fifty-one questions run from geography (Amman, Aqaba, the Dead Sea, Wadi Rum, Jabal Umm al Dami) through ancient history (Ammon, the Nabataeans, Petra, Trajan, the Decapolis, Jerash) and the Islamic and Crusader centuries (Yarmuk, Karak, Ajloun) to the modern kingdom (the Arab Revolt, Transjordan, Abdullah I, Hussein, 1967, Black September, the 1994 treaty, Abdullah II) and culture and sport (the flag, the dinar, mansaf, taekwondo gold, the Asian Cup final). Roughly a third are easy, a third medium, and the rest are for people who really know the Levant. Every answer has been checked against encyclopaedia and official pages, so the dates, numbers and names are ones you can rely on.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Jordan?
Amman
Amman is Jordan's capital and largest city, home to around four million people, and has been the seat of government since the Emirate of Transjordan was founded in 1921.
Q 02What is Jordan's ruling royal house, descended from the Sharif of Mecca, called?
Hashemite
The Hashemites, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad through Sharif Hussein of Mecca, have ruled since 1921.
Q 03Which ancient rock-cut city, capital of the Nabataeans, is Jordan's most famous attraction?
Petra
Petra, the Nabataean capital cut into rose-pink sandstone, was called Raqmu by its builders and was voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in 2007.
Q 04Which Swiss traveller rediscovered the Nabataean rock-cut city for the Western world in 1812?
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, travelling in Arab disguise as Sheikh Ibrahim, talked his way into the hidden city in August 1812 on the pretext of sacrificing a goat at Aaron's tomb.
Q 05Al-Khazneh, "the Treasury", is believed to be the mausoleum of which Nabataean king?
Aretas IV
Aretas IV, the Nabataean king who reigned from about 9 BC to AD 40, is the ruler whose tomb Al-Khazneh most likely was; its Hellenistic facade dates from his early-first-century reign.
Q 06In which year did Emperor Trajan annex the Nabataean kingdom for Rome?
106 AD
In 106 AD Trajan absorbed the Nabataean kingdom as the province of Arabia Petraea and soon paved the old King's Highway as the Via Nova Traiana.
Q 07Gerasa, Pella and other Greek cities of Transjordan formed which league of cities under Rome?
The Decapolis
The Decapolis was a league of ten Hellenistic cities on Rome's eastern frontier; Pliny the Elder's list includes Gerasa, Pella, Gadara and Damascus.
Q 08Which Jordanian city, ancient Gerasa, is nicknamed the "Pompeii of the Middle East"?
Jerash
Jerash, ancient Gerasa, keeps colonnaded streets, an oval forum and two theatres, and its ruins host the Jerash Festival of culture and arts each summer.
Q 09What was Jordan's capital called after the Greeks conquered it in the 3rd century BC?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia honoured Ptolemy II Philadelphus, whose dynasty held the city in the 3rd century BC; the name lasted through Roman times until Arab rule revived the older Semitic name.
Q 10Which Iron Age kingdom had its capital, Rabbath, on the site of Jordan's modern capital city?
Ammon
Ammon was the Iron Age kingdom of the Ammonites, centred on Rabbath, whose citadel survives as the hilltop Jabal al-Qal'a above the modern capital.
Q 11The 'Ain Ghazal statues, among the oldest large human figures known, were modelled from what material?
Lime plaster
Lime plaster was modelled over bundled reed cores to make the 'Ain Ghazal statues around 7200 BC; found in 1983, they are displayed in the Jordan Museum.
Q 12At which 636 battle just north of Transjordan did the Muslims decisively defeat the Byzantines?
Yarmuk
Yarmuk, fought in August 636 beside the river of that name south of the Golan, broke Byzantine power in Syria and opened the Levant to the Rashidun caliphate.
Q 13Al-Karak and Montreal castles were built in Transjordan by which power?
The Crusaders
The Crusaders raised Montreal (Shobak) in 1115 and Kerak around 1142 to guard the Lordship of Oultrejordain; Saladin's victory at Hattin in 1187 doomed both.
Q 21Jordan and which neighbouring kingdom, ruled by a royal cousin, formed the 1958 Arab Federation?
Iraq
Iraq, ruled by Faisal II, a cousin of Jordan's king, joined the Arab Federation in February 1958; it collapsed after the 14 July revolution killed Faisal in Baghdad.
Q 22In which war did Jordan lose control of the West Bank to Israel?
Six-Day War of 1967
The Six-Day War of 1967 cost Jordan the West Bank and East Jerusalem within days in June; it had annexed the territory in 1950 and formally renounced its claim in 1988.
Q 23After Black September in 1970, Palestinian fighters were expelled from Jordan to which country?
Lebanon
Lebanon received the PLO leadership and thousands of fedayeen after the 1970-71 fighting; the organisation ran its operations from Beirut until it was forced to leave in 1982.
Q 14Ajloun Castle was built by which dynasty as an outpost against the Frankish invaders from Europe?
The Ayyubids
The Ayyubids, Saladin's dynasty, built Ajloun Castle in 1184-85 under his general Izz al-Din Usama to command the Jordan Valley against the Frankish lords of Karak.
Q 15Which Muslim refugees from the Caucasus resettled the abandoned site of today's capital under Ottoman rule?
Circassians
Circassians, driven from the Caucasus after Russia's conquest, were settled by the Ottomans in the ruins of the ancient capital, founding the modern city that grew around their village.
Q 16The Hejaz Railway, completed across Transjordan in 1908, linked Damascus with which holy city?
Medina
The line turned the region into a stopover for pilgrims and was later attacked repeatedly during the Arab Revolt.
Q 17On what date in 1921 was the Emirate of Transjordan established under its first emir?
11 April
11 April 1921 is the date Abdullah's government was formed in the new Emirate, after Britain accepted him on a six-month trial at the Cairo Conference the previous month.
Q 18In which year did Jordan gain independence from Britain and become a kingdom?
1946
In 1946 the Treaty of London of 22 March ended the British mandate, and on 25 May the emir was proclaimed king of an independent Transjordan.
Q 19Jordan's first king was assassinated in 1951 at which holy site in Jerusalem?
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque was where a Palestinian gunman shot the king on 20 July 1951 as he arrived for Friday prayers; his 15-year-old grandson, a future king, survived at his side.
Q 20Which king ruled Jordan for nearly 50 years until his death in 1999?
Hussein
Hussein reigned from 1952 until his death from cancer in February 1999, nearly 47 years; crowned at 17 after his father's abdication, he survived repeated coup and assassination attempts.
Q 24In which year did Jordan sign its peace treaty with Israel?
1994
The treaty was signed on 26 October 1994 at Wadi Araba on the border, following the Washington Declaration of July that year; talks had begun at the 1991 Madrid Conference.
Q 25Who became King of Jordan on 7 February 1999?
Abdullah II
Abdullah II, the late king's eldest son and a former special-forces commander, was sworn in on the day his father died and was crowned in June 1999.
Q 26Which militant leader's al-Qaeda branch bombed three hotels in Jordan's capital on 9 November 2005?
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia claimed the 9 November 2005 suicide attacks, which killed about 60 people including guests at a wedding party; he was killed by a US airstrike in 2006.
Q 27Jordan's only coastline, 26 km long, lies on which body of water?
The Red Sea
The Red Sea touches Jordan only along a 26 km strip at the head of its northeastern gulf, where the country's sole seaport handles its maritime trade.
Q 28What is the lowest point in Jordan, and the lowest land point on Earth?
The Dead Sea
The Dead Sea's shore lies about 430 m below sea level, the lowest land elevation on Earth, and the lake is the deepest hypersaline lake in the world.
Q 29What is Jordan's highest point, at 1,854 m?
Jabal Umm al Dami
Jabal Umm al Dami rises to 1,854 m in the far south near the Saudi border and is about 120 m higher than Jabal Ram, the best-known peak of the same desert.
Q 30Which desert valley in southern Jordan provided locations for both Lawrence of Arabia and The Martian?
Wadi Rum
Wadi Rum's red sandstone and granite cliffs doubled for Mars in The Martian (2015) and hosted David Lean's 1962 Lawrence of Arabia; the protected area joined the UNESCO list in 2011.