Q 01/05

What is the constitutional capital and largest city of Yemen?

A) Sanaa

B) Aden

C) Taiz

D) Hodeidah

Answer · why

A) Sanaa

It sits on a plateau above 2,000 metres; the government fled to a 'temporary' capital in the south when the Houthis seized it in 2015.

Q 02/05

Which two countries share a land border with Yemen?

A) Saudi Arabia and the UAE

B) Saudi Arabia and Oman

C) Oman and the UAE

D) Saudi Arabia and Qatar

Answer · why

B) Saudi Arabia and Oman

Across the water it also faces Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia; it is the second-largest country on the Arabian Peninsula.

Q 03/05

The ancient South Arabian kingdom of Saba is thought to be which biblical land?

A) Ophir

B) Midian

C) Sheba

D) Edom

Answer · why

C) Sheba

Its rulers took the title Mukarrib, roughly 'unifier'; the kingdom's influence reached across the Red Sea into Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Q 04/05

What is the legendary queen who visited Solomon called in Arabic tradition?

A) Makeda

B) Zenobia

C) Arwa

D) Bilqis

Answer · why

D) Bilqis

Makeda is her Ethiopian name; the great 12th-century ruler Arwa al-Sulayhi was nicknamed 'the junior queen of Sheba' in her honour.

Q 05/05

The Sabaeans' Great Dam, an ancient engineering marvel, stood near which city, their capital?

A) Zabid

B) Marib

C) Taiz

D) Najran

Answer · why

B) Marib

Its final collapse around 575 is mentioned in the Quran; a Roman army of 10,000 was defeated before it could reach the city in 25 BC.