This landmark trivia quiz has 60 free questions with answers and tours the world's most famous structures and monuments: the New Seven Wonders, ancient sites like Stonehenge, the Acropolis and Angkor Wat, and modern icons from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Burj Khalifa. Questions cover who built each landmark and when, how tall or old it is, the odd stories behind them (a bus jumping Tower Bridge, a hydrant patent lost in a fire, a Hollywood sign that was really an advert) and what makes each one unusual. It suits pub quiz rounds, geography classrooms and travel-obsessed families: the early questions are easy for anyone who has seen a postcard, and the later ones reward people who read the plaques. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries and official sources before publishing, so the answer key holds up under argument.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of which country?
France
Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed it and Gustave Eiffel engineered the iron frame; it was dedicated on 28 October 1886.
Q 02What colour was the Statue of Liberty when it was first unveiled?
Reddish-brown copper
The copper skin oxidised to its familiar green within about twenty years; the tablet in her arm reads JULY IV MDCCLXXVI.
Q 03How many rays does the crown of the Statue of Liberty have?
Seven
They are usually said to stand for the seven continents and seven seas; broken chains lie at her feet.
Q 04Roughly how long is the Great Wall of China when all its sections are counted?
About 21,000 km
The most-visited stretches were built by the Ming dynasty; despite the myth, it cannot be seen from the Moon with the naked eye.
Q 05The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan as a tomb for whom?
His wife
Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 giving birth to their 14th child; more than 20,000 workers built the marble mausoleum in Agra.
Q 06The Taj Mahal's four minarets were deliberately built leaning slightly outward. Why?
To fall away from the tomb in an earthquake
The complex on the Yamuna River was finished around 1653 and named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
Q 07Which Roman emperor began building the Colosseum in AD 72?
Vespasian
His son Titus finished it in AD 80; the official name, Flavian Amphitheatre, comes from their family dynasty.
Q 08What was the hypogeum of the Colosseum?
An underground maze of tunnels and cages
Animals and fighters waited there before being lifted into the arena; the amphitheatre held an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators.
Q 09Machu Picchu was built around 1450 as an estate for which Inca emperor?
Pachacuti
The citadel sits at 2,430 metres and its dry-stone walls were fitted without mortar; Hiram Bingham made it world famous in 1911.
Q 10Which American explorer brought Machu Picchu to international attention in 1911?
Hiram Bingham
A Peruvian, Agustín Lizárraga, had actually reached the site in 1902; it now draws over 1.5 million visitors a year.
Q 11Petra, the 'Rose City' carved into sandstone cliffs, is in which country?
Jordan
It was the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom and its Treasury facade appears in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Q 12Which Swiss traveller rediscovered Petra for the Western world in 1812?
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
Visitors still enter through the Siq, a narrow gorge formed by a split in the sandstone.
Q 13Christ the Redeemer stands on top of which mountain in Rio de Janeiro?
Corcovado
The 30-metre Art Deco statue, finished in 1931, is built of reinforced concrete and soapstone and has been struck by lightning more than once.
Q 21Workers saved by the Golden Gate Bridge's safety net during construction formed which group?
The Half Way to Hell Club
Nineteen men owed their lives to chief engineer Joseph Strauss's movable netting.
Q 22Which four presidents are carved into Mount Rushmore?
Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln
Gutzon Borglum's 60-foot heads were meant to continue to the waist, but money ran out in 1941.
Q 23How many workers died carving Mount Rushmore between 1927 and 1941?
None
Q 14How wide is the arm span of Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue?
28 metres
French-Polish sculptor Paul Landowski designed it and Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa built it between 1922 and 1931.
Q 15At Chichen Itza, what shape does the shadow on the Temple of Kukulcán appear to form at the equinoxes?
A serpent
The Maya city in Yucatán also has the largest ball court in ancient Mesoamerica, 168 metres long.
Q 16Strictly speaking, 'Big Ben' is the name of what?
The Great Bell inside it
The tower itself was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee, and it leans slightly to the north-west.
Q 17The Great Bell known as Big Ben is most often said to be named after whom?
Sir Benjamin Hall
Hall was Minister for Public Works when the 13.5-ton bell was installed; it cracked during testing and still rings with the crack today.
Q 18The Danish architect of the Sydney Opera House, Jørn Utzon, did what in 1966?
Resigned and never returned to see it finished
The building on Bennelong Point finally opened in 1973, about 1,357% over budget in real terms; Utzon got his Pritzker in 2003.
Q 19Who officially opened the Sydney Opera House on 20 October 1973?
Queen Elizabeth II
Its roof is covered in more than a million tiles laid in a chevron pattern.
Q 20What is the official name of the Golden Gate Bridge's colour?
International Orange
Architect Irving Morrow chose it because it suited the landscape and stood out in fog; the bridge opened in May 1937.
About 400 people worked on the mountain the Lakota call Six Grandfathers, in South Dakota's Black Hills.
Q 24The world's tallest building was known by what name during construction?
Burj Dubai
It was renamed Burj Khalifa for Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, who bailed Dubai out during the recession, and opened on 4 January 2010.
Q 25How tall is the Burj Khalifa?
828 metres
Its 163 floors include the Armani Hotel and, at 442 metres, what is billed as the world's highest restaurant.
Q 26The world's largest religious complex, in Cambodia, was originally dedicated to which Hindu god?
Vishnu
Built by Suryavarman II in the 12th century, it later became Buddhist and has appeared on Cambodia's flag since 1863.
Q 27Unlike most Khmer temples, Cambodia's great 12th-century temple faces which direction?
West
Scholars link the unusual orientation to its possible role as a royal funerary temple; the name means 'City of Temples'.
Q 28Stonehenge's smaller 'bluestones' were hauled from the Preseli Hills in which country?
Wales
That is about 240 km away; a 2024 study found the Altar Stone came from even farther, in north-east Scotland.
Q 29Stonehenge is aligned to the sunrise on which day of the year?
The summer solstice
It also lines up with sunset on the winter solstice; building went on in phases from about 3100 BC to 1600 BC.
Q 30The Leaning Tower of Pisa began tilting in 1178 while builders were on which floor?
The second
Its three-metre foundation sat in weak subsoil; work dragged on until 1372, and engineers pulled the tilt back to under four degrees by 2001.