Eritrea
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47 free Eritrea trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Eritrea trivia quiz covers the Red Sea nation from the Land of Punt and the Kingdom of Aksum through Italian colonisation, the British takeover at Keren, federation with and annexation by Ethiopia, the thirty-year war of independence, the 1993 referendum, the Badme war and the 2018 peace. It visits Asmara's Futurist petrol station and Art Deco cinemas, the hottest port on Earth at Massawa, the Dahlak islands and the Danakil, and the coffee ceremony, injera and the cyclists who now win Tour de France stages. The early questions suit anyone who has heard of Asmara; the later ones test people who know what the 30 leaves on the flag mean and where the currency got its name. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Eritrea lies in which region of the continent?
The Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa puts Eritrea beside a major sea trade route, which is why foreign empires, from Egypt to Italy, fought to control its ports.
Q 02The name Eritrea derives from the ancient Greek name for which body of water?
The Red Sea
The Red Sea was Erythra Thalassa to the ancient Greeks, and Italy borrowed the old name in 1890 for its new colony; Eritreans kept it at independence a century later.
Q 03Eritrea was Africa's newest country from 1993 until which nation gained independence in 2011?
South Sudan
South Sudan took the title in July 2011 after a referendum of its own; like Eritrea's vote 18 years earlier, it ran at about 99% in favour of leaving.
Q 04Which former rebel leader became Eritrea's first president in 1993 and was still in power three decades later?
Isaias Afwerki
Isaias Afwerki led the rebel army that won the war in 1991; a transitional assembly elected him in 1993, and the national elections meant to follow have never been held.
Q 05Which 1896 battle, a crushing Ethiopian victory, stopped Italy pushing south from its new colony of Eritrea?
Adwa
Adwa, fought on 1 March 1896, forced Italy to abandon its claim to a protectorate over Ethiopia, though the peace treaty that followed left Eritrea in Italian hands.
Q 06Asmara became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017 for its well-preserved architecture in what style?
Italian modernist
Italian modernist buildings, more than 400 of them, went up as Asmara boomed as the base for Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, and architects used the city to try designs thought too daring at home.
Q 07The Fiat Tagliero Building in Asmara, completed in 1938, was designed to look like what?
An aeroplane
An aeroplane was the model: the 1938 petrol station has two long concrete wings with no pillars beneath them, and its designer is said to have threatened the builder to get the planned supports removed.
Q 08Which animal, used to carry supplies during the independence war, appears on Eritrea's national emblem?
A camel
A camel: the fighters credited their pack camels with keeping them supplied, so at independence in 1993 the animal went on the emblem as a symbol of that success, ringed by an olive wreath.
Q 09The 30 leaves in the olive wreath on Eritrea's flag represent what?
Thirty years of the independence struggle
Thirty years of the independence struggle were written into the flag in 1995, two years after it first flew, when the wreath was redrawn with exactly 30 leaves.
Q 10Which organisation's mission verified Eritrea's 1993 independence referendum?
The United Nations
The United Nations sent observers who judged the vote free and fair at every stage; 99.83% chose independence, and a month later the organisation admitted Eritrea as a member.
Q 11What was Nakfa, the town Eritrea's currency honours, during the independence war?
Rebel stronghold
A rebel stronghold for more than a decade, Nakfa held out against repeated Ethiopian attempts to retake it, and the currency launched in 1997 was named in honour of that stand.
Q 12The 1998-2000 war between Eritrea and Ethiopia is also known by the name of which disputed border town?
Badme
Badme, a small border town, was awarded to Eritrea by a boundary commission in 2002, but Ethiopia rejected the ruling and stayed, freezing relations until a peace deal in 2018.
Q 13Which Ethiopian prime minister won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize chiefly for making peace with Eritrea?
Abiy Ahmed
Q 21Zersenay Tadese became Eritrea's first Olympic medallist with a bronze in which event at Athens 2004?
10,000 metres
10,000 metres brought the bronze behind Kenenisa Bekele; three years later Zersenay beat the Ethiopian to the world cross-country title, ending Bekele's five-year reign.
Q 22At the 2024 Tour de France, Biniam Girmay became the first African to do what?
Win a jersey classification
Win a jersey classification: Girmay took the green points jersey after sprinting to three stage wins, the first of which also made him the first black African to win a Tour stage.
Q 23Olympic medallist Zersenay Tadese only turned to running at 19 after years competing in which other sport?
Road cycling
Abiy Ahmed flew to Asmara in July 2018, three months after taking office, for the first meeting of the two countries' leaders in two decades; the next day they declared the state of war over.
Q 14Which Ethiopian emperor dissolved Eritrea's federation with Ethiopia in 1962 and annexed it as a province?
Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie ended the federation after only ten years and closed Eritrea's parliament; the takeover fed a rebellion that outlasted his own reign and ended in Eritrean independence.
Q 15Which is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea?
Tigrinya
Tigrinya is the mother tongue of about half of Eritreans and is also spoken across the border in Ethiopia's Tigray region, so the frontier cuts through a single language community.
Q 16Which Los Angeles rapper, born Ermias Asghedom, spent three months in his father's homeland of Eritrea in 2004?
Nipsey Hussle
Nipsey Hussle made the trip at 19, and the visit is credited with turning him from street hustling toward community work and business in his South Los Angeles neighbourhood.
Q 17Which religion did the Kingdom of Aksum adopt around the mid-fourth century?
Christianity
Christianity came with Frumentius, a boy from Tyre captured at sea and enslaved at the Aksumite court; he became tutor to the future King Ezana, converted him and ended up the kingdom's first bishop.
Q 18Which ancient port on Eritrea's coast handled the Kingdom of Aksum's ivory trade with Roman merchants?
Adulis
Adulis sold the interior's ivory, hides and slaves to visiting ships, as a first-century Greek sailing guide records; its ruins now lie beside the small town of Zula.
Q 19An international watchdog ranked Eritrea last of 180 countries in both 2024 and 2025 for which freedom?
Press freedom
Press freedom: Reporters Without Borders placed Eritrea 180th of 180 because every outlet belongs to the state, and no independent newspaper has been allowed to publish since 2001.
Q 20What do rights groups report about Eritrea's compulsory national service?
It can last indefinitely
It can last indefinitely: the law sets 18 months, but since the 1998 border war conscripts of both sexes have been kept for years, some for decades, and release, when it comes, is arbitrary.
Road cycling was his first sport: he was a successful bike racer in Eritrea until late 2001, then switched to running and within three years had won an Olympic bronze.
Q 24In the Eritrean coffee ceremony, the third and final round of brewing is called bereka, meaning what?
To be blessed
To be blessed: by that third cup, guests have watched the host roast green beans over coals, waft the smoke their way and boil the same grounds three times in a clay pot.
Q 25Injera, the staple flatbread of Eritrea and Ethiopia, is traditionally made from which grain?
Teff
Teff flour is mixed with water and left to ferment before cooking, which is what gives injera its sour taste and spongy texture; the grain is grown mainly in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Q 26Sowa, a traditional Eritrean drink, is a bitter brew made from what?
Fermented barley
Fermented barley, often with other roasted grains, is brewed at home into sowa, and the beer is flavoured with the leaves of gesho, a kind of buckthorn.
Q 27The 1941 battle in which the British expelled the Italians from Eritrea was fought at which town?
Keren
Keren guarded the road and railway up to Asmara, so Italian troops held the heights around it for nearly eight weeks in early 1941; once it fell, the capital and the main port soon surrendered.
Q 28The Eritrean Liberation Front was founded by exiles and students in which Arab capital on the Nile?
Cairo
Cairo was where Idris Muhammad Adam and fellow exiles announced the front; its first guerrillas attacked police posts in western Eritrea in September 1961, opening the independence war.
Q 29Eritrea fought a brief 1995 conflict over the Hanish Islands with which country across the water?
Yemen
Yemen and Eritrea clashed over the islands in December 1995, then agreed to arbitration; in 1998 a tribunal awarded the main islands to Yemen, and Eritrea's troops left.
Q 30In 2009 the Security Council sanctioned Eritrea for allegedly backing Islamist insurgents in which nearby country?
Somalia
Somalia: the council accused Eritrea of aiding the al-Shabab militia there, which Eritrea denied, and its arms embargo stayed for nine years, ending in 2018 after the peace deal with Ethiopia.