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50 free Caspian Sea trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Caspian is the largest lake in the world, unless it is a sea, and since 2018 it is legally neither. This quiz covers the geography, the history and the arguments. It starts with the numbers: five coastlines, an area the size of Japan, a surface 27 metres below the ocean, water a third as salty as seawater, a northern shelf you could almost wade across and a southern basin deeper than the Persian Gulf. Then the names people have given it, from the Hyrcanian Sea and the Sea of the Khazars to Iran's Mazandaran Sea, and the river that has been changing its mind about flowing in for millennia. Oil and fish follow: Bibi-Heybat's first offshore wells, the Nobels in Baku, the town on stilts at Oil Rocks that James Bond visited, Kazakhstan's share of the crude, and the beluga sturgeon whose eggs are worth more than a bribe. The wildlife includes a seal found nowhere else and a tiger found nowhere any more; the hardware includes the Caspian Sea Monster and the warship-ekranoplan that ended up stuck on a beach. Derbent, Astrakhan, Baku's winds and Maiden Tower, the Volga–Don route to the ocean and the sea's projected shrinkage round it out. Easy questions suit anyone who can find it on a map; the expert tier reaches Ogurja Ada, Fyodor Soimonov and the Uzboy channel. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the sea, its ports and its wildlife, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Caspian Sea holds what distinction among the world's lakes and seas?
Largest inland one
Despite its name and its briny water, it is often listed as the world's biggest lake.
Q 02How many countries have a coastline on the Caspian Sea?
Five
Kazakhstan has the longest shoreline and Russia the shortest.
Q 03In Iran, on the southern shore, the Caspian is known by what name, after a province on its coast?
The Mazandaran Sea
That shore is also the saltiest part of the sea, since little fresh water flows in there.
Q 04What is the surface area of the Caspian Sea, excluding the saline lagoon on its eastern shore?
About 371,000 sq km, similar to Japan
It holds 40 to 44 percent of all the lake water on Earth and covers more area than Germany.
Q 05The surface of the Caspian Sea lies roughly how far below global sea level?
About 27 metres
Baku, on its shore, is the lowest-lying national capital in the world.
Q 06The Caspian's salinity is about 1.2 percent, roughly what fraction of average seawater?
One third
It is nearly fresh in the north where the Volga pours in, and saltiest on the Iranian shore.
Q 07Roughly how many rivers flow into the Caspian Sea?
Over 130
The Volga, Europe's longest river, is by far the largest, entering at the shallow northern end.
Q 08How deep is the Northern Caspian on average?
Only 5 to 6 metres
The shallow northern shelf holds less than one percent of the water; the south plunges past 1,000 metres.
Q 09The Caspian became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago as a remnant of which ancient sea?
The Paratethys
It is estimated to be around 30 million years old.
Q 10The name 'Caspian' comes from which ancient people?
The Caspi, an Iranic tribe
The Iranian city of Qazvin shares the same root.
Q 11Among the ancient Greeks and Persians, the Caspian was known by what name?
The Hyrcanian Sea
Old Russian sources called it the Khvalyn Sea, after Khwarezmia.
Q 12Which Central Asian river once repeatedly changed course to reach the Caspian via the now-dry Uzboy channel?
The Amu Darya (Oxus)
The Syr Darya farther north did the same at times.
Q 13Which saline Caspian lagoon in Turkmenistan was dammed off in 1980 and refilled in 1992?
Garabogazköl
Its salinity averages about 35 percent, and it was cut off over fears it was accelerating a fall in Caspian levels.
Q 21Baku is nicknamed the 'City of Winds'; what are its two famous winds called?
Khazri and gilavar
The khazri is the cold northerly and the gilavar the warm southerly, blowing in every season.
Q 22Baku's UNESCO-listed Old City contains the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and which famous landmark?
The Maiden Tower
The Old City was inscribed in 2000; the modern skyline is dominated by the glass Flame Towers.
Q 23Which ever-burning natural gas fire near Baku is a tourist attraction?
Yanar Dag
The nearby Ateshgah fire temple was built by Indian traders in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Q 14In which port city was the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea signed in August 2018?
Aktau, Kazakhstan
It settled decades of argument over how to divide the seabed and its oil.
Q 15Legally, after the 2018 convention, the Caspian Sea is defined as what?
Neither fully a sea nor a lake
An earlier Soviet–Iranian treaty had treated it as a lake split into two sectors with shared fishing.
Q 16Kazakhstan has the longest Caspian coastline; roughly how long is it?
1,422 km
Turkmenistan is next with 1,035 km, while Russia's share is the shortest at 747 km.
Q 17In which year did the Nobel brothers arrive in Baku to invest in its oil boom?
1873
The Rothschilds followed in 1882; the world's first offshore wells were drilled in nearby Bibi-Heybat Bay.
Q 18Neft Daşları (Oil Rocks), off Azerbaijan, is recognised by Guinness as the world's first what?
Offshore oil platform
Built after oil was struck in 1949, it is a whole town standing on trestle bridges out at sea.
Q 19Which James Bond film features a scene at the Oil Rocks settlement in the Caspian?
The World Is Not Enough
Construction of the settlement's trestle bridges linking artificial islands began in 1952.
Q 20Baku is the largest city on the Caspian and also the largest in which mountainous region?
The Caucasus
At 28 metres below sea level it is also the world's lowest-lying national capital.
Q 24Baku hosted which international song contest in 2012?
Eurovision
It has since staged the European Games, a Formula One Grand Prix and a Europa League final.
Q 25The Caspian Sea is famous for its caviar and which other industry?
Oil
Six species of sturgeon are native to the sea, including the giant beluga.
Q 26The beluga sturgeon of the Caspian holds what record?
Largest freshwater fish in the world
A female caught in the Volga estuary in 1827 weighed 1,571 kg and measured 7.2 metres.
Q 27What is the IUCN conservation status of the beluga sturgeon, hunted for its caviar?
Critically endangered
Caviar sells for over 1,500 manats a kilo in Azerbaijan, enough to fund bribes that render fishing rules toothless.
Q 28Traditionally, 'caviar' means only wild sturgeon roe from the Caspian and which other sea?
The Black Sea
Beluga, ossetra and sevruga are the classic grades; Iran and Russia long dominated production.
Q 29What is the only aquatic mammal endemic to the Caspian Sea?
A seal
One of the smallest earless seals, it pups on the winter ice of the northern Caspian.
Q 30In which year was the Caspian tiger assessed as extinct?
2003
It survived in riverine forests until the 1970s; genetic work links it closely to the Amur tiger.