Q 01/05

Which river touches ten countries and flows through four national capitals, more than any other river in the world?

A) Rhine

B) Danube

C) Dnieper

D) Elbe

Answer · why

B) Danube

The Danube begins in the German town of Donaueschingen and ends in a delta on the far side of the continent. Only one river in Europe is longer.

Q 02/05

Which landlocked country, home of the Rubik's Cube, speaks a language unrelated to any of its neighbours' tongues?

A) Slovakia

B) Serbia

C) Hungary

D) Belarus

Answer · why

C) Hungary

Hungary's language is a distant relative of Finnish, with no kinship to the tongues spoken across any of its borders.

Q 03/05

Which nuclear power plant near the city of Pripyat exploded in April 1986, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate?

A) Kozloduy

B) Ignalina

C) Zaporizhzhia

D) Chernobyl

Answer · why

D) Chernobyl

Chernobyl is one of only two nuclear accidents ever rated at the maximum severity, alongside Fukushima in 2011. The first 49,000 people were moved out...

Q 04/05

Which region, the home of Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, draws tourists to the turrets of Bran Castle?

A) Wallachia

B) Transnistria

C) Transylvania

D) Bukovina

Answer · why

C) Transylvania

Transylvania owes its vampire fame to a man who never saw it: Bram Stoker wrote Dracula without ever visiting Eastern Europe.

Q 05/05

Which Russian city grew up around the Kremlin, a walled fortress beside Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral?

A) Moscow

B) Kazan

C) Novgorod

D) Samara

Answer · why

A) Moscow

Moscow has the famous one, but a kremlin is simply the fortified central complex of a historic Russian city, and many other cities have their own.