"Great" Places Around the World Quiz

Answer: Queensland

The Great Barrier Reef is in Queensland, in the northeastern part of the country. It is the world's largest coral reef system, stretching almost 2300 kilometers. Its incredible natural beauty and array of sea life make it one of Australia's major tourist attractions.

Cairns is the home base for many tourists visiting the Great Barrier Reef. Boat tours and scuba diving excursions are two of the more popular options. Cairns is roughly 2400 kilometers north of Sydney.

Answer: Genghis Khan

If you knew that Burkhan Khaldun Mountain was in Mongolia, it would be easy to pick Genghis Khan. Founder of the Mongol empire, Khan was one of the greatest military leaders in history. At its largest extent, the Mongol empire extended from China all the way to eastern Europe.

Great Burkhan Khaldun mountain is notable for its religious significance as a sacred mountain and its historical significance for its links with Genghis Khan. It is located in northeastern Mongolia and is part of the Kentil mountain range. It became a World Heritage Site in 2015. The park also has a wide range of plant and animal life,

For 700 years, the area around Burkhan Khaldun was a heavily guarded zone, as the burial place of Genghis Khan. It was not until the 1990s that the Mongolian government opened it up for sacred visits. Even though visits are allowed, getting to northeastern Mongolia remains challenging,

Answer: Pyramid

At 6230 meters (20,439 feet), Pyramid is the highest point in Great Himalayan NP, The other three are impressive at over 5000 meters (16,400 feet), but not close to Pyramid,

Kullu Eiger is 5627 meters, Guhsu Pishu is 5595 meters and Chakri is 5122 meters.

Great Himalayan National Park is an overnight bus trip from New Delhi. The closest town to the park is Manali.

Answer: Tamil Nadu

The temples are in Tamil Nadu, on the eastern coast of India, located roughly 280 to 350 kilometers south-southwest of Chennai. It is home to the Tamil people, who speak one of the oldest classical languages in the world.

The World Heritage Site consists of three temples: Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, Brihadisvara Temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Airavatesvara Temple at Kumbakonam. The temples were built in the 11th and 12th centuries. Each of the Hindu temples is notable for its architecture and artwork.

Kairikal would be an excellent home base for visiting the temples, as it is within 100 kilometers of each of the sites. Southern India has an extensive train and bus network.

Answer: Turkey

Divrigi is located in the Sivas province in the east central part of Anatolia, which has been part of Turkey for almost 1000 years. The Great Mosque and Hospital were built by Ahmadshah bin Sulayman and his wife Turan Malik in the year 1228,

The building was constructed of stone. The mosque is notable for its elaborate exterior carvings and domed interior. The hospital contains a large pool near its center as well as a royal mausoleum.

Divrigi is almost directly east of Ankara. It can be reached via a 10-hour bus trip or 14- to 15-hour train trip. The nearest major city is Erzincan, which has flights from Ankara and is around three hours by bus.

Answer: Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika, at 32,900 square km, is the largest. It is shared by Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Zambia. It is the second oldest, largest and deepest lake in the world, after Lake Baikal in Siberia.

Lake Malawi is close at 30,000 square km. It forms the borders of Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique. Lake Malawi holds the biodiversity record for most species of fish.

The Great Rift Valley is a series of rifts and faults that extends 7000 kilometers all the way from Lebanon to Mozambique. Its major components are the Dead Sea Transform, the Jordan Rift Valley, the Red Sea Rift and the East African Rift.

The Great Rift Valley most commonly refers to the African section of the rift, which passes through Ethiopia, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique. While it is established the rift was created 22 to 25 million years ago, the exact forces that created the rift remain an active debate among geologists.

The Great Rift Valley is perhaps most notable as the site of the earliest human remains. All of humanity can trace its roots to Eastern Africa.

Answer: 14 million

Great Smoky Mountains Park has regularly been the most visited unit in the National Parks System. In 2021, 14.1 million people traveled through the park. Located near the center of the eastern seaboard, it is with a one day drive for around half the people in the USA.

The Smoky Mountains are remarkably scenic and the park has many vistas for observation. The Appalachian Trail runs through the park, and it contains the highest point in Tennessee, Clingman's Dome (6643 feet; 2024 meters).

Great Smoky Mountains Park is located along the Tennessee-North Carolina border about an hour southeast of Knoxville. US Highway 441 goes right through the park.

Answer: Karlovy Vary, Czechia

Spa, Vichy and Bath were all known to the Romans. Karlovy Vary was not established as a major spa resort until the 13th century.

There are eleven "Great Spa Towns of Europe" spread across seven countries. The furthest west is Bath, England, (Aqua Sulis in Roman times) and the farthest west would be the sites in the Czech Republic. The towns are primarily known for their history and their natural hot springs, which people have been visiting for thousands of years for their healing properties. The sites were designated as a World Heritage Site in 2021.

Karlovy Vary hosts the largest spa complex in Europe in its historic city center. It is in the western part of Czechia, about 120 kilometers (2 hours) from Prague.

Spa, Belgium, was mentioned by Roman historian Pliny the Elder. Vichy was where Roman soldiers rested after the conquest of Gaul, and the Romans built baths in Bath as early as 60 AD.

Answer: 21,000 km

The Great Wall of China is probably the greatest engineering achievement in human history, constructed over almost 2000 years and extending 21,196 kilometers. It was begun in 220 BC and finally completed during the Ming Dynasty.

The wall has both cultural and sociological significance as well as architectural importance. It symbolizes the cultural isolationism of China for most of its history, as well as the historic threat the Mongols played to Chinese civilization. In Chinese, the wall is referred to as "Changcheng" (long wall).

The Great Wall is one of China's major tourist attractions, and can easily be visited by either tourist bus (60 to 90 minutes) or high speed train (20-30 minutes). Most tourists visit the wall at Badaling, about 70 kilometers northwest of Beijing.

Answer: birds

Eight large carvings of birds were discovered on pedestals. They are made from schist and are believed to represent eagles, a protective spirit in Shona culture.

Great Zimbabwe is one of the largest archeological complexes in Africa. It was constructed between the 9th and 15th centuries and was abandoned around 1450. The first European descriptions of the site were from Portuguese explorers in the 1530s.

The ruins are near the city of Masvingo, about 295 kilometers south of Harare - a roughly 4 hour bus trip. From Masvingo, it is about 18 kilometers to Great Zimbabwe, roughly 30 minutes by car or taxi.