Manila Trivia
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53 free Manila trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Manila is one of the world's original global cities, the port that first tied Asia to the Americas, and today one of the most densely packed places on Earth. This quiz covers the Philippine capital from the fortified Tagalog polity of Maynila to the jeepney-choked streets of the present. The easy questions ask what bay it sits on, which river splits it in two, who founded the Spanish city in 1571, what Rizal Park commemorates and where the president lives. From there it moves into the layers of history: the galleon trade with Acapulco, the British occupation of 1762, the world's oldest Chinatown, Dewey's victory in the bay and the month-long battle of 1945 that left Manila among the most devastated capitals of the war. The harder end is for people who know the city: the nilad-versus-indigo etymology, Rajah Sulayman and the Battle of Bangkusay, Kilometer Zero, the Manila Hotel penthouse where MacArthur lived, Burnham's 1905 plan, the eighth rebuilding of the cathedral, San Agustin's UNESCO listing, the coconut palace a pope refused to sleep in, the mayor who was the first ever elected, Torre de Manila the 'national photobomber', and the fight that was not technically in Manila at all. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the city, its districts and its landmarks, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Philippines, world capitals and Asian cities quizzes next.
30 of 53 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which island of the Philippines does Manila stand?
Luzon
Luzon's Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991 and sent so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that global temperatures fell by about half a degree Celsius until 1993.
Q 02Which river flows through the middle of Manila, dividing it north and south?
Pasig
A 2003 report called it one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
Q 03Which city is the most populous in the Philippines, with more people than the capital, Manila?
Quezon City
Quezon City became the University of the Philippines' home in 1949, after the university outgrew its cramped campus in Manila and moved to open land in Diliman.
Q 04Which Spanish conquistador founded Spanish Manila in 1571?
Miguel López de Legazpi
Miguel López de Legazpi did not capture Maynila himself: his field commander Martín de Goiti took it by force in 1570, a year before Legazpi arrived to set up the city.
Q 05Which rajah ruled Maynila alongside his uncle when Spanish forces attacked it in 1570?
Rajah Sulayman
Rajah Sulayman made peace with the Spanish in 1571, and they built their colonial city of Manila on the very site of his fortified settlement.
Q 06Which material makes up the frame and walls of Manila's San Sebastian Basilica, prefabricated in Belgium?
Steel
Steel: its columns, walls and ceiling were painted to look like marble, but rust now threatens the metal.
Q 07Which Filipino painter's giant canvas Spoliarium greets visitors to Manila's National Museum of Fine Arts?
Juan Luna
Juan Luna: after it won gold in Madrid in 1884, José Rizal hailed its dead gladiators as a symbol of Filipino life in open struggle with injustice.
Q 08With which Mexican port did the Manila galleons trade from 1565 to 1815?
Acapulco
Acapulco: from there, Asian cargo went overland by pack animals to Veracruz and on by ship to Spain.
Q 09Which Augustinian friar-navigator pioneered the eastward return route to Mexico in 1565?
Andrés de Urdaneta
Andrés de Urdaneta: piloting the San Pedro, he opened the route that Manila galleons sailed for the next 250 years.
Q 10Which Cold War alliance was created by the treaty signed in Manila in September 1954?
SEATO
SEATO: meant to stop communism spreading in Southeast Asia, it lost its purpose when the Vietnam War ended and disbanded in 1977.
Q 11Which European power seized Manila in 1762, during the Seven Years' War?
Great Britain
Great Britain: its fleet sailed from British India with Indian sepoys aboard, but the Treaty of Paris that ended the war returned the city to Spain.
Q 12Which Manila district is regarded as the world's oldest Chinatown?
Binondo
Binondo: in 1594 the Spanish granted Catholic Chinese settlers this land tax-free, with limited rights to govern themselves.
Q 13Which society, founded in Manila in 1892, began the Philippine Revolution against Spain in 1896?
Katipunan
Katipunan: its founders met in secret after learning Spain would deport Rizal, agreeing that only armed struggle could free the country.
Q 21What was Manila declared early in World War II, before Japanese troops occupied it in 1942?
An open city
An open city: Manila suffered little damage when Japanese troops marched in, but the 1945 fight to retake it levelled the city.
Q 22Roughly how many Filipino civilians died during the month-long 1945 Battle of Manila?
100,000
100,000: many were massacred by Japanese troops, while others died as American and Japanese artillery pounded the city.
Q 23Which peninsula across Manila Bay did American and Filipino troops defend until April 1942?
Bataan
Bataan: when more than 70,000 of its starving defenders surrendered, Japanese troops forced them on the Bataan Death March to prison camps.
Q 14Which 1571 citadel in the walled city held the national hero before his execution?
Fort Santiago
Fort Santiago: confined there on the eve of his execution, José Rizal wrote his farewell poem, 'Mi último adiós'.
Q 15Which Manila church, completed in 1607, is the country's oldest stone church?
San Agustin
San Agustin: when fighting in 1945 levelled the walled city around it, this was the only church there left standing.
Q 16To which mountain city did American officials move the government from Manila each summer?
Baguio
Baguio: sitting about 1,500 metres up among pine-clad hills, its cool climate gave officials relief from the lowland heat of Manila.
Q 17Which Metro Manila avenue gave its name to the 1986 uprising that ended a dictatorship?
EDSA
EDSA: when government tanks advanced, praying nuns and unarmed crowds blocked them, and the troops stopped and retreated.
Q 18Which war broke out when fighting erupted in Manila on February 4, 1899?
Philippine-American War
Philippine-American War: Filipino forces under Emilio Aguinaldo wanted independence, not a change of colonial rulers.
Q 19Which American commodore destroyed the Spanish squadron in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898?
George Dewey
George Dewey: he withdrew mid-battle and gave his crews breakfast, then re-engaged and finished off the Spanish squadron.
Q 20Which American city planner drew up the 1905 plan to remake Manila?
Daniel Burnham
He was invited by Governor-General William Howard Taft.
Q 24Who became Manila's first elected mayor, taking office in 1952?
Arsenio Lacson
Arsenio Lacson: he led the city for a decade and died suddenly in 1962, amid talk that he would run for president.
Q 25What is Manila's pre-war nickname?
Pearl of the Orient
Pearl of the Orient: the name fitted the prewar city, much of which the 1945 battle to retake it left in ruins.
Q 26Which regional development lender has its headquarters in Metro Manila?
Asian Development Bank
Asian Development Bank: though it lends only in Asia and the Pacific, the United States has put in as much capital as Japan, one of its biggest shareholders.
Q 27What is the official residence of the president of the Philippines?
Malacañang Palace
It stands in the San Miguel district and is often used as a metonym for the government.
Q 28Which American general made his prewar home in the Manila Hotel's penthouse?
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur: his penthouse was gutted by fire when American troops fought the Japanese for the hotel in 1945.
Q 29Manila's airport is named after which politician assassinated on its tarmac in 1983?
Ninoy Aquino
Ninoy Aquino: his killing galvanized the opposition behind his widow, Corazon, who became president in 1986.
Q 30Which Manila garbage dump, home to thousands of scavengers, was closed in the 1990s and replaced by public housing?
Smokey Mountain
Smokey Mountain: once the dump was gone, many former residents lost their main income, scavenging.