50 free Palawan trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Palawan trivia quiz covers the Philippines' largest province from the Tabon Caves to Tubbataha: the prehistoric finds that made Palawan the 'cradle of civilization', Pigafetta's 1521 landfall, the Brunei and Spanish eras, the American-era plan to trade the island to Denmark, the Second World War on and around Puerto Princesa, and the plebiscites that kept the province whole. It also takes in what visitors come for: the Underground River, the wrecks of Coron, El Nido's swiftlet nests, the Calauit game reserve, Mount Mantalingahan, the peacock-pheasant and the dugong, plus the languages, faiths and economy of Palaweños today. The early questions suit a Philippine geography class or a barkada quiz night; the later ones reward anyone who has spent real time on the island. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Palawan is the largest province of the Philippines by what measure?
Total area
It covers 14,649.73 square kilometres, with the capital city administered separately on top of that.
Q 02What is the capital and largest city of Palawan?
Puerto Princesa
It is a highly urbanised city that governs itself independently of the province, though it is grouped with it for statistics.
Q 03Palawan belongs to which administrative region of the Philippines?
Mimaropa
A 2005 executive order tried to move it to Western Visayas, but local opposition left the order in abeyance.
Q 04Palawan is nicknamed the Philippines' Last what?
Frontier
It is also billed as the Philippines' Best Island, a title backed by several travel-magazine polls.
Q 05Palawan lies between the Sulu Sea and which larger sea to its west?
South China Sea
The Underground River near the capital flows straight out into that western sea.
Q 06Roughly how many kilometres long is Palawan Island, the province's namesake?
450
It is only about 50 kilometres wide, which gives it that long, narrow shape on the map.
Q 07Palawan's islands stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to which island in the southwest?
Borneo
That closeness is why tigers may once have crossed over, and why its wildlife resembles its neighbour's more than the rest of the Philippines.
Q 08A 2021 plebiscite rejected a plan to split Palawan into how many provinces?
Three
The proposed Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental and Palawan del Sur never came to be.
Q 09Which researcher led the team that uncovered Palawan's early history in the Tabon Caves?
Robert Fox
His 1962–66 digs found Tabon Man, over 1,500 burial jars and the near-perfect Manunggul Jar.
Q 10Tabon Caves evidence shows humans have lived in Palawan for more than how many years?
50,000
Human fossils from the caves date back 47,000 years, the earliest remains found in the Philippines.
Q 11The bone fragments of Tabon Man were found in which Palawan municipality?
Quezon
The caves sit at Lipuun Point, bordered by the South China Sea on two sides.
Q 12Palawan was a major site on the Maritime Jade Road, a trade network that ran for how many years?
3,000
It operated from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE and moved a single geological material across the seas.
Q 13The Palaw'an, Batak and Tagbanwa are joined by which other group as Palawan's oldest inhabitants?
Tau't Bato
They come from the interiors and highlands and traditionally practise animist anito religions.
Q 21A 1910 proposal would have traded Palawan and Mindanao to which country for Greenland?
Denmark
The idea, floated by US ambassador Maurice Francis Egan, faded when the First World War broke out.
Q 22Only how many prisoners survived the December 1944 Palawan Massacre at the capital's POW camp?
11
Around 150 prisoners had been held there; the survivors' accounts reached Allied forces before the island's liberation.
Q 23Off Palawan in 1944, US submarines Dace and Darter sank Admiral Kurita's flagship, named what?
Atago
Her sister ship Maya went down too, and Darter ran aground that afternoon and had to be scuttled.
Q 14Pigafetta's 1521 expedition called Palawan 'la terra de missione', meaning what?
The land of promise
The crew were nearly starving when they arrived and were fed rice cooked in bamboo, pigs, goats and coconuts.
Q 15Pigafetta recorded that the islanders' primary weapons were what?
Blowguns
The iron-tipped tubes fired wooden or bamboo darts, some poisoned, and doubled as spears when the darts ran out.
Q 16In 1749, which sultanate ceded southern Palawan to Spain?
Brunei
Before the Spanish, Palawan had been ruled by the Bruneian empire and its Sulu vassals.
Q 17Under what name did the 1818 Spanish census record Palawan?
Isla de Paragua
The census counted 4,486 native families and just 29 Spanish-Filipino families on the island.
Q 18In 1858 Palawan was split into Castilla in the north and which province in the south?
Asturias
Castilla's capital was Taytay; the southern province was run from what is now the provincial capital.
Q 19Which island town served as Palawan's capital from 1873 to 1903?
Cuyo
Its Cuyonon language was the lingua franca of Palawan's native peoples before Tagalog migration.
Q 20In which year did the US establish civil rule in northern Palawan as the province of Paragua?
1902
In 1905 the province was reorganised to take in the south and renamed Palawan.
Q 24Calauit Island's 1976 game reserve was stocked with animals imported from which continent?
Africa
Some 254 Tagbanwa families were evicted to make way for it; the IUCN has no record of requesting the relocation.
Q 25Which president signed the 2005 order briefly moving Palawan to Western Visayas?
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Executive Order 429 was deferred within months after the provincial council objected.
Q 26Roughly how many islands and islets make up Palawan province?
1,780
Its irregular coastline runs almost 2,000 kilometres, lined with coves and white-sand beaches.
Q 27What is the highest peak in Palawan, at 2,086 metres?
Mount Mantalingahan
The province's mountain ranges average about 1,100 metres and are carpeted in virgin forest.
Q 28The Philippines counts the disputed Spratly Islands as part of Palawan under what local name?
Kalayaan Group
Kalayaan is also one of Palawan's municipalities, annexed by presidential decree in 1978.
Q 29How many municipalities does Palawan have, besides its independent capital city?
23
Thirteen are on the mainland and ten are island towns, spread across 433 barangays.
Q 30Busuanga, Coron and Culion form the Calamianes group together with which island?
Linapacan
The Calamianes were the first part of Palawan to come under Spanish authority.