Balkans Trivia

1. What are the three colours normally seen on Pan-Slavic flags?

From Quiz The Geography of Former Yugoslavia

Answer: Red, White and Blue

The Pan-Slavic countries include those found in eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The red, white and blue stripes are used on the Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian flags. They are also common on other Central European country flags, such as Slovakia and Czech Republic, as well as Russia.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: mountain

'Balkan' is a Turkish word, meaning 'wooded mountain' or 'black mountain'. The Turkish word originates from the Central Asian term 'barkhan', which denotes a crescent-shaped sand dune. The Balkan Peninsula is an almost entirely mountainous region. The average altitude varies from 470 m (Bulgaria) to 850 m (FYR of Macedonia). The entire peninsula has an area of around 550,000 km² and has roughly 55 million inhabitants.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Europe

They border on the Adriatic sea.

From Quiz The Geography of Former Yugoslavia

Answer: Croatia

Croatia has the most coastline of the former Yugoslav republics with 5,835 km. Next is Montenegro with 199 km, and third and fourth are Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with 47 and 20 km respectively.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: Musala (Mt. Rila)

Musala (2,925 m) is the highest peak of Mount Rila, Bulgaria. Mytikas (2,918 m) is the highest point of Mount Olympus, Greece. Vihren (2,914 m) is the highest point of the Pirin Mountain in south-western Bulgaria. Triglav (2,864 m) is the highest peak of the Julian Alps, in Slovenia. Its positioning in the Balkan peninsula is somewhat controversial though. It is interesting that the names of these high mountains reflect ancient religious beliefs connecting them to celestial gods. Thus, Mt. Olympus was the seat of Olympic gods of ancient Greeks. Musala derives its name from Mus Allah, or Allah's Mountain, while it's earlier, Bulgarian name, was Tangra. Tangra was ancient god of the skies, creator of entire universe, of Altaic peoples. Triglav (Three-headed) was a god of ancient Slavs.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Belgrade

Belgrade means "white city". It is also called Beograde, Beograd, or Belgrad.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: Stara Planina

The Stara Planina stretches from eastern Serbia into Bulgaria. It is about 560 km long. Its highest peak is Botev 2,376 m (in Bulgaria). The term 'Balkan Peninsula' was first coined in 1808 by August Zeune, a German geographer. It is noteworthy that the peninsula got its name after the Turkish word for this mountain, and not after its Slavic name, which would have been logical considering the fact that the majority of the population was and is Slavic. This clearly reflected aggressive aspirations of Europe's big powers towards reigning these regions, as opposed to self-governing drive of Balkan nations in the nineteenth century. Kopaonik and Suva Planina are in Serbia, Sar Planina is at the border between Serbia and Macedonia.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Ljubljana

Ljublijana is pronounced "l-YOOB-l-YAWN-a" in English. The world's oldest musical instrument was discovered there, a bone flute that is probably 9,000 to 12,000 years old!

From Quiz The Geography of Former Yugoslavia

Answer: Dinaric Alps

The Dinaric Alps occupy quite a large space in Yugoslavia. The tallest mountain is Deravica at 2,656 metres. The Dinarics also border the Julian Alps.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: Morava

The Morava river system (Ibar-Zapadna Morava-Velika Morava) lies in Serbia, and with a length of 550 km it is the longest waterway in the Balkan Peninsula. The Drina runs through Serbia and Bosnia and is 487 km long. It is formed by the rivers Piva and Tara (the latter is famous for the beautiful canyon and rafting possibilities) and it has a big electroenergetic potential of six billion kilowatt-hours. The Marica (Maritsa, Greek: Evros), flowing through Bulgaria and constituting the border between Greece and Turkey, is 480 km long. In 1371 an important battle took place on the Marica, between invading Ottoman forces and defending Serb forces. The Serbs lost, and the Ottomans penetrated deep into the Balkans for the first time. The Vardar (Greek: Axios), the river flowing from Skopje into the Aegean sea close to Thessaloniki, is 388 km long and found in Macedonia.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Zagreb

Zagreb is in northwestern Croatia. It is the economical & political center of the region.

From Quiz The Geography of Former Yugoslavia

Answer: Pula

The amphitheatre in Pula is one of Croatia's main tourist attractions. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the most well preserved pieces of Roman architecture left. For years it has been opened for summer film festivals. During the Italian Fascist occupation, the Italians considered disassembling it and moving it to Italy, but abandoned the project because of the costs involved.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Skopje

The republic was admitted as a member of the United Nations on 8th April 1993 as The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The name was changed to North Macedonia in 2019.

From Quiz The Geography of Former Yugoslavia

Answer: Croatia

The red and white checkers come from the Coat of Arms, or sahovnica. They represent a chessboard that has 13 red squares and 12 white squares.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: to divide a country into small, ineffectual parts

'To balkanize' means 'to divide into small, quarreling, ineffectual parts'. The term is a reference to the general political situation in the Balkans between the Congress of Berlin (1878) and the Second Balkan War (1913), when the European part of the Ottoman Empire (Rumelia) was split into small states that were often in a state of war. But this process essentially echoed the competing and antagonistic interests of the big powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France and Russia) in the Ottoman heritage in Balkans.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Podgorica

Podgorica means "under Gorica". It is also known as Titograd (Tito city).

From Quiz The Geography of Former Yugoslavia

Answer: Slovenia

Its recovery may due to a number of reasons. First, Slovenia had one of the lowest populations and one of the highest GDPs at the time. Also it is quite geographically isolated from the rest of the states (it only borders Croatia to the west), and therefore has had to endure less border conflicts.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: The First Serbian Uprising

The First Serbian Uprising (1804-1813) represented a national liberating and anti-feudal revolution of Serbian people. Although it was crushed in the end, it paved the way to the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815, that eventually led to the independence. The Greek Independence War(1821-1831)led, with the help of European powers, to an independent Greece in 1832. The April Uprising was the Bulgarian insurrection against the Ottomans that lasted from April to May of 1876. Bulgaria got its independence in 1878. The League of Prizren was an Albanian political movement, created on June 10, 1878 (three days before the Congress of Berlin, discussing the issue of new Balkan states), with the goal of achieving an independent Albanian state. Albania was later created in 1912, after the Balkan Wars, and after enormous pressure from Austria-Hungary and Great Britain on Serbia, Montenegro and Greece to pull out their occupying troops from these lands liberated in war with the Ottoman Empire.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Sarajevo

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: Bulgaria

This isn't the only thing that can confuse people and cause considerable misunderstanding. The word 'ne' means 'no' in Serbian and 'yes' in Greek. So watch out when you travel!

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Danube

The others are just other rivers in the region.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: Greeks

The Greeks are the most numerous of the Balkan peoples (around 10.5 million), followed by Serbs (9.5 million) and Bulgarians (6.5 million). The overall majority of inhabitants are of Slavic origin (around 27 million out of around 45 million). The language spoken most widely in the Balkans is Serbo-Croatian, spoken by more than 16 million people.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: Eastern Orthodox Christianity

The majority of the Balkan people belong to Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Montenegrins). Majority of Albanians and Turks, and some 40% of population of Bosnia and Herzegovina are Muslims. Croats and Slovenes are mostly Catholic. The religious differences played a major role in the processes of constituting national states in the 19th century, as well as in the processes of balkanization.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Hrvatska

Its long name is Republika Hrvatska, meaning "The Republic of Croatia".

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: Danube, Sava and Kupa

There is more than one definition as to what constitutes the northern border of the Balkan Peninsula. The line formed by the rivers Danube, Sava and Kupa is perhaps the most widely used. Also used are the lines Danube-Sava-Krka-Socha, Danube-Sava-Ljubljana-Trieste and others.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Cyrillic

Macedonian and Serbian both use the Cyrillic, and Croatian & Slovene use the Latin.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Sava

The Sava is the largest tributary of Danube River in terms of water volume. The Danube passes through Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade on its way to the Black Sea.

From Quiz Some Balkan Countries

Answer: Istria

It is called Istra in Croatian.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: Postojna

Postojna cave (Postojnska jama) is a very beautiful, 20 km long carst cave system in Western Slovenia. It was discovered in the 17th century. Endemic Proteus anguinus ('Human fish') live in the cave and so does a species of blind salamander. Resava cave is in Eastern Serbia. Krapina is in northern Croatia, where remains of Neanderthal people were found. Vjetrenica is a carst cave system in the region of Herzegovina in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From Quiz The Balkan Peninsula

Answer: circle

Almost all Balkan nations dance traditional dances in circular formation (called 'kolo', or circle, in Serbocroatian), whereby people dance holding each other by the hand, thus forming a closed circle. This is a very old tradition that has its mythical roots in symbolic defending the (dancing) community from evil spirits. Kolo is especially well developed in the Central Balkans, and is today well preserved in the popular activity of numerous folklore groups. There are male kolos, female kolos and mixed kolos, where the structure is man-woman-man-woman etc. There are numerous very elaborate stepping patterns.

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Last Updated Nov 16 2024 5:50 AM

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