Delhi Trivia
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53 free Delhi trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Delhi has been razed and rebuilt so many times that locals count seven cities on the site, and the current one is the fourth-largest metropolis on Earth. This quiz covers the capital from the Mahabharata's Indraprastha to the odd-even traffic scheme. The easy questions ask which river the city straddles, which fort the prime minister speaks from on Independence Day, what stands at the end of Kartavya Path, and which three monuments are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. From there it moves into the layers of history: the Tomars' Lal Kot, Qutb-ud-din Aibak's victory tower, Timur's sack, Babur at Panipat, Shah Jahan's walled Shahjahanabad, Nadir Shah walking off with the Peacock Throne, the Siege of 1857 and the Durbar of 1911 that moved the capital from Calcutta. The harder end is for people who know the city: the rust-proof iron pillar of Chandragupta II, Bega Begum's tomb for Humayun, Jahanara's moonlit canals, the Lahori Gate flag, Lutyens and Baker on Raisina Hill, the 340 rooms of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the 27 marble petals, Hemu crowned in Purana Qila, the Ashokan pillar Firoz Shah floated to Delhi, the world's largest CNG bus fleet, the Red Line's first run in 2002 and the WHO's pollution rankings. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Delhi and its monuments, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our India, Mumbai and world capitals quizzes next.
30 of 53 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which river does Delhi straddle, though the city spreads mainly west of it?
Yamuna
The Yamuna runs only about 22 km through Delhi, under 2% of its length, yet that short stretch accounts for most of the river's pollution.
Q 02Which three Delhi monuments are UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
Qutb Minar, Humayun's Tomb and Red Fort
Qutb Minar, Humayun's Tomb and Red Fort all date from Delhi's sultans and Mughal emperors; the fort joined the list only in 2007, four years after soldiers finally moved out of it.
Q 03Which legendary city of the Mahabharata is traditionally placed on the site of Delhi?
Indraprastha
Indraprastha, the Pandavas' capital, is traditionally placed beneath one of Delhi's old riverside forts; digs there found Painted Grey Ware pottery but no remains of an ancient city.
Q 04Which national holiday brings a military parade past India Gate each January?
Republic Day
Republic Day, 26 January, marks the date India's constitution took effect in 1950; the parade has been held every year since, moving early on from a stadium to the grand avenue.
Q 05Which Rajput king's defeat by Muhammad Ghori at Tarain in 1192 opened Delhi to conquest?
Prithviraj Chauhan
Prithviraj Chauhan had beaten Ghori on the same field a year earlier; in 1192 Ghori came back with mounted archers, won, and had him executed, leaving northern India open to his generals.
Q 06Who founded the Delhi Sultanate in 1206?
Qutb-ud-din Aibak
Qutb-ud-din Aibak was sold into slavery as a child and rose to be Muhammad Ghori's general; when Ghori was assassinated in 1206 he took power, founding what became the 'Slave' dynasty.
Q 07What disaster struck the Qutb Minar's stairway when its lights failed in 1981?
Stampede
A stampede killed 45 people when the lights went out on the crowded stair; the public has not been allowed to climb the 72.5-metre tower since.
Q 08What struck the Qutb Minar in the 14th century, wrecking its top storey?
Lightning
Lightning damaged the top storey, so the sultan of the day replaced it and added another, facing the new work in white marble that still sets the summit apart.
Q 09Which Gupta emperor is generally credited with the rust-resistant iron pillar now standing in Delhi's Qutb complex?
Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II is generally identified as the 'King Chandra' its Sanskrit inscription honours; the pillar is thought to have first stood elsewhere, as a standard of the god Vishnu, before it reached Delhi.
Q 10Who was the only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate, a daughter of Sultan Iltutmish?
Razia
Razia is said to have been her father's choice as heir, but the nobles crowned her half-brother; within months he was deposed and she took the throne, ruling until 1240.
Q 11Which sultan moved his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, then had to move it back?
Muhammad bin Tughluq
Muhammad bin Tughluq wanted a capital nearer the middle of his empire, so in 1327 he ordered Delhi's court south to Daulatabad; many died on the march, and the move was later undone.
Q 12Which conqueror sacked Delhi in 1398, leaving the city in ruins?
Timur
Timur's army sacked Delhi in December 1398 and left it so ruined that, a chronicler wrote, not a bird moved a wing there for two months; the sultanate never recovered its power.
Q 13Who founded the Mughal Empire after beating the last Lodi sultan at Panipat in 1526?
Babur
Q 21Which invader looted Delhi in 1739 and carried off the Peacock Throne?
Nadir Shah
Nadir Shah carried so much plunder out of Delhi, the Peacock Throne and Koh-i-Noor diamond included, that he stopped collecting taxes in Persia for three years.
Q 22Which Maratha leader made a surprise raid on Delhi in 1737, beating a Mughal force outside the city?
Baji Rao I
Baji Rao I slipped past the main Mughal armies by a hill route and appeared outside Delhi, where he beat the force sent against him in March 1737.
Q 23Which power took control of Delhi and its Mughal emperor in 1803?
East India Company
The East India Company's army beat a Maratha force outside Delhi in September 1803, and the blind emperor, until then in Maratha hands, became a pensioner of the Company.
Babur faced a much larger army at Panipat but brought cannon and firearms, among the first seen on an Indian battlefield; the sultan was killed, and Mughal rule began.
Q 14Which Hindu general seized Delhi in 1556 and had himself crowned, only to fall weeks later at the Second Battle of Panipat?
Hemu
Hemu, who began as a saltpetre trader, was struck by an arrow at Panipat; seeing him fall, his army panicked and fled, and the young Akbar's throne was safe.
Q 15Who commissioned Humayun's Tomb, the first garden-tomb on the subcontinent?
Bega Begum, his widow
Bega Begum, his widow, began the tomb about nine years after his death; its domed mausoleum in a four-part garden set the pattern that led to the Taj Mahal.
Q 16Shah Jahan built Shahjahanabad, today's Old Delhi, to replace which city as the Mughal capital?
Agra
Agra lost the court once Shah Jahan's new walled city was ready, and that city stayed the Mughal capital until the British ended the dynasty in 1857.
Q 17Above which Red Fort gate did Nehru raise the flag in August 1947?
Lahori Gate
Nehru hoisted the tricolour above the Lahori Gate, the Red Fort's main entrance facing Chandni Chowk, and prime ministers have raised it there on every Independence Day since.
Q 18Which mosque, built by Shah Jahan by 1656, is described as India's largest?
Jama Masjid
The Jama Masjid was Shah Jahan's last great building: two years after it was finished, his son Aurangzeb deposed and imprisoned him.
Q 19What does the name of the Old Delhi market Chandni Chowk mean?
Moonlight Square
Moonlight Square is said to be named for the moon's reflection in the water that once ran through it, a canal and pool later covered over under British rule.
Q 20Which daughter of Shah Jahan, first lady of his court after Mumtaz Mahal died, laid out Chandni Chowk?
Jahanara
Jahanara was just 17 when she became first lady, ranking above her father's surviving wives; after he was deposed she stayed to care for him until he died.
Q 24From which city was the capital of British India transferred to Delhi in 1911?
Calcutta
Calcutta had become the centre of nationalist unrest after Bengal's 1905 partition, one reason the Raj moved; the change was announced at the Delhi Durbar of December 1911.
Q 25Which king-emperor was proclaimed in person at the 1911 Delhi Durbar?
George V
George V was the only British monarch to attend a Delhi Durbar; because the Crown Jewels may not leave Britain, a new crown was made for the day and worn only once.
Q 26Which two British architects designed Rashtrapati Bhavan and much of New Delhi?
Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker
Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker began as old friends and ended in a public quarrel: the gradient of Baker's approach road hid Lutyens's palace from view as visitors drew near.
Q 27Where does the President of India's residence stand, at the head of the central vista?
Raisina Hill
Rashtrapati Bhavan stands on Raisina Hill; built as Viceroy's House, it became the Governor-General's residence at independence and the President's when India became a republic in 1950.
Q 28India Gate honours soldiers who died in which war?
World War I
World War I's dead are remembered by an arch with a shallow bowl on its summit, meant to be filled with burning oil on anniversaries, though the fire is rarely lit.
Q 29What was Rajpath renamed in September 2022?
Kartavya Path
Kartavya Path means Path of Duty; ministers said the change shed 'colonial baggage', since Rajpath was in effect a Hindi rendering of the British-era name Kingsway.
Q 30In 2022 the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame under India Gate was merged with the flame at which nearby site?
The National War Memorial
The National War Memorial, opened nearby in 2019, carries the names of independent India's war dead, which India Gate's walls do not; the old flame had burned since 1972.