Here, There and Everywhere Trivia Quiz

Answer: Here - Shetland

The Shetland Islands lie off the coast of Scotland and the ponies which are indigenous to the archipelago are such an important part of the area's history that one is featured on the Shetland flag. Shetland ponies are small but strong, being (for their size) the strongest equine breed.

They have a very long history of being work animals on the farms of Shetland, were later transported to other countries to work as pit ponies in coal mines, and today are used as riding and carriage ponies in many parts of the world.

Answer: There - to the town where a famous Dutch cheese is made

"LargE DAMs supplement dikes" contains the name of a cheese for which the Netherlands is world famous, Edam. It is a pale yellow cheese, originating in the northern town of the same name, that is traditionally sold in spheres coated with red or yellow wax, although aged cheeses get a black wax coating.

Amsterdam's red light district is a tourist attraction, as are the country's windmills. The Manneken Pis, a bronze fountain of a small urinating boy, is a famous tourist attraction and symbol of Brussels, in neighboring Belgium. None of these three, however, can be found in the hidden message.

Answer: There - she was born and raised in Colombia

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoli, professionally known as Shakira, was born in Barranquilla, Colombia on February 2, 1977. She emerged as a leading light of the South American music scene in the early 1990s, and is known as a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and dancer. Shakira is a native Spanish speaker, who is also fluent in Portuguese and English.

Her dance style is based on the art of Arabic belly dancing, which she learned as a teenager, part of the cultural tradition passed down from her Lebanese-born father.

Answer: There - Las Vegas (The Luxor)

The Luxor Las Vegas is a hotel and casino named after the city of Luxor which stands on the ground of the ancient city of Thebes. The Luxor's main building is a pyramid that is 350 feet high. This is around 130 feet smaller than the largest pyramid at Giza in its original condition.

However, the Luxor Las Vegas took 968 workers around 2 years to build, whereas (according to the ancient historian Herodotus) the Great Pyramid at Giza took 400,000 men 20 years to complete. There are at least two casinos called Sheherazade in Cairo, but they are not shaped like pyramids.

Answer: There - Kenya (there are about 45,000)

Giraffes are part of the Artiodactyla order, as are llamas, so Ralph quite likes them. It is estimated that there are between 100,000 and 150,000 giraffes left in the wild and around 45,000 of them are in Kenya. Two other countries with sizeable giraffe populations are Tanzania and Botswana.

Answer: Nowhere - the Akbar Shah was last seen in the 19th century

The Akbar Shah was a (roughly) pear-shaped Indian diamond that was said to be part of the emperor Shah Jahan's famed Peacock Throne in the 17th century, along with a myriad of other gems, including the Koh-i-Nor diamond, once the largest known diamond in the world.

In 1866 the London merchant George Blogg purchased the Akbar Shah in Istanbul, and re-cut it from 116 carats to 71.70, destroying the historic inscriptions that had been a significant part of its repute. He was the last identified owner, and the diamond's present location is not known.

Answer: There - K2 is in Pakistan, on the border with China

The northern, mountainous region of Nepal contains eight of the world's ten highest mountain peaks, including Everest (number one at 8,848 m or 29,029 ft), Kanchenjunga (three), Lhotse (four), Makalu (five), Cho Oyu (six), Dhaulagiri (seven), Manaslu (eight) and Annapurna (nine).

The second-highest peak is K2, also called 'The Savage Mountain' due to the high fatality rate in ascent attempts. It reaches 8,611 m (28,521 ft) and is located on the border between the Gilgit District of Pakistan and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang in China.

Answer: Here - Tiananmen Square is in Beijing

The 1989 protest, which was centred around Tiananmen Square in Beijing, began as a public mourning of the death of Hu Yaobang. Hu Yaobang had been an official who had spoken out against some more restrictive elements of government policy in the People's Republic of China.

The size of the protest group grew rapidly and their attentions turned from mourning to protesting government restrictions on media and political discussions. The government allowed the protest to continue for several weeks and the events intrigued international observers who were surprised by the government's apparent tolerance. Eventually government forces were sent in to end the protest by force.

The Chinese government states that the death toll of the Tiananmen Square incident was 241, but other sources claim figures as high as 10,000.

The event remains iconic in Western accounts of recent Chinese history.

Answer: Here - it was carved and painted by artists on an estate located near Moscow

The first matryoshka doll was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergei Malyutin, who also painted the dolls. Malyutin lived on the Abramtsevo estate (north of Moscow) of the industrialist and arts patron Savva Mamontov, which was an artistic hotbed at the time. Malyutin's design was inspired by a set of Japanese wooden dolls representing the Seven Gods of Fortune, although his original set had eight dolls, the innermost being a baby.

Matryoshka dolls with themes have been produced over the years, including animals, musicians, movie stars and politicians (for example, working inwards from Dmitry Medvedev through Vladimir Putin, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Joseph Stalin and finally Vladimir Lenin). Ralph cannot find any nesting llamas, to his disappointment.

Answer: Here - the musical is based on the story of Anna Leonowens, governess for the King of Siam

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The King and I" opened on Broadway in 1951 starring Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence, and ran for 1,246 performances. It was later (1956) made into a movie featuring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. Both the musical and the movie are based on the book "Anna and the King of Siam", written by Margaret Landon, itself based on the memoirs of Anna Leonowens about her experiences as governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s.

These memoirs have since been shown to contain substantial inaccuracies, but they still made for a good piece of theatre!

Answer: Here - Kyoto, Japan

"Memoirs of a Geisha" is a novel that tells a fictional story of a young girl who moves from an impoverished childhood to life as a prominent geisha. The book is set in Kyoto, Japan, in the decades immediately before and after World War Two. The author, Arthur Golden, drew many of his ideas from interviews he conducted with a woman who actually worked as a geisha during this time, and thus the book makes reference to many real places, and even some thinly disguised people.

The woman interviewed by Golden, Mineko Iwasaki, sued him for breaching their confidentiality agreement and later released her own autobiography that framed geisha life in a different light.

Answer: Everywhere - the films were shot in over 150 locations across New Zealand

The three films that make up this trilogy are "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King". They were filmed in over 150 locations across New Zealand between October 1999 and December 2000. Although some sections were filmed in sound stages, the cast and crew also spent a great deal of time on location.

The project was given permission to work in National Parks and this has been criticised by some people, particularly because some of the battle scenes caused damage to the environment which has required subsequent restoration.

Answer: Nowhere - the Glastonbury festival is held in England

Although Australia does play host to many music festivals catering to a wide range of tastes, the famous Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary and Performing Arts is not one of them. Unfortunately for Ralph, he would have been better off staying home in England if he had wanted to go to the Glastonbury festival.

It is the largest green field open air performing arts festival in the world, and as of 2007 had the capacity for 177,000 attendees. The festival's focus is contemporary music but it also incorporates other types of performers as well as art installations.

The Glastonbury festival traces its origins to the 1970s and has been running consistently since the 1980s.

Answer: Here - Roald Amundsen was Norwegian

In 1909, Roald Amundsen heard that American Robert E. Peary had reached the North Pole, and put aside his plans for that goal, focusing his attention instead on the South Pole. In 1912, his Norwegian team was in a race with the British team led by Robert F. Scott. Amundsen got there first, both due to careful planning and as a result of using a base camp that was slightly closer as a starting point. Scott's ill-fated team perished on their way back, carrying log entries showing their arrival at the South Pole five weeks after Amundsen's group.

Henry the Navigator was responsible for sending out ships to explore Africa and set up trade colonies there in the fifteenth century.

Answer: There - the leper colony was on the island of Molokai

Jozef De Veuster (1840-1889), known as Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest, member of the missionary order known as the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He ministered to the lepers who had been quarantined on the Hawaiian island of Molokai for sixteen years before contracting Hansen's disease himself and dying.

He was canonized in 2009, and is the patron saint of the Diocese of Honolulu and of the state of Hawaii. He is considered the spiritual patron for HIV and AIDS patients, and for other outcasts from society.

Answer: There - Chena Hot Springs is near Fairbanks, about 800 miles (1300 km) away

Alaska has vast energy reserves, especially oil and gas. Recently, more ecologically-sustainable alternatives have been explored, including the establishment of a geothermal power station at Chena Hot Springs. According to the station's web page, Chena Hot Springs is the lowest temperature geothermal resource to be used for commercial power production in the world.

It is intended to lead the way to increased development of moderate temperature small scale geothermal development, by bringing the cost down to a level that makes it economical to develop small geothermal fields.

This would then allow widespread establishment of power stations for local distribution.

Answer: Nowhere - the first Stanley Cup of the 21st century was won by an American team

In 2000, the New Jersey Devils won the Stanley cup, and the Colorado Avalanche were successful in 2001. (So, no matter how you want to define the start of the 21st century, the answer is an American team.) The Stanley Cup was initially established to be awarded in domestic Canadian competition, but in 1947 it became the official championship trophy of the National Hockey League, which contains teams from both Canada and the United States.

As of 2010, the Montreal Canadiens have won it 23 times, the Toronto Maple Leafs 13, and the Detroit Redwings 11. No other teams were in double digits on the championship list.

Answer: Everywhere - well almost! There are places called Springfield in 36 US states

A running gag in "The Simpsons" is that it is impossible to work out exactly where in the USA the show is set. At various times the TV town of Springfield has all kinds of weather conditions and can appear to be just a dot on the map or almost a major city. Essentially, the Springfield of "The Simpsons" is everywhere and it is nowhere.

The US states without a real place called Springfield are Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. North Dakota has a township called Springfield, but in 2000 only 35 people were listed as living there.

Answer: There - the Aztec Empire (now Mexico)

The game "Montezuma's Revenge" was released in 1984. The title is a colloquialism for the gastrointestinal distress that many people suffer when travelling to Mexico. The game features treasure hunting and puzzle solving set in a 16th century Aztec temple.

Answer: There - Brazil is the only South American country where they speak Portuguese

During the Age of Exploration (15th and 16th centuries), both Spain and Portugal established colonial empires. With the discovery by Christopher Columbus of 'the New World', the two powers signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, dividing the lands outside Europe into a Spanish zone and a Portuguese zone.

The line of demarcation was set along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, about halfway between the Portuguese Cape Verde islands and the islands Columbus had claimed for Spain in his first voyage (now known as Cuba and Hispaniola). Lands to the east of this line were to be Portuguese, lands to the west Spanish. Spain got most of North and South America, but the bulge of Brazil extended into Portuguese territory, and the Spanish did not resist Portuguese expansion across the meridian, so Brazil eventually became the only country in South American with Portuguese as its official language.