Q 01/05

Which buried crater, named after a town near Mérida, was left by the asteroid blamed for wiping out the dinosaurs?

A) Vredefort

B) Chicxulub

C) Sudbury

D) Barringer

Answer · why

B) Chicxulub

Chicxulub is about 200 km wide yet lies a kilometre underground, so nobody knew it was there until oil geophysicists mapped it in the late 1970s. Méri...

Q 02/05

Which slow-roasted pork dish, Mérida's most famous, is marinated in bitter orange and wrapped in banana leaves?

A) Carnitas

B) Lechón asado

C) Cochinita pibil

D) Tacos al pastor

Answer · why

C) Cochinita pibil

Cochinita pibil takes its first word from the Spanish for baby pig, and the traditional version roasts a whole suckling pig. Annatto seed turns the me...

Q 03/05

Which nickname, linked to its colonial façades, does Mérida share with Arequipa in Peru and Popayán in Colombia?

A) The Silver City

B) The Garden City

C) The City of Kings

D) The White City

Answer · why

D) The White City

The White City is often put down to the pale limestone wash on Mérida's old buildings. Seen from orbit, the city shows as a whitish patch in a sea of ...

Q 04/05

Mérida got its Spanish name because Maya ruins on the site reminded conquistadors of ruins left by which people?

A) The Romans

B) The Moors

C) The Visigoths

D) The Phoenicians

Answer · why

A) The Romans

The Romans founded the Spanish Mérida as Augusta Emerita, a colony for discharged soldiers, and it keeps more major monuments from that era than any o...

Q 05/05

Which US president met Mexico's Felipe Calderón in Mérida, launching a security pact named after the city?

A) Bill Clinton

B) Barack Obama

C) George W. Bush

D) George H. W. Bush

Answer · why

C) George W. Bush

George W. Bush and Calderón agreed the Mérida Initiative, under which Washington sent aircraft, equipment and training to help fight drug trafficking....