Place the City - Africa Trivia Quiz

One of the largest cities in Africa, the Nigerian city of Lagos isn't the capital (that'd be Abuja) but it is a significant location on the continent known for its massive population, its financial sector, and its port. Found on the Atlantic coast on the Gulf of Guinea, the city was originally built on a series of islands around the Lagos Lagoon.

It has since expanded to encompass more of the mainland in a larger metropolitan area. Lagos is also known for its thriving cultural scene in both movies and film (in Nollywood).

The largest city on the island of Unguja off the coast of Tanzania, this major destination is home to Stone Town and architecture inspired by the Portuguese and English colonists who lived there. Only a short ferry ride across to Dar es Salaam on the mainland, it's a location that is, more and more, a destination for tourism.

The island gained independence from Britain in 1963 and joined with Tanganyika to become Tanzania the following year.

Found right on the coastline in Namibia, the city of Swakopmund sits right on the edge of the Namib Desert and is only a short ride north from Walvis Bay, one of the larger cities in this otherwise sparsely-populated nation. Settled by Germans, the city still retains much of its old charm from these days (including the language). Perhaps its best-known landmark is its lighthouse, built on the edge of the dunes leading out to the sea.

Sitting at a crossroads between the Atlas Mountains and the desert, the Moroccan city of Ouarzazate is considered a go-to destination for filmmakers, especially those aiming to make movies or TV shows set in the desert (like "The Mummy" and "Game of Thrones"). Found close to the middle of the nation, it's known for its massive studios, its oases, and its kasbahs. To get there you would need to take a two hundred kilometre drive southeast into the dunes from Marrakesh.

It also happens to be one of the furthest major Moroccan cities from the Atlantic.

Found on the banks of the Nile River in the south of Egypt, the city of Aswan is best known for the massive Aswan High Dam, created in the 1960s to regulate the Nile River's flow from the south and ensure all downriver farmlands could avoid both flood and famine.

The city itself has been populated since ancient times and contains ruins and markets you would expect of any major Egyptian destination. Sitting in the middle of the desert, it's one of the driest major cities in the world; some years don't even get rain.

Formerly the capital of Burundi, this port city on the northern edge of Lake Tanganyika became a German-colonized spot in the middle of the continent during the mid-19th century and it has since grown to become a critical spot for the nation's economy. Though it was once the site of most of Burundi's government buildings, the country moved all of its political activities back to the plateau city of Gitega.

The two cities are approximately a hundred kilometres apart.

Only a short ride east from Cape Town, Stellenbosch is famous for being the go-to destination for South African wineries. Colonized by the Dutch, this quaint region is nestled between mountains and contains a number of nutrient-rich plateaus ideal for viticultural pursuits.

As could be expected, it's a major tourist spot in the west side of the country, and it's a gateway to the hilly plateaus and valleys that make up this part of the nation before it sprawls out into savannah to the far north.

Though the inland city of Yamoussoukro is the capital of Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan has the luxury of being both the nation's largest city and its most critical for business and commerce. Sitting on the Atlantic coast facing due south, Abidjan was colonized by the French and would grow to be one of Africa's most populated cities by the end of the twentieth century. Known by visitors as the "Manhattan of the Tropics", the city was also built on the Ébrié Lagoon which, until 1950, wasn't connected to the sea.

After the capital city of Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire is the largest city in the Republic of Congo on the Atlantic Coast. It's an industrial hub that grew to over a million people since being founded as a French colony, mostly on the back of the local oil, potash, and fishing workforces.

Naturally, its position on the coast made it a particularly significant port of call, especially if anyone planned to navigate around the continent to the south. Taking a short drive out of the city (inland) will bring you straight into the rainforest.

Although quite the small town quite a distance north of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, Lalibela is no less important to the nation's culture. One of the nation's holiest destinations, the town is home to rock-hewn churches carved into the stone ground underfoot. Visitors who head there can descend into these UNESCO World Heritage sites on pilgrimage and, naturally, marvel at the architectural feats they are.

They are amongst some of the first sites ever protected by UNESCO.