50 free Palau trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Forty-two questions on the Republic of Palau, the 340-island nation at the western edge of Micronesia. The geography round covers Koror, the near-empty capital at Ngerulmud, Babeldaob, the mushroom-shaped Rock Islands, Jellyfish Lake and the marine reserve the size of France that made Palau the world's first shark sanctuary. History takes in the Jesuit map drawn from pebbles, Prince Lee Boo's journey to Georgian London, Spanish, German and Japanese rule, the brutal Battle of Peleliu and the Japanese soldiers who kept fighting there until 1947, then the nuclear-free constitution, the Compact of Free Association and the 1996 bridge collapse that shut off Koror's water and power. There are also questions on the flag, the matrilineal clan system, fruit-bat soup, baseball and the first Palauan in Major League Baseball. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its islands, battles and people, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a geography classroom or a diver planning a trip.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Palau lies in which subregion of Oceania?
Micronesia
Its roughly 340 islands sit at the western edge of the region, closer to the Philippines than to most of its Micronesian neighbours.
Q 02Palau forms the western part of which larger archipelago?
Caroline Islands
The eastern and central Carolines went on to form the Federated States of Micronesia in 1979, a union Palau voted against joining.
Q 03What is the seat of government of Palau, moved there from Koror in 2006?
Ngerulmud
The purpose-built capitol complex on Babeldaob was funded partly by a $20 million loan from Taiwan and cost more than $45 million.
Q 04Palau's capital holds what unusual distinction among the world's sovereign capitals?
Least populous
With no permanent residents, it is essentially a government complex; its name means 'place of fermented angelfish'.
Q 05Palau's most populous island and city share which name?
Koror
About two-thirds of Palauans live there, and it served as the provisional capital until 2006 and as capital of Japan's South Seas Mandate before the war.
Q 06With about 466 square kilometres of land, Palau ranks roughly where among the world's smallest countries?
16th
That is a little larger than Andorra and smaller than the Isle of Man; the sea territory it controls is over a thousand times bigger.
Q 07Which country lies northwest of Palau, close enough that its people are Palau's second-largest ethnic group?
The Philippines
Palau was even given a seat at the 1898 Malolos Congress, the first revolutionary Philippine parliament.
Q 08In 1696, stranded Palauan islanders showed a missionary their homeland's layout using what?
Pebbles
Jesuit Paul Klein met the sailors on Samar in the Philippines; three failed attempts to reach the islands followed and the Spanish dubbed them the Enchanted Islands.
Q 09Prince Lee Boo, son of the ruler of Koror, was taken to London in 1784 and died there within months of what?
Smallpox
London society called him 'The Black Prince'; his tomb at St Mary's, Rotherhithe, is a listed monument and George Keate's book about him ran through 20 languages.
Q 10Which East India Company ship wrecked off Ulong Island in 1783, leading to Lee Boo's voyage?
Antelope
Captain Henry Wilson's crew spent three months in Palau; the friendship with the ruler Abba Thulle led to Lee Boo joining them home.
Q 11After the Spanish-American War, Spain sold Palau in 1899 to which country?
Germany
It was run as part of German New Guinea for just 15 years before Japan seized the islands in 1914.
Q 12Between the world wars, Palau was governed by Japan under a League of Nations arrangement known as what?
The South Seas Mandate
Japan made Koror the mandate's capital, brought baseball, Shinto and Buddhism, and used the islands to launch its 1941 invasion of the Philippines.
Q 13The 1944 Battle of Peleliu is remembered for its cost. Roughly how many Japanese soldiers died there?
10,000
More than 2,000 Americans also died in a fight the US commander had predicted would take four days; it dragged on for more than two months.
Q 21Palau's flag is light blue with an off-centre yellow disc. What does the disc represent?
The full moon
Palauans regard the full moon as the best time for fishing, planting, harvesting and canoe carving; the designer denied any nod to Japan's rising sun.
Q 22Palau's flag was adopted on 1 January of which year, the day it became a republic?
1981
Before then the old territorial flag flew alongside the UN and US flags; full independence came only in October 1994.
Q 23Palau's famous Rock Islands are made mostly of what?
Limestone
Between 250 and 300 uprises sit in the Southern Lagoon between Koror and Peleliu; grazing snails, urchins and sponges eat away the bases into mushroom shapes.
Q 14The last Japanese holdouts on Peleliu, hiding in caves, finally surrendered in which year?
1947
A former Japanese admiral had to be sent into the caves to convince the lieutenant and his 34 men that the war was really over.
Q 15Peleliu's Japanese defenders were dug into a coral ridge honeycombed with about 500 caves. What was it called?
Umurbrogol
Many caves were old phosphate mine shafts; the Marines' nickname for the ridge system was Bloody Nose Ridge.
Q 16After World War II, Palau became part of a US-administered area under UN auspices known as what?
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
Palau was the very last piece of that territory to gain independence, in 1994.
Q 17Palau's 1981 constitution was the world's first of its kind in what respect?
Nuclear-free
Banning nuclear material without a 75 percent referendum majority clashed with US Navy wishes and delayed independence for over a decade.
Q 18Palau became fully sovereign in 1994 under what kind of agreement with the United States?
Compact of Free Association
The US handles defence and funding and even delivers the mail: Palau has the ZIP codes 96939 and 96940.
Q 19What currency does Palau use?
The US dollar
Government is the biggest employer and depends heavily on American compact money; tourism, fishing and subsistence farming make up the rest.
Q 20Palau's two official languages are English and which Austronesian language?
Palauan
It is one of only two indigenous Micronesian languages outside the Oceanic branch, the other being Guam's Chamorro; Sonsorolese and Tobian are recognised regionally.
Q 24In which year were the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon inscribed as Palau's UNESCO World Heritage Site?
2012
Four more Palauan sites, including the Ngebedech terraces and a stone coffin, sit on the tentative list.
Q 25The marine lake on Eil Malk island is famous for millions of which creatures migrating daily?
Golden jellyfish
They have almost lost their sting and live partly off algae in their tissues; an El Nino warm spell once caused their near-total disappearance.
Q 26Jellyfish Lake is one of roughly how many marine lakes scattered through the Rock Islands?
70
It is permanently stratified, with an oxygen-free layer below about 15 metres, one of only a few hundred such meromictic lakes known worldwide.
Q 27In 2009 Palau created the world's first sanctuary for which animal?
Sharks
Commercial fishing for them was banned across an exclusive economic zone about the size of France; President Toribiong announced it at the UN.
Q 28Palau's exclusive economic zone, patrolled by two long-range boats, covers roughly how much ocean?
600,000 sq km
That is more than a thousand times its land area, so poachers and unlicensed tuna boats are a constant headache.
Q 29In 2017 the country became the first to stamp an environmental promise into visitors' passports. What is it?
The Palau Pledge
Ol'au Palau, launched in 2022, is a separate responsible-tourism programme; the pledge is written as a promise to Palau's children.
Q 30Which reptile is native to Palau's mangroves and has killed only one person there in modern history?
Saltwater crocodile
That single fatal attack in 1965 triggered an eradication and hide-trade programme; conservation since the 1990s has stabilised numbers.