Black Places Are Trendy Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dublin

The name of the capital of the Republic of Ireland comes from the early Classical Irish "dubh" (dark, black) and "lind" (pool), referring to a dark tidal pool that was located near Dublin Castle. The name "Duibhlinn" was originally given to a Christian ecclesiastical settlement established in the 7th century AD at the mouth of the river Liffey; the Vikings that settled in the area in 841 AD named their settlement Dyflin, the Old Norse version of the name. In modern Irish, Dublin is called Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", a reference to a Celtic settlement not far from the Viking one.

A thriving, international city rich in history and culture, modern Dublin is a popular tourist destination, boasting many famous monuments and beautiful parks. It is also home to a number of renowned institutions of higher education: Trinity College, shown in the photo, is the constituent college of the University of Dublin, founded in 1592 during the reign of Elizabeth I. The College's Old Library houses the famous 9th-century illuminated manuscript known as the Book of Kells.

Answer: Balkan

"Montenegro" is a Venetian translation of "Crna Gora", the Slavic name of the country on the Adriatic coast of the Balkan Peninsula. The native name, which refers to the dense evergreen forests covering Mount Lovćen (located in the hinterland of the town of Kotor), was first used to refer to the country in the 15th century, though in older documents the country is referred to by the name "Monte Nigro".

A small country with a long but troubled history, Montenegro has been an independent republic since 2006, following a referendum that sanctioned the end of its union with Serbia, begun in 1992. The coastal part of Montenegro was under Venetian control for four centuries (1420-1797); Kotor (Cattaro in Italian), with its natural harbour, was an important centre at that time. The whole Kotor region was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Answer: wormwood

Located about 90 km (60 mi) north of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, Chernobyl was probably established in the Middle Ages, and was part of the federation known as Kievan Rus'. In 1972, it was chosen as the site of Ukraine's first nuclear power plant, which opened in 1977. Nine years later, on 5 May 1986, the largest nuclear disaster in history occurred during a safety test for one of the plant's reactors. Chernobyl and the nearby city of Pripyat, which had been built to house the plant's workers and scientists, were evacuated: Pripyat is still a ghost town, while Chernobyl is now home to about 1,000 people (compared to the 14,000 who lived there before the disaster), as well as many animals.

Chernobyl (also romanized as "Chornobyl") is one of the Ukrainian names of Artemisia vulgaris, known as mugwort or common wormwood; the "black" part of the name refers to the darker colour of this plant's stalks compared to those of Artemisia absinthium, also known as wormwood. For a sort of ironic coincidence, in the Book of Revelation there is mention of a star named Wormwood that falls to Earth, turning a third of its waters bitter and toxic, which causes the death of those who drink of those waters. The building in the photo is a former cinema, now a museum and memorial dedicated to the 1986 disaster and its aftermath, appropriately named Star of Wormwood.

Answer: Turkmenistan

Most of Turkmenistan, one of the former Soviet Republics that constitute Central Asia, is occupied by the Karakum Desert, which runs from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to the river Amu Dar'ya, on the border with Uzbekistan. With a surface area of 350,000 km² (135,000 sq mi), the Karakum Desert is the world's 11th-largest desert; though it is classified as a cold winter desert, its summers are long, dry and very hot. Most of the desert is covered in shale-rich sand, which explains its name (from the Turkic "kara" or "gara", meaning "black", and "kum", or "gum", meaning "sand").

The Derweze Gas Crater, here shown in a stunning nighttime photo, is an open-pit lake of fire that has been burning since 1971, when a natural gas field collapsed into a cavern, and was set on fire by Soviet geologists in the hope the gas would burn itself off in a few weeks.

Of the three wrong answers, Armenia was also part of the Soviet Union, but is located in Western Asia.

Answer: Karakoram

Home to some of the world's highest mountains, the Karakoram range extends for about 500 km (311 mi), from the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border in the west to China in the east. The range's 15 highest peaks are all located in Pakistan; four of them (K2, Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak, and Gasherbrum II) are over 8,000 m (26,000 ft) in height, and among the highest mountains on Earth. This extremely rugged mountain region is crossed by the Karakoram Highway, one of the world's highest paved international roads, which connects Pakistan with Western China.

The Turkic name "Karakoram", meaning "black gravel", refers to rocks such as the ones that can be seen in the photo, which are commonly found all over the range. The geographers of ancient India, however, knew the range by the names of Krishnagiri, Kanhagiri or Kanheri - all meaning "black mountain".

All three incorrect answers are names of mountain ranges found in the central part of Asia: the Hindu Kush lies west of the Karakoram, while the Tian Shan and the Kunlun both lie to the north.

Answer: Okinawa

Kuroshima, also known as Kuro Island, is part of the Yaeyama Islands, a small archipelago located southwest of the Ryukyu Islands, and closer to Taiwan than to Japan's four main islands. The archipelago belongs to Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost administrative division, which includes the Ryukyu Islands and other smaller island groups. Okinawa, the largest island of the Ryukyu, hosts 32 US military bases; the martial art of karate developed there in the 17th century.

Kuroshima is one of the archipelago's smallest inhabited islands, with an area of 10 km² (4 sq mi). Its name probably comes from the dark coral stones that abound on its territory, which have been used to build some of the island's landmark structures, such as the Puzumari tower. Kuroshima's tropical climate allows the cultivation of banana trees; cattle raising is a major economic activity, together with tourism. Another island called Kuroshima is located south of the island of Kyushu.

Nagasaki Prefecture is located on Kyushu, and Fukushima Prefecture on Honshu; Hokkaido Prefecture comprises all of the eponymous island.

Answer: Vanuatu

The name "Melanesia" (from the Greek "mélas", meaning "black", and "nesos", meaning "island") was first used in 1832 by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville to refer one of the major groupings of islands in the Pacific Ocean, whose inhabitants had darker skin than those of Polynesia and Micronesia. Though over time the European view of the differences between Melanesia and other areas of the Pacific (now seen as cultural rather than racial) changed, the name has remained. Melanesia is distinguished by its extremely high linguistic density, the highest in the world.

Sovereign nations considered part of Melanesia are Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, as well as New Caledonia (part of France) and the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. The four sovereign nations are members of an intergovernmental organization named Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). The photo shows a view of Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, formerly known as the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides, which became an independent republic in 1980.

Answer: Atlantic Ocean

Called Ndjindji in the local Kongo language, Pointe-Noire lies on a headland between the bay of the same name and the Atlantic Ocean. In the late 15th century, some Portuguese navigators saw a block of black rocks on the headland, and gave the location the name of Ponta Negra, which became a point of reference for anyone sailing along the Atlantic coast of Africa. The city developed from a small fishing village when, in the 1920s, the French decided to make it the terminus of the Congo-Ocean Railway, connecting the coast with Brazzaville on the river Congo.

Home to over 1 million people in its metropolitan area, Pointe-Noire is now the centre of the oil industry of the Republic of the Congo; it is also a major transportation hub, and an important fishing port. The city's coat of arms features the "black point" emerging from the waves of the sea.

The Republic of the Congo has a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean; the Black Sea does not touch Africa at all.

Answer: black gold

Located in the state of Minas Gerais ("general mines"), in the mountains of the Serra do Espinhaço, Ouro Preto ("black gold") is one of the best-preserved colonial towns in all the Americas, and the state's former capital. Founded in 1698 with the name of Vila Rica ("rich town"), Ouro Preto flourished in the 18th century as the centre of the Brazilian Gold Rush, which lasted almost to the end of the 19th century. The name "black gold" comes from the black gold nuggets that were found in the area by a traveller, or, in some versions of the story, a slave.

A veritable cosmopolitan metropolis for 18th-century standards (by 1750 it had over 100,000 inhabitants, which made it one of the largest cities in the Americas), in its heyday Ouro Preto attracted artists and intellectuals from the rest of the continent, and also from Europe. Now its beautiful Baroque historic centre is one of Brazil's foremost tourist destinations; the gold that made the city wealthy and famous still shines in the interior decoration of its many gorgeous churches. Ouro Preto was the first Brazilian site to be inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Answer: Argentina

One of the six provinces of Argentine Patagonia, Rio Negro was named after the river that runs through it ("Curu Leuvu" in the indigenous Mapuche language). The province's capital, Viedma, lies on the banks of the Rio Negro, about 30 km (18.6 mi) from the Atlantic coast. However, its largest city is San Carlos de Bariloche (also known simply as Bariloche), located in the foothills of the Andes, on the shores of the picturesque Lake Nahuel Huapi. Famous for its Alpine-style architecture (which earned the city the nickname of "Little Switzerland"), as well as its gorgeous natural scenery, Bariloche is a major tourist centre, especially renowned for trekking and winter sports. Rio Negro's Atlantic coast is also popular with tourists, not only for its beaches, but also for whale-watching.

There are ten rivers named "Rio Negro" in South America, six of which are in Brazil. The largest of them is a tributary of the Amazon River, which is also the world's largest blackwater river.