Sacred Cities Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sistine Chapel

A quiz about sacred cities would be remiss to pass over the Vatican City, the world's smallest state (found entirely within Rome!) and the home of the Pope. The Sistine Chapel, connected to St. Peter's Basilica, is often regarded as one of the most famous sites for Renaissance art. Michelangelo, of course, painted its ceiling.

The Sistine Chapel is also the official chapel of the Pope since it's built into the Apostolic Palace. It's from there that the Pope oversees the worldwide goings-on of the Catholic Church. Visitors to the Vatican City are, by all means, able to tour the grounds. You can walk through the Vatican City in a few hours in a tour group; it covers less than a square kilometre of Rome.

Answer: Jerusalem

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of many sites in this holy city, though it's one tied inherently to Christianity and the Bible since it's the location where Jesus Christ was crucified and said to have been resurrected. Originally built in the fourth century AD, it was later rebuilt in the eleventh century after earthquakes and riots. Jerusalem is more significant than just the one site though.

In addition to being one of the four Jewish Holy Cities of Israel (along with Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed), it contains the Temple Mount and the famous Wailing Wall at its perimeter.

The Temple Mount is also the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam as it's where Mohammed is said to have ascended to Heaven. Undeniably, the city holds much for many religions and it should come as no surprise that it's been a site of religious pilgrimage for centuries.

Answer: The Hajj

Devout followers of the Islamic faith are required to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives provided it is within their means, and this means visiting the Muslim holy city in Saudi Arabia. The Kaaba, the holiest spot in Islamic faith, is the big black cube depicted; when people pray to Mecca, they're praying to that. Hajj itself involves more than just stopping in at the Kabba though.

It could mean staying the night in Muzdalifah, standing vigil on Mount Arafat (also in Mecca), and drinking from the Well of Zamzam, among other things. Millions of Muslims gather annually at this site, from all around the world, to complete these rites.

Answer: Shiva

Varanasi is one of the seven Sapta Puri, holy cities meant as pilgrimage sites in reverence of a number of Hindu Gods. Considered favoured by Shiva, the destroyer of evil and the transformer, the city sits on the Ganges River, a waterway that cuts through India and is considered wholly sacred, its waters purifying.

It is said that Varanasi was founded when the God Brahma was beheaded. The head was brought to the site of what is now Varanasi and dropped there accidentally. It's a site that's been occupied since 800BC.

Answer: The Middle East

Much of the overseeing done for members of the Bahá'í Faith is done in Israel, specifically around Haifa Bay, and while the Bahá'í World Centre can be found on Mount Carmel in Haifa, the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh is in the city of Acre, on the coast. Considered the holiest site for followers of Bahá'í, this shrine was built in the gardens of the Mansion of Bahjí for Bahá'u'lláh, the man who founded the religion when he was exiled out of Persia and declared himself a messiah. From his mansion in Acre, he wrote many texts about his faith including the Kitáb-i-Aqdas-- essentially the Bahá'í Bible or 'The Book of Laws'.

Answer: The Aztecs

Created as a religious city as far back as the first century AD, Teotihuacan is one of Mexico's most famous archaeological sites because of its insight into early Caribbean cultures and societies, notably the Mayans who recorded it in their ancient texts and the Aztecs who considered it a place of Gods when they discovered it, abandoned, in the 6th century.

The Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, found near the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, is said to be a place of reverence for the Aztec God of the Wind, Quetzalcoatl, whose legends date back to 400BC.

It was also known as a site of burial and religious sacrifice.

Answer: Hinduism

Agama Hindu Dharma, or Balinese Hinduism, is a unique religion found on the island of Bali in Indonesia. While most of the rest of Indonesia follows the Islamic faith, Bali is somewhat of an outlier, but it's become famous the world over (we can partially blame "Eat. Pray. Love" for that) for its artistic sensibilities and devout Hindu tendencies. Denpasar, the island's capital, is home to Pura Jagatnatha, the holiest Hindu temple in the city.

It's also only a short trip away from the famous and picturesque Tanah Lot Temple.

Interestingly, while Hinduism was founded in India, Denpasar is considered a pilgrimage destination, often by Western cultures, due to a shift in cultural perception in the twenty-first century.

Answer: Ethiopia

Lalibela, Ethiopia, found around seven hundred kilometres north of the nation's capital (Addis Ababa), is the holiest location in the Ethiopian Orthodox religion and has been such since locals took up Christian beliefs as far back as the time of the Apostles. Seen as a saint, local king Gebre Mesqel Lalibela, who reigned in the early 13th century, decided to have his people create a series of churches in a formation to reflect the religious structures of Jerusalem and, thus, eleven churches were hewn into the rocky earth.

While the headquarters for the Ethiopian Catholic Church is in Addis Ababa, it's Lalibela that stands out because of its people's devotion and unique methods.

Answer: Mormonism

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith, who transcribed the Book of Mormon from golden plates in the early 1830s, but his followers headed west under the leadership of Brigham Young, eventually settling in what became Utah. Salt Lake City is uniquely designed in that its streets and urban planning developed out of the Salt Lake Temple. Ultimately, the city became a site of pilgrimage for its original members who, in a very different way, were also American pioneers since they traversed the nation to build on a new frontier. Joseph Smith never saw Salt Lake City; he founded the religion in New York and set out to build a New Jerusalem, but was murdered in Illinois in 1844, three years before Utah Territory would be settled.

Answer: Lhasa

For this one, we visit what is likely the holiest city of Tibetan Buddhism, nestled high up in the Himalayas as one of the highest major cities on the globe. Jokhang, the most sacred Buddhist temple in the city, was one of a number of temples built to restrain the entity known as the 'srin ma', an evil being said to be in opposition of the nation's religious tendencies.

It was built during the 8th century AD. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, lived in Lhasa's Potala Palace for four centuries; it became a UNESCO-protected museum after an uprising in the late 1950s. Nevertheless, Lhasa has been considered the home of this particular variation of Buddhism for centuries, though political strife between Tibet and China has led many of its highest order to spread across the globe.