Q 01/05

What do Bulgarians call the mountain range that gives the Balkans its name?

A) Stara Planina

B) Sar Planina

C) Rhodope Massif

D) Pirin Planina

Answer · why

A) Stara Planina

The range runs about 560 km across Bulgaria from the Serbian border to Cape Emine on the Black Sea; its highest point is Botev Peak.

Q 02/05

What is the highest point in the Balkans, at 2,925 metres?

A) Olympus

B) Botev Peak

C) Triglav

D) Musala

Answer · why

D) Musala

Its name comes via Ottoman Turkish from the Arabic for 'near God' or 'place for prayer'; it is the sixth most prominent peak in mainland Europe.

Q 03/05

Which German geographer coined the concept of the 'Balkan Peninsula' in 1808?

A) Albrecht Penck

B) Carl Ritter

C) August Zeune

D) Alexander von Humboldt

Answer · why

C) August Zeune

Carl Ritter and other geographers objected, arguing only the land south of the mountains could count as a peninsula.

Q 04/05

What does the word 'balkan' mean in Ottoman and modern Turkish?

A) Land of many rivers

B) Chain of wooded mountains

C) Old stone fortress

D) Crossroads of empires

Answer · why

B) Chain of wooded mountains

The earliest known use of the name for the range appears on an early 14th-century Arab map.

Q 05/05

By what ancient Thracian name were the Balkan Mountains known from antiquity through the Middle Ages?

A) Haemus

B) Rhodope

C) Olympus

D) Pindus

Answer · why

A) Haemus

In Greek myth the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus; another version says Typhon's blood (haima) fell there.