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50 free Albuquerque trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Albuquerque was a Spanish villa on El Camino Real before it was a railroad town, a Route 66 stop, an Atomic Age lab city and the backdrop for Breaking Bad. This quiz works through all of it: the 1706 founding and the dropped 'r', the Duke City nickname, Old Town's San Felipe de Neri Church, the Santa Fe Railway's New Town and the 1937 realignment of Route 66 down Central Avenue. The modern city gets plenty of questions too: the Balloon Fiesta that started with 13 balloons in a mall parking lot, the Sandia Peak Tramway, Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland, the Sunport, the Lobos, the Isotopes and their Simpsons name, the KiMo's Pueblo Deco and the Netflix studio where Walter White's world was filmed. Every answer is sourced from Wikipedia pages on the city and its landmarks. Play the sets in order, then try the New Mexico or Santa Fe quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Albuquerque founded as La Villa de Alburquerque?
1706
Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés founded it as an outpost on El Camino Real, the road linking Mexico City to New Spain's far north.
Q 02The city was named in honor of a Spanish viceroy holding which title?
Duke of Alburquerque
Hence the nickname Duke City; the original Alburquerque is in Badajoz province in western Spain.
Q 03Which letter was dropped from the city's original Spanish spelling?
An extra R
The Spanish town is still spelled Alburquerque; the first 'r' fell away in the American version of the name.
Q 04Albuquerque is the county seat of which county?
Bernalillo
Bernalillo the county is distinct from Bernalillo the town, which sits just north in Sandoval County.
Q 05Which mountain range flanks Albuquerque to the east?
Sandia Mountains
The range's pink granite glow at sunset is one explanation for its Spanish name.
Q 06What does 'Sandía', the name of the mountains, mean in Spanish?
Watermelon
One theory says Spaniards in 1540 mistook the pueblo's squash for watermelons and the name stuck to the mountains.
Q 07Which river flows north-to-south through the middle of Albuquerque?
Rio Grande
Its cottonwood forest, the bosque, is threaded with hiking and biking trails through the city.
Q 08What was Albuquerque's population at the 2020 census?
564,559
That ranks it 32nd among US cities, and the metro area approaches a million people.
Q 09Roughly how many hot air balloons take part in the Balloon Fiesta each year?
Over 500
It began in 1972 as the highlight of radio station KOB's 50th birthday celebration.
Q 10How many balloons took part in the very first Balloon Fiesta in 1972?
13
It was held in a shopping mall parking lot to celebrate radio station KOB's 50th birthday.
Q 11In which month does the Balloon Fiesta take place?
October
It runs nine days in the first full week of the month and is billed as the most photographed annual event in the world.
Q 12The first Balloon Fiesta featured a race named after which cartoon duo?
Roadrunner and Coyote
One balloon played the Roadrunner and the rest chased it; the race survives at the Fiesta today.
Q 13The Gathering of Nations, held in Albuquerque, is North America's largest what?
Powwow
It takes place at Expo New Mexico, which also hosts the New Mexico State Fair.
Q 21Who made the first balloon flight in Albuquerque, on July 4, 1882?
Park Van Tassel
It was the first balloon flight in the whole New Mexico Territory, ninety years before the Fiesta began.
Q 22Who was New Albuquerque's first mayor when it incorporated as a town in 1885?
Henry N. Jaffa
Jaffa also founded Congregation Albert in 1897, the city's oldest continuing Jewish organization.
Q 23Which Confederate general occupied Albuquerque for a month in February 1862?
Henry Hopkins Sibley
The daylong Battle of Albuquerque that April was fought at long range and caused few casualties.
Q 14The Sandia Peak Tramway is the longest aerial tram in which region?
The Americas
It was the world's longest from 1966 until Armenia's Wings of Tatev surpassed it in 2010.
Q 15The Sandia Peak Tramway was built by an engineering firm from which country?
Switzerland
Co-founder Robert Nordhaus got the idea on a Swiss ski trip; construction took over 5,000 helicopter trips.
Q 16In what year did the Sandia Peak Tramway make its maiden voyage?
1949
It has carried more than 12 million passengers since; new cars were installed in 1986 and 2016.
Q 17Roughly how high is the summit reached by the tramway?
10,300 ft
Locals call the elevation 'ten-three'; Sandia Crest nearby tops out at 10,678 feet.
Q 18Which church, built in 1793, stands on the north side of Old Town Plaza?
San Felipe de Neri
It is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city; Old Town is known for its Christmas Eve luminaria displays.
Q 19Old Town was historically also called what, meaning 'Little Plaza'?
La Placita
It remained a separate community until the 1920s, when Albuquerque absorbed it.
Q 20Which railroad arrived in 1880 and created 'New Town' two miles east of the Plaza?
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
The bypass of Old Town shifted commerce to what became Downtown Albuquerque.
Q 24Early air routes earned Albuquerque which nickname?
Crossroads of the Southwest
Its dry climate also drew tuberculosis patients, including a future governor and the architect John Gaw Meem.
Q 25In 1937 Route 66 was realigned through Albuquerque along which street?
Central Avenue
The original 1926 routing ran north–south on Fourth Street; most surviving Route 66 motels and signs are on Central.
Q 26In what year did the first Route 66 travelers appear in Albuquerque?
1926
Dozens of motels, restaurants and gift shops soon sprouted along the roadside.
Q 27Sandia National Laboratories was established in which year?
1949
Its roots go back to the Manhattan Project; President Truman asked Western Electric to run it in 1949.
Q 28Which airline accounts for over half of all passengers at the Sunport?
Southwest
The terminal's low Pueblo Revival design ranked seventh in a 2025 Washington Post readers' poll.
Q 29Which governor broke ground on the city's municipal airport in 1937?
Clyde Tingley
Tingley Beach in the city's BioPark is also named for him; the airport opened in 1939 with two paved runways.
Q 30What are the athletic teams of the University of New Mexico called?
Lobos
The school competes in the Mountain West and has won national titles in skiing and cross country.