Saunas Trivia
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42 free Saunas trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This saunas trivia quiz covers the hot room in all its forms, from the Finnish smoke sauna to the Russian banya, the Turkish hammam, the Mesoamerican temazcal and the Korean jjimjilbang. The easy questions are the ones any regular knows: what you throw water on, which country has more saunas than cars, what the birch bundle is for, and why the top bench is the hottest. From there it moves into the words (löyly, kiuas, vihta, Aufguss), the science of why 100 °C air does not cook you, and the etiquette that differs from Germany to Japan. The hard end covers the sauna's history and its stranger corners: the Neolithic stone structures of Orkney, the 15th-century Korean kiln saunas backed by King Sejong, the year the electric stove arrived, the world championships that ended with a death, the sauna 1,400 metres down a Finnish mine, the sauna in a Helsinki Ferris wheel gondola, and John Harvey Kellogg's electric light bath. There is also a run of questions on health, since sauna research is a genuine field. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the sauna, the Finnish sauna, the banya, the hammam and related traditions, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 42 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01An old Finnish saying tells you to behave in the sauna as you would in which place?
In church
In church: folk belief held that a sauna elf, the saunatonttu, loved peace and punished bathers who were noisy or quarrelled.
Q 02What is the Finnish word for the steam and heat produced when water is thrown on the hot stones?
Löyly
Löyly means more than steam: in old Finnish belief the vapour rising from the stones was a spirit, the breath of life.
Q 03In sauna vocabulary, what is the kiuas?
The stove and its rock pile
The stove and its rock pile: water thrown on its hot stones turns to steam, which makes the room feel much hotter.
Q 04The vihta, a bundle of twigs Finns use to gently beat their skin in the sauna, comes from which tree?
Birch
Birch: slapping the skin with the leafy whisk stimulates it, and eastern Finns call the same bundle a vasta.
Q 05What type were the first Finnish saunas, which took hours to heat before anyone could bathe?
Smoke sauna
Smoke sauna: with no chimney, smoke fills the room, so the fire is put out and the room aired before anyone bathes.
Q 06After a winter sauna, some Finns take a dip in an avanto; what is an avanto?
A hole cut in lake ice
A hole cut in lake ice: after the plunge, bathers head back into the hot room and repeat the cycle.
Q 07Finland has about 5.5 million people; roughly how many saunas does it have?
About 3 million
About 3 million, roughly one for every two Finns, and so woven into life that many older Finns were even born in a sauna.
Q 08Which day of the week is the traditional sauna day in Finland?
Saturday
Saturday was sauna day, but at summer cottages many Finns bathe far more often.
Q 09In the Primary Chronicle, which apostle marvels at Slavs lashing themselves in scorching bathhouses?
Andrew
Andrew: he said they then drenched themselves in cold water, and so revived.
Q 10Helsinki has a sauna built into one of the gondolas of what?
A Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel: SkyWheel Helsinki's wood-panelled SkySauna gondola seats up to five, and climate-controlled cabins let the wheel turn all year.
Q 11Which Finnish city is known as the 'Sauna Capital of the World'?
Tampere
Tampere: it earned the title with the most public saunas in Finland, among them Rajaportti, the country's oldest working public sauna.
Q 12According to Herodotus, which people threw hemp seeds onto red-hot stones to make a vapour bath?
Scythians
Scythians: Herodotus says they howled with delight, and used this vapour bath instead of washing their bodies in water.
Q 13The Koi Sauna in Sinsheim, listed by Guinness in 2014 as the world's largest sauna, is in which country?
Germany
Germany: mixed-sex, swimsuit-free saunas are the norm there, a habit rare in southern Europe.
Q 21In a Russian banya, what is the predbannik?
Changing room
Changing room: bathers undress there and come back between steam sessions to rest and drink tea.
Q 22In the Primary Chronicle, which ruler had a bathhouse locked and set on fire to kill a Drevlian delegation?
Olga of Kiev
Olga of Kiev was avenging her husband Igor, killed by the Drevlians, who then sent envoys proposing she marry their prince.
Q 23The hammam, the steam bath of the Middle East and North Africa, was inherited from which civilisation's public baths?
Roman
Roman: like the thermae, the hammam served social life as well as washing, meeting everyday hygiene needs in an era before private plumbing.
Q 14Russian peasants with no banya at hand sometimes steamed themselves inside what?
A cooking oven
A cooking oven: once it had been fired, straw was laid on its floor and the bather crawled inside.
Q 15What is the sauna ritual, led by a Saunameister, of pouring water on the stones and fanning the heat with a towel?
Aufguss
Aufguss: the burst of heat bathers feel comes from the steam condensing on their skin and releasing its heat.
Q 16Why can people tolerate sauna air of 100 °C?
The humidity is kept low
The humidity is kept low, so the air, walls and benches stay above the dew point and remain dry.
Q 17What do Westerners often call the hammam, the traditional public steam bath?
A Turkish bath
A Turkish bath: yet the Victorian 'Turkish baths' built in Britain made bathers sweat in hot dry air rather than steam.
Q 18Why does the higher bench in a sauna feel hotter?
Hot air rises
Hot air rises, so bathers who want more heat climb to the top bench, near the ceiling, where fresh steam reaches them quickly.
Q 19Why did Heinola's World Sauna Championships, held yearly since 1999, end after the 2010 contest?
A finalist died
A finalist died: Russia's Vladimir Ladyzhensky collapsed after six minutes at 110 °C, and Finland's five-time champion was badly burned.
Q 20What kind of stove heats most saunas in Finnish city apartment blocks?
Electric
Electric: it needs no open fire in a block of flats, and a delay timer can have the sauna hot when bathers want it.
Q 24Why do hammam bathers traditionally wash with running water instead of immersing themselves in a pool?
Islamic custom favours it
Islamic custom favours it, yet Iran's hammams long had basins where bathers immersed themselves for the full ablution.
Q 25The temazcal, a permanent domed sweat lodge of Mesoamerica, takes its name from which language?
Nahuatl
Nahuatl, the Aztecs' language: they used the temazcal as a rite of purification, and it is still used for healing in parts of Mexico.
Q 26The Lakota sweat lodge ceremony, the inipi, comes from which Native American cultural region?
Plains
Plains: inside the lodge, participants pray and sing around a pit of heated stones.
Q 27Besides kiln saunas and baths, what do many Korean jjimjilbang bathhouses let guests do?
Sleep overnight
Sleep overnight: communal sleeping areas make them a budget place to stay, and men out late drinking sometimes sleep there.
Q 28Korea's domed stone kiln sauna, the hanjeungmak, was first recorded in the 15th century under which king?
Sejong the Great
Sejong the Great's annals record kiln saunas used to treat illness.
Q 29Archaeologists think a Bronze Age building found on which Scottish islands may have been a sauna?
Orkney
Orkney: the site is likely a burnt mound, where fire-heated stones and a water tank would have made steam.
Q 30Colonists of New Sweden, many of them Finns, built saunas along which American river?
Delaware
Delaware: New Sweden's settlers are also credited with bringing the log cabin to America.