Destinations Undiscovered Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vishnu

Built in the early 12th century, Angkor Wat was once the capital of the Khmer Empire. It is considered the largest religious structure in the world. Constructed by the Khmer king Suryavarman II, the temple is covered with symbols of the Hindu faith. It was dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu, who is one of the three primary deities in Hinduism. This in itself was a departure from the previous kings who mainly followed the other member of the Hindu trimurti ("trinity"), Shiva. In later years, the temple was converted to a Buddhist religious place of worship as the country and its rulers adopted Buddhism.

Per most accounts, one of the first Western visitors to this temple complex was the Portuguese priest Antonio de Madalena in 1586. After the 16th century though, the temple was largely abandoned. It was then rediscovered by French explorer Henri Mouhot in the 1850s. Mouhot was introduced to it by another French missionary. While other Europeans had known of Angkor after the French colonised the region, it is Mouhot who is credited with popularizing it through his travel writings. He described it to be grander than any of the Greek or Roman structures familiar to the West.

In the 20th century, the French restored the site and sought to attract tourists to visit it. Today Angkor Wat is designated as a national symbol of Cambodia and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It also features on the Cambodian national flag.

Answer: Maya

The UNESCO World Heritage site of Tikal is located deep within a rainforest in Guatemala. It was so well hidden that many explorers passed close to it without discovering the site. Tikal is considered one of the largest archaeological sites of the Mayan civilization.

Inhabited between the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD, Tikal was a strategic political, economic, and military centre of the Mayas. At its peak, it may have held a population of up to 100,000 inhabitants. When the Mayan civilization was conquered, Tikal's importance declined. Historians surmise that droughts may have led to large agrarian failures that eventually led the city to be abandoned. In 1848, the ruins were discovered by Modesto Mendez, then Governor of Peten, a department of Guatemala. He was accompanied by a teacher, Eusebio Lara, who drew sketches of the monuments. These drawings formed part of the formal report submitted by Mendez on his discovery. Tikal is believed to hold thousands of ancient structures, and while the current site is majestic, the ruins uncovered represent only a fraction of the monuments.

Answer: Mesa Verde

The Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Native American culture. They occupied the area spanning across southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. The incorrect options are National Parks located in Florida (Everglades), Hawaii (Haleakala), and Glacier Bay (Alaska), all of which are well outside this range.

The Mesa Verde National Park was established in 1906 in Colorado and is home to some of the best-preserved sites of the Ancestral Puebloans. It is in fact designated as the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. The Ancestral Puebloans are believed to have settled this area from 900 AD to the early 13th century. Around the start of the 13th century, the weather in the Mesa Verde region turned inhospitable with severe cold. Droughts further compounded the problem for these agrarian communities causing them to migrate.

The cliff dwellings built by them were largely abandoned. Other Native American tribes that later settled the area assumed them to have spiritual significance and refrained from occupying them. In 1889, a rancher called Richard Wetherill chanced upon these structures while searching for stray cattle. This led to the discovery of the largest concentration of cliff dwellings in the country.

Answer: India

The Vijayanagara Empire was a wealthy and powerful kingdom that flourished in South India from the mid-14th to mid-17th century. Traders from as far as Persia and Portugal visited the kingdom. Hampi was its capital city and at the height of the empire's influence was considered one of the largest cities of the medieval era, second only to Beijing. In the 17th century, the Vijayanagara Empire was defeated by various Muslim Sultanates that had emerged in the region. Hampi was looted and left in ruins.

At the end of the 18th century, the region came under the administration of the British. In 1800, Colin Mackenzie, who was appointed the first Surveyor General of India, discovered the ruins of the once great city. Large granite structures still stood amongst the granite boulders and hilly terrain that shaped the land. The site holds over 1,500 monuments which are now designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site as a group.

Answer: Vesuvius

Pompeii is located on a coastal plateau in the Italian region of Campania. It is believed to have been settled around the 7th century BC by the Oscans. Later inhabitants included the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Etruscans. By the 1st century BC, it had become a Roman colony and was a thriving city.

In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted leaving Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum buried under several feet of ash and rock. The ash however helped to preserve the remains of the city to a large extent. The ruins were discovered centuries later by Domenico Fontana, an architect, who was constructing an underground aqueduct in the late 16th century. He did not publicize his discovery and it was over a hundred years before any scientific excavations were undertaken.

Answer: Indonesia

Though Indonesia is today the country with the world's largest population of Muslims, it has a long history of Buddhism. Buddhism is one of the six official religions of the country.

Borobudur is located on the island of Java. It was built in the 9th century in the Javanese architectural style which blends elements of Buddhist architecture with indigenous symbols of Java. The temple structure has nine stacked platforms ending in a circular dome at the top. The dome itself is surrounded by 72 statues of Buddha.

The temple was largely abandoned by the 14th century as most of the islanders adopted the Islamic faith. In the early 19th century, Java fell under British administration though the rest of Indonesia was still colonized by the Dutch. Sir Stamford Raffles, better known as the founder of modern Singapore, was appointed Governor-General of Java. Raffles had a keen interest in the local history and culture. On one such tour of Semarang, the capital and largest city of Central Java, he was told of a large monument hidden deep within the jungles. Raffles then tasked a Dutch engineer, Hermann Cornelius, with exploring this further. Cornelius and his crew spent months cutting trees and burning vegetation to finally gain access to the site leading to its rediscovery and popularization with the West.

Answer: Tutankhamun

The Valley of the Kings is the name given to a valley in Egypt that is home to the tombs of many Egyptian pharaohs and noblemen. It is located on the western bank of the Nile, opposite the modern Egyptian city of Luxor (Thebes in the ancient world). This region has been an area of focus for Egyptologists, archaeologists, and historians for over two centuries.

In 1907, an earlier team had found a smaller site with some funerary artefacts related to Tutankhamun and erroneously concluded there was nothing further to be found. However, in 1922, a team funded by Lord Carnarvon, stumbled upon the entrance to a stairway carved into the rock. When British Egyptologist Howard Carter finally entered the tomb, he described it as filled with 'wonderful things'. Per Carter, the room had the glint of gold everywhere. This was the biggest discovery made in the Valley of Kings. Tutankhamun's tomb had been sought after for years. While the tomb had not escaped grave robbers and been subject to theft in ancient times, it was the first royal tomb discovered largely intact. Despite various myths, there were no curses found inscribed within the tomb. However, the legend of a curse befalling anyone who disturbed a pharaoh's tomb had caught the public imagination. When Lord Carnarvon died four months after the opening of the tomb, of an infection caused by a mosquito bite, it gave further credence to the myth. Various deaths were tied to the curse, no matter how tenuous the link. None of this deterred subsequent excavations and explorations in the valley.

Answer: China

This necropolis was created in the 3rd century BC by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, and the one who laid the foundations for what went on to become the Great Wall of China. Huang had the necropolis designed to serve him after his death. It contains an entire army built out of terracotta comprising generals, soldiers, horses, chariots and other types of warriors. Apart from these, there were also officials, servants and musicians to wait on him in the afterlife.

In 1974, a group of farmers were digging a well when they first came across some figurines and fragments. This prompted a team of archaeologists to excavate the area resulting in the discovery of the king's mausoleum and the necropolis.

Answer: Sandstone

Archaeologists estimate that Petra was built around the 5th century BC. Carved into the sandstone cliffs dominating the region, the city was originally known as Raqmu. The region surrounding Petra was inhabited by the Nabataeans from the 7th century BC. The Nabataeans were one of many nomadic Bedouin tribes in the region. Petra was an important hub on the Incense Trade routes from the Mediterranean to the East. It later developed into the capital of the Nabataean kingdom. The name Petra came from the Greek word "petros" for rocks and it's not hard to see why.

By the first century AD, the Nabataean kingdom was taken over by the Romans. Once the maritime trade routes gained prominence, the land routes fell out of favour and with it began the decline of Petra. Earthquakes in 363 and 551 further destroyed many of the buildings. The city was 'lost' to most of the world for many centuries post this.

In 1812, it was rediscovered by Swiss traveller, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. Burckhardt was travelling from the coastal city of Aqaba in Jordan to Cairo in Egypt along an inland route when he heard rumours of an ancient city near the supposed tomb of Aaron, brother of Moses, an important figure in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious traditions. He disguised himself as a local and managed to enlist the help of others to reach the ruins under the pretext of offering a sacrifice at the Prophet Aaron's tomb. This discovery opened the doors for others to then undertake planned expeditions to the city. Today Petra is a much visited tourist site and pre-pandemic recorded 1.1 million tourists in 2019 alone. Despite it no longer being 'lost', visitors still catch their breath when they first emerge from the narrow gorge called the Siq to lay eyes on the Al-Khazneh, believed to have been the mausoleum of the Nabatean King Aretas IV.

Of the options, only sandstone is found in hues of red and pink.

Answer: Andes

Located high up in the Andes, historians believe Machu Picchu was inhabited for only around 100 years. Built by the Incas in c. 1420, it was abandoned a century later when the Spanish conquered much of South America and vanquished the Incan Empire. This Incan citadel was unknown to the Western World.

In 1911, American explorer Hiram Bingham stumbled onto the site by accident. Bingham had earlier led explorations in South America to trace historic trade routes. The 1911 expedition was an attempt to locate the "lost city" of Vilcabamba.

Instead when he landed at Cuzco, a local farmer told him about ancient ruins located high in the mountains and this led to the discovery of Machu Picchu. Today it is one of Peru's most famous tourist attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage site.