Q 01/05

Marco Polo dictated his travels in prison after being captured in Venice's war with which rival city?

A) Florence

B) Genoa

C) Pisa

D) Milan

Answer · why

B) Genoa

Genoa. In a Genoese prison Polo told his stories to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, a professional writer of romances who shaped them into the b...

Q 02/05

Ibn Battuta spent years as a judge for the sultan of which city?

A) Delhi

B) Agra

C) Madurai

D) Varanasi

Answer · why

A) Delhi

Delhi. Its sultan, Muhammad bin Tughluq, later sent him to China as an envoy, but bandits attacked the party on the road and a storm then wrecked the ...

Q 03/05

Ibn Battuta came from which present-day country?

A) Egypt

B) Tunisia

C) Morocco

D) Syria

Answer · why

C) Morocco

Morocco. He left his home city of Tangier at 21 to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, and did not come back for 24 years.

Q 04/05

Zheng He's fleet brought home which African animal, hailed at court as a qilin?

A) Zebra

B) Ostrich

C) Giraffe

D) Rhinoceros

Answer · why

C) Giraffe

Giraffe. The qilin stood for good fortune, so the long-necked arrival was read at court as a sign of heaven's favour; Zheng He led seven such voyages,...

Q 05/05

The monk Xuanzang, whose pilgrimage inspired Journey to the West, sought Buddhist scriptures in which land?

A) Persia

B) India

C) Tibet

D) Japan

Answer · why

B) India

India. Xuanzang came home with 657 Buddhist texts and spent the rest of his life translating them; the novel later gave him the Monkey King as a trave...