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60 free Andes trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Andes run 8,900 kilometres down the spine of South America through seven countries, and they hold the highest peak and highest volcano outside Asia, the highest capital city, the driest desert and the point on Earth farthest from its centre. This quiz covers the geography and geology: Aconcagua and Chimborazo, the Nazca Plate and the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the Altiplano and its salt flats, snow lines and oroclines. It then covers what lives and happens there: condors with 3.3-metre wingspans, vicuñas and chinchillas, spectacled bears and cock-of-the-rock, quinine and potatoes, Potosí silver and Chilean copper, Pizarro's 180 men, Quechua and Aymara, the Uros reed islands, the mountaineers who first climbed the big peaks and the rugby team that survived 72 days after a 1972 plane crash. It suits travellers, geography students and quiz-night regulars. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Andes and their peaks, lakes, deserts and wildlife, and each question shows its supporting sentence after you answer.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What superlative do the Andes hold among the world's mountain ranges?
Longest continental range
They run about 8,900 km down the western edge of South America, with an average height of around 4,000 metres.
Q 02Through how many South American countries do the Andes run?
Seven
From south to north: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.
Q 03What is the highest peak in the Andes, and in all the Americas?
Aconcagua
It stands in Argentina's Mendoza Province at about 6,961 metres, roughly 15 km from the Chilean border.
Q 04Which Ecuadorian volcano's summit is the point on Earth's surface farthest from the planet's centre?
Chimborazo
Earth bulges at the equator, so a peak near the equator beats taller Himalayan giants when measured from the core.
Q 05What is the world's highest volcano, on the Chile-Argentina border?
Ojos del Salado
It rises to 6,893 metres, and its extreme dryness means it carries no real glaciers, though a small permanent crater lake survives.
Q 06The subduction of which tectonic plate beneath South America is the main cause of the Andes' rise?
Nazca
The Antarctic Plate also slides under the continent's far south; the whole system sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Q 07Which 1960 earthquake on the Andean subduction zone remains the strongest ever recorded?
Valdivia (M9.5)
The 2010 Maule quake, at magnitude 8.8, was another product of the same plate boundary off Chile.
Q 08The Andean high plateau, second in extent only to Tibet's, is called what?
The Altiplano
Most of it lies in Bolivia; the region also holds vast salt flats and, on its northern edge, the continent's largest lake.
Q 09On which lake do the Uros people live on floating islands built from totora reeds?
Titicaca
At 3,812 m it is often called the world's highest navigable lake and straddles the Bolivia-Peru border.
Q 10What is the world's highest capital city, at about 3,650 m in the Andes?
La Paz
Its neighbour El Alto pushes the conurbation up to 4,200 m.
Q 11Which is the largest city in the Andes, with a metropolitan population over ten million?
Bogotá
Lima, the biggest city of any Andean country, sits on the coast just below the mountains.
Q 12Chile and Peru are the world's two largest exporters of which metal?
Copper
Chuquicamata and Escondida in Chile and Toquepala in Peru are among the giant mines.
Q 13Which Bolivian salt flat holds the world's largest reserve of lithium?
Salar de Uyuni
Argentina, Bolivia and Chile hold the three biggest lithium reserves on Earth; the Chilean salar is the largest current source.
Q 21Which two domesticated relatives of the camel are kept across the Andes as pack animals and for wool?
The llama and the alpaca
Their wild cousins roam the high plateau of the central Andes.
Q 22Which threatened, dawn-and-dusk-active rodents of the Andes were nearly wiped out for their fur?
Chinchillas
Two species survive; both are classed as threatened.
Q 23Which large threatened mammal shares the Andean cloud forests with the mountain tapir?
The spectacled bear
It is South America's only bear; mountain toucans, quetzals and the cock-of-the-rock live in the same humid forests.
Q 14Which Bolivian mountain city's silver gave the Río de la Plata, and thus Argentina, their names?
Potosí
Its Cerro Rico deposits are now mostly depleted, but in the 17th century they reshaped Europe's economy.
Q 15The Andean tree Cinchona is the original source of which drug?
Quinine
Roughly 30,000 vascular plant species live in the Andes, half of them found nowhere else, along with wild ancestors of major world crops.
Q 16Which staple crop originated in the Andes and remains the region's key internally consumed food?
The potato
Maize was the other great crop, brewed into the drink chicha, and terraced hillsides spread widely under Inca rule.
Q 17The Andes are the world's most important region for which class of animal, with almost 1,000 species?
Amphibians
They also hold about 600 mammal, 1,700 bird, 600 reptile and 400 fish species.
Q 18What is the maximum wingspan of the Andean condor, the Western Hemisphere's largest such bird?
About 3.3 m
It nests as high as 5,000 m, matures at around six, and can travel 200 km a day looking for carrion.
Q 19The Andean condor is a national symbol of how many countries?
Five
Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru all claim it; only about 10,000 birds remain and the IUCN rates it Vulnerable.
Q 20Which wild Andean camelid produces some of the finest and most expensive wool in the world?
The vicuña
It is thought to be the wild ancestor of the alpaca; hunting cut numbers to about 6,000 by 1974 before protection brought them back.
Q 24Which small army, with tens of thousands of native allies, defeated the Inca in 1532?
180 Spaniards under Francisco Pizarro
Diseases and civil war had already devastated the empire; the Huancas, Chachapoyas and Cañaris fought against their former rulers.
Q 25Which Inca site, hidden where the Andes drop towards the Amazon, was never found by the Spanish?
Machu Picchu
It sits on a peak on the eastern edge of the range; we have a separate quiz devoted to it.
Q 26What are the two main surviving language families of the Andean peoples?
Quechua and Aymara
One theory derives the very word Andes from the Quechua anti, as in Antisuyu, the eastern quarter of the Inca Empire.
Q 27The word cordillera, used for the Andean chains, comes from a Spanish word meaning what?
Rope
Cordel is a cord or rope; the term now also covers the whole mountain backbone of the Americas.
Q 28Which desert on the Andes' western flank is the driest non-polar desert on Earth?
The Atacama
It sits between the Andes and the Coast Range, which block moisture from both sides; parts have been used to film Mars.
Q 29Why has NASA-style research been done in the Yungay area of Chile's northern desert?
Its soil resembles that of Mars
In 2003 researchers repeated the Viking landers' life-detection tests on Yungay soil and found nothing.
Q 30Who reached the summit of the Americas' highest peak in the first recorded ascent, on 14 January 1897?
The Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen
Expedition leader FitzGerald failed on eight attempts; two other members followed the guide up a month later.