Q 01/05

Which is the smallest country with a coastline on the Mediterranean?

A) Malta

B) Andorra

C) Monaco

D) San Marino

Answer · why

C) Monaco

Monaco covers barely two square kilometres of the French Riviera; with no room to spread inland, it keeps growing seaward, building new districts on l...

Q 02/05

Which African country faces Spain across the narrowest part of the Strait of Gibraltar?

A) Algeria

B) Tunisia

C) Libya

D) Morocco

Answer · why

D) Morocco

Morocco lies only about 13 to 14 km from Spain at the strait's narrowest point, close enough that the two governments have spent decades studying a ra...

Q 03/05

Which strait runs through Istanbul and opens into the Black Sea?

A) Bosporus

B) Dardanelles

C) Strait of Messina

D) Strait of Sicily

Answer · why

A) Bosporus

The Bosporus splits Istanbul between Europe and Asia; Greeks read its name as 'ox ford' and tied it to the myth of Io, said to have swum the strait af...

Q 04/05

Which colour of dye did ancient Mediterranean peoples extract from murex sea snails?

A) Ochre

B) Emerald

C) Saffron

D) Purple

Answer · why

D) Purple

Purple dye took thousands of murex snails to colour even the hem of a robe, which made it so costly that in time only emperors were allowed to wear it...

Q 05/05

What does 'Mediterranean' literally mean in Latin?

A) Sea of many peoples

B) In the middle of land

C) Between the tides

D) Warm water

Answer · why

B) In the middle of land

In the middle of land is the literal sense of mediterraneus, from medius and terra; in classical Latin the word simply meant inland, and it became the...