'X'isting Places Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mexico City

Xochimilco became a borough of Mexico City in 1928, having been initially founded as a city of the Xochimilca people in the 10th century. It is famous for being built around an intricate canal system, which was originally part of a much wider system of lakes and waterways that once covered much of the area now occupied by Mexico City. Xochimilco's canals were declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.

While historically they were built to aid trade and transportation, they now form a popular leisure area and tourist attraction and can be explored on colourful boats known as trajineras.

Answer: Tibet

The Xizang Autonomous Region is also known as the Tibet Autonomous Region, or simply Tibet, and is largely inhabited by ethnic Tibetans. The area originally came under the control of the People's Republic of China following the signing of the Seventeen Point Agreement in 1951, but was formalised as an autonomous region (with its own local government with some legislative powers) in 1965.

The region's boundaries cover a large portion of the historic area known as Tibet that had previously been led by the Dalai Lama since the mid-17th century.

Answer: Western Australia

Xantippe is a tiny community located approximately 220 kilometres (140 miles) north of Perth in the state of Western Australia. Aside from a small number of farms and residential dwellings, the most prominent building is apparently a 1920s concrete water tower. Anyone wanting to send post to one of the 14 people recorded as living there at the time of the 2021 Census would need the postcode 6609, and could have easily found it in Australia Post's list of locations - as it was the only place on the list that began with the letter 'X'.

This fact is probably responsible for why Xantippe was chosen to represent the letter 'X' in an alphabetical set of special edition $1 coins released in 2019 for Australia Post's "Great Aussie Coin Hunt". People were likely to be much more familiar with the images included on the other coins, since examples such as B for Boomerang, K for Kangaroo and V for Vegemite are all more synonymous with Australia than X for Xantippe!

Answer: Yuan

Xanadu (or Shangdu) was the summer (or 'upper') capital of the Yuan Dynasty, both of which were established by Kublai Khan in the 13th century. It is located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north-eastern China.

The city was originally designed to combine traditional Chinese and Mongolian culture in around 1265 and grew to be home to more than 100,000 people. It declined in status after Kublai Khan moved his seat of power to his winter capital Khanbaliq - now known as Beijing - and was destroyed by the Ming in 1368, before being completely abandoned by 1430. Its extensive remains were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.

Answer: Xenia

The city of Xenia, Greene County, Ohio is located about 95 kilometres (60 miles) south-west of the state capital, Columbus. The name Xenia comes from the Greek concept of "guest-friendship", which was essentially a code of conduct requiring people to offer hospitality - food, facilities and safety - to guests, foreigners and strangers and in return for those guests to offer respect to their hosts.

Xenia, Ohio was founded in 1803 and the name was proposed by a local pastor in honour of the hospitality he had received from the town's earliest residents.

Answer: Nepal

Xixabangama (or Shishapangma) is located towards the eastern end of Nepal's 1,400 kilometre-long (860 mile-long) border with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

Many of the world's highest peaks - including Mount Everest - can be found on or close to this international boundary. At 8,027 metres (26,335 feet) Xixabangma is the 14th-highest global peak and the last to be considered part of the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation's "eight-thousanders", which are considered to be among the most prestigious and challenging mountains to conquer. The first recorded ascent of Xixabangma was achieved by a team of Chinese climbers in 1964.

Answer: Crete

Xania (generally known as Chania in English) is located close to the western end of the north coast of Crete - the largest of the Greek islands. It is a popular tourist destination, both for its Mediterranean climate and for the historic culture of its Old Town area. That history dates back to the neolithic period when the area was part of the city-state of Kydonia that, according to legend, was founded by King Minos of Crete or one of his grandsons, King Cydon, and was inhabited throughout the period of the Minoan civilisation.

While remains of the ancient Minoan city are not immediately visible to modern tourists, archaelogical excavations have proven that some traces of it are still present under the current city.

Answer: South China Sea

The Xisha Islands are an archipelago of around 130 small islands and reefs located in the South China Sea. Xisha is the Chinese name for the group, which are also known as Hoang Sa Archipelago in Vietnamese. They are however perhaps more familiarly known as the Paracel Islands - the name they were given by Portuguese traders in the early 16th century.

Following the Second World War control of the islands was split between China and Vietnam. They came fully under Chinese control as a result of the Battle of the Paracel Islands in 1974. Actual ownership of the islands remained in dispute between China, Vietnam and Taiwan into the 21st century.

Answer: Amazon

The Xingu River flows northward for around 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) towards its confluence with the Amazon. That makes it one of the longest rivers in the world in its own right, despite its status as "just" a tributary of that much longer and larger river.

It is an important river system within the Amazon rainforest biome and home to Brazil's first protected area for indigenous peoples - the Xingu Indigenous Park. Both the course of the river and the nature of some of the surrounding land was significantly altered in 2016 with the construction of the Belo Monte Dam, which is one of the world's largest hydroelectric dam complexes.

Answer: Xi'an

The city of Xi'an is the capital of China's Shaanxi province and one of the country's largest cities by population. It is located approximately 1,100 kilometres (700 miles) south-west of Beijing, China's modern capital. Beijing is also one of the other Four Great Ancient Capitals along with Nanjing and Luoyang. Xi'an (under various former names such as Fenghao, Chang'an and Xijing) was China's capital for a significant part of the 2,000 year period from the start of the Western Zhou dynasty in around 1,050 BC through to the end of the Tang dynasty in around 900 AD.

The Terracotta Army, a collection of thousands of statues and sculptures, form part of the burial complex of the Qin dynasty emperor Qin Shi Huang and are located on the outskirts of his ancient capital.