Q 01/05

Bulgarians call the Balkan Mountains by which name, meaning 'Old Mountain'?

A) Stara Planina

B) Sar Planina

C) Rhodope Massif

D) Pirin Planina

Answer · why

A) Stara Planina

Stara Planina gave the whole peninsula its name by mistake: a German geographer wrongly took it for the region's dominant mountain chain, and the labe...

Q 02/05

Musala is the Balkans' highest peak, topping which Greek mountain by about eight metres?

A) Parnassus

B) Olympus

C) Athos

D) Ida

Answer · why

B) Olympus

Olympus reaches 2,917 metres, just short of Musala's 2,925. Under communism Bulgaria renamed Musala after Stalin, then gave the peak its old name back...

Q 03/05

Which dog breed is named after a historical region on Croatia's Adriatic coast?

A) Rottweiler

B) Pomeranian

C) Weimaraner

D) Dalmatian

Answer · why

D) Dalmatian

Dalmatian dogs take their name from Dalmatia, their first definite home. In England they won fame as coach dogs, trotting beside horse-drawn carriages...

Q 04/05

In which language does 'balkan' mean 'chain of wooded mountains'?

A) Persian

B) Arabic

C) Turkish

D) Greek

Answer · why

C) Turkish

Turkish. Where the word first came from is obscure, but the Ottomans used it for mountains in general, and a whole peninsula ended up named after a si...

Q 05/05

In one myth the gods turned a boastful Thracian king into the Balkan Mountains, known in antiquity by which name?

A) Haemus

B) Rhodope

C) Olympus

D) Pindus

Answer · why

A) Haemus

Haemus. Another myth ties the name to the Greek word for blood: Zeus's thunderbolt made the monster Typhon bleed on the range.