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50 free World Heritage Sites trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
UNESCO's World Heritage List began with a dozen places in 1978 and now runs to more than a thousand, from rock-cut churches and salt mines to reefs, deltas and whole city centres. Every entry has a story: a nomination that stalled for decades, a bridge or stadium that cost a city its status, a rescue campaign that started the whole idea. This quiz covers how the list works, the rules behind the selection criteria and the danger list, the original sites of 1978, the handful of places ever removed, and the famous temples, parks and monuments most travellers can picture but rarely know the history of. It also marks World Heritage Day, the date set aside each year for monuments and sites. It suits pub quiz hosts, teachers marking World Heritage Day, and anyone planning a trip with a list to tick off. Fifty questions, each with an explanation and a source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which year saw UNESCO adopt the World Heritage Convention, the end of a seven-year drafting process?
1972
1972 is the year: the convention was adopted on 16 November 1972, inspired by the 1960s campaign to move Abu Simbel's temples out of the rising Nile. Drafting had begun in 1965.
Q 02Which sovereign state had its entire territory inscribed as a single World Heritage Site in 1984?
Vatican City
Vatican City's whole territory went onto the list in 1984. It is also on the International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection, which gives it legal protection in armed conflict.
Q 03Which English port city was struck off the list in 2021 after approving a football stadium in its historic docks?
Liverpool
Liverpool became only the third site ever removed, on 21 July 2021, months after Everton's new stadium was approved for Bramley-Moore Dock. The committee had warned in 2017 that the Liverpool Waters scheme put the listing at risk.
Q 04Which Australian site escaped the danger list in 2021 after its government lobbied against UNESCO's climate assessment?
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef was judged 'clearly in danger from climate change' by UNESCO, yet the committee of diplomats ignored that advice in July 2021. Australia had earlier had the reef cut from a 2016 UNESCO report on tourism and climate.
Q 05Which Peruvian site, listed for both nature and culture, nearly joined the danger list in 2017 over overcrowding?
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is both a cultural and a natural World Heritage Site, and in 2017 UNESCO considered listing it in danger before deciding against it. Its 1983 inscription covers the surrounding landscape as well as the ruins.
Q 06Which temple complex, inscribed in 1992 while a UN mission ran Cambodia, went straight onto the danger list?
Angkor
Angkor was listed and placed in danger on the same occasion so urgent conservation could begin, and it came off the danger list in 2004. The listing came under the UN mission set up by the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements.
Q 07Which US park, one of the first twelve sites inscribed in 1978, spent 1995 to 2003 on the danger list?
Yellowstone
Yellowstone spent eight years on the danger list, from 1995 to 2003, having been inscribed among the first twelve sites in 1978. It is widely understood to be the first national park in the world.
Q 08Which Irish island monastery, inscribed in 1996, stood in for the planet Ahch-To in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
Skellig Michael
Skellig Michael was filmed as Ahch-To for both The Force Awakens in 2015 and The Last Jedi in 2017, with aerial footage reused in The Rise of Skywalker. ICOMOS called it a unique example of an early religious settlement.
Q 09On what date each year is the International Day for Monuments and Sites, approved by UNESCO in 1983, observed?
18 April
18 April has been the International Day for Monuments and Sites since UNESCO approved it at its 22nd general conference in 1983. It is widely known simply as World Heritage Day.
Q 10Which Gulf state had the first site ever struck off the list, in 2007, after cutting an oryx sanctuary by 90%?
Oman
Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was removed on 28 June 2007 after oil was found there, with the oryx population down from 450 in 1996 to 65. It was delisted outright rather than first being placed in danger.
Q 11Which German city lost its Elbe Valley listing in 2009 for building a four-lane road bridge across the protected valley?
Dresden
Dresden's Waldschlösschen Bridge cost the valley its status in a 14 to 5 committee vote in June 2009, after three years on the danger list. Opponents fought the bridge through the courts and lost.
Q 12How many states parties sit on the World Heritage Committee that decides which nominations are inscribed each year?
21
The 21 states parties on the committee are advised by international panels of experts in natural or cultural history. Their annual session is where sites are inscribed, listed in danger or, rarely, removed.
Q 13How many selection criteria does UNESCO use, with a nominated site required to satisfy at least one of them?
Ten
Q 21Which Ethiopian town's eleven rock-hewn churches were declared a World Heritage Site in the first group of 1978?
Lalibela
Lalibela's 11 churches are grouped by UNESCO into four clusters, among them Biete Medhane Alem, home of the Lalibela Cross. They were carved downward into the bedrock rather than built up.
Q 22Which island off Dakar, site of the House of Slaves memorial, was among the first twelve places inscribed in 1978?
Gorée
Gorée's House of Slaves, built by an Afro-French Métis family around 1780 to 1784, is now the island's site of memory of slavery. It is Senegal's premier tourist site.
Q 23Which park, Colorado's only World Heritage Site as of 2026, was in the original group inscribed in 1978?
Mesa Verde
Ten criteria have applied since 2005, when separate sets of six cultural and four natural criteria were merged into one list. The first cultural criterion is 'to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius'.
Q 14What document must a country add a site to before it is allowed to nominate that site for inscription?
Tentative List
The Tentative List is each country's own inventory of candidates, and a site missing from it cannot be nominated at all. Even a major boundary change must go back through it as if it were a new nomination.
Q 15What three-word quality must a nominated site show, in addition to meeting at least one of the selection criteria?
Outstanding Universal Value
Outstanding Universal Value is the test even for boundary changes: a minor tweak that does not affect it still goes to the advisory bodies. The phrase is abbreviated to OUV in committee papers.
Q 16Roughly how many properties were on the World Heritage List after the July 2026 session, spread across 173 countries?
About 1,270
About 1,270 is right: 1,273 sites across 173 countries as of July 2026, more than fifty years after the first twelve were inscribed. Cultural sites outnumber natural ones by a wide margin.
Q 17Which advisory body proposed World Heritage Day in 1982, a year before UNESCO approved it?
ICOMOS
ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, is the advisory body that assesses cultural nominations for the committee. Its natural-site counterpart is the IUCN.
Q 18Which Florida park went back on the danger list in 2010, its second spell after one from 1993 to 2007?
Everglades
Everglades National Park was listed in 1979 and has also been a Ramsar wetland of international importance since 1987. It first went on the danger list in 1993, came off in 2007 and went back on in 2010.
Q 19Which cathedral, begun around 796 as Charlemagne's palace chapel, was among the first twelve sites inscribed in 1978?
Aachen
Aachen Cathedral holds Charlemagne's tomb: he was buried in his Palatine Chapel in 814, and the site was listed for its central role in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. It is one of the oldest cathedral buildings in Europe.
Q 20Which Polish mine, with four chapels carved from rock salt by its miners, was on the original 1978 list?
Wieliczka
Wieliczka Salt Mine was on the original 1978 list and later spent 1989 to 1998 on the danger list. One of its brine lakes is the setting for a sound and light show with the music of Chopin.
Mesa Verde, in Montezuma County, was listed for its cliff dwellings and as of 2026 is still Colorado's only entry on the list. It became a national park in 1906, long before the convention existed.
Q 24Which country nominated the Old City of Jerusalem in 1980, then asked in 1982 for it to be listed in danger?
Jordan
Jordan put the Old City forward; it was inscribed with its walls in 1981 and went onto the danger list in 1982 at Jordan's request. The Old City had come under Jordanian control after the 1948 war.
Q 25Which chain of 19th-century survey points from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea is shared by 10 countries?
Struve Geodetic Arc
The Struve Geodetic Arc measured the Earth's size and shape; 34 plaques and obelisks survive from its 265 original station points. It was inscribed in 2005 as a testament to international scientific cooperation.
Q 26Which inland delta, whose waters never reach the sea, became the 1,000th site inscribed on the list in 2014?
Okavango
The Okavango Delta reached the milestone on 22 June 2014, as one of the few interior delta systems whose wetland is still largely intact. Its floods arrive in the dry season.
Q 27Which New Zealand park was the first place inscribed as a cultural landscape, for its spiritual meaning to Māori?
Tongariro
Tongariro was listed for its natural features in 1990 and gained dual status in 1993, an initiative backed by Tumu Te Heuheu of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. Its peaks include Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu.
Q 28Which purpose-built capital was inscribed in 1987, barely 27 years after it was inaugurated?
Brasília
Brasília was listed for its modernist architecture and artistic urban planning only 27 years after its inauguration on 21 April 1960. The whole city went up in 41 months.
Q 29Which architect's 17 buildings across seven countries were inscribed together as a single site in 2016?
Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier's listing was approved at the 2016 committee session in Istanbul and takes in the Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. Earlier versions of the nomination had been cut back before it succeeded.
Q 30Which American architect's eight buildings in six states were inscribed as a single site in 2019?
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright's eight buildings were designed over a 50-year period and inscribed on 7 July 2019. All eight are also US National Historic Landmarks.