Q 01/05

Uzbekistan is one of only two doubly landlocked countries; which small European country is the other?

A) Luxembourg

B) Liechtenstein

C) North Macedonia

D) Slovakia

Answer · why

B) Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan are each surrounded entirely by other landlocked countries. Reaching an ocean from either one means crossing at least two...

Q 02/05

What fuels the fire in Turkmenistan's Darvaza crater, nicknamed the Door to Hell, which has burned for decades?

A) Crude oil

B) Underground coal

C) Natural gas

D) Oil shale

Answer · why

C) Natural gas

Natural gas seeps from a cavern that collapsed beneath a Soviet-era drilling site. In 2025 Turkmenistan said wells drilled to capture the gas had shru...

Q 03/05

Which 2006 mockumentary about a fictional Kazakh journalist in America filmed its village scenes in Romania?

A) Borat

B) Brüno

C) Jackass

D) Zoolander

Answer · why

A) Borat

Borat was denounced by Kazakhstan's government on release, yet the country later embraced the character in its own tourism campaigns.

Q 04/05

Which lake between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan lost most of its water after Soviet irrigation diverted its rivers?

A) Lake Zaysan

B) Lake Alakol

C) Sarygamysh Lake

D) Aral Sea

Answer · why

D) Aral Sea

The Aral Sea was once among the four largest lakes on Earth. The dried bed of its eastern basin is now a desert with a name of its own, the Aralkum.

Q 05/05

Which fruit's main wild ancestor grows in the mountain forests of southern Kazakhstan, around the city of Almaty?

A) Apricot

B) Apple

C) Cherry

D) Pear

Answer · why

B) Apple

The apple was traced by DNA analysis to a wild Kazakh species, Malus sieversii. Almaty's Soviet-era name, Alma-Ata, translates as 'father of the apple...