Guatemala
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Discover how much you know about Guatemala with our comprehensive free 94-question trivia quiz with answers. From ancient Mayan civilizations to modern Central American culture, test your knowledge on this fascinating country's history, geography, landmarks, and traditions. Whether you're planning a trip or simply curious about Guatemala, this quiz will challenge and educate you.
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Q 01Chicle, tapped from sapodilla trees in Guatemala's northern jungle, was long the natural base of what?
Chewing gum
Chewing gum relied on chicle until synthetics largely replaced it by the mid-20th century; the village of Uaxactún grew up beside a jungle airstrip as a centre for gathering the sap.
Q 02What is the national currency of Guatemala?
Quetzal
It was introduced in 1925 under President José María Orellana, whose portrait is on the one-quetzal note; the ancient Maya used the bird's tail feathers as currency.
Q 03The Castillo de San Felipe de Lara, a Spanish fort where Guatemala's largest lake drains seaward, was built to stop whom?
Pirates
Pirates, many of them English, sailed up the river to raid the Spanish warehouses on the lake, and the fort meant to stop them was itself sacked and rebuilt more than once.
Q 04What is the national flower of Guatemala?
White Nun Orchid
The White Nun Orchid (Lycaste skinneri var. alba) became the national flower by a 1934 decree of President Jorge Ubico, after a Miami Beach flower-show president suggested it.
Q 05What is the highest point in Guatemala, also the highest peak anywhere between Mexico and Colombia?
Volcán Tajumulco
Volcán Tajumulco, in San Marcos near the Mexican border, rises to about 4,200 metres, yet unlike its lower neighbours it has no confirmed eruption: the old reports of activity are doubted.
Q 06Which of these countries shares Guatemala's independence day, 15 September?
Nicaragua
Nicaragua was a province of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, whose act of independence was signed in Guatemala City on 15 September 1821, so the five countries that grew out of it all keep the date.
Q 07Which country borders Guatemala to the southeast?
El Salvador
El Salvador shares a border of about 200 km with Guatemala; in 1834 the federal republic to which both then belonged moved its capital out of Guatemala City and into El Salvador.
Q 08Which of these agricultural products is among Guatemala's top exports?
Bananas
Bananas remain among Guatemala's biggest exports; a century ago one US company held so much banana land, plus the railways and the Caribbean port, that Latin American journalists called it 'el pulpo', the octopus.
Q 09Outside Guatemala itself, which country is home to the most Guatemalans?
United States
The United States had about 1.8 million residents of Guatemalan origin in 2021, over four times the number in 2000, and the money they send home is Guatemala's biggest inflow of foreign income.
Q 10Roughly how many Mayan languages are officially recognised in Guatemala?
About 20
About 20: the Academy of Mayan Languages sets spelling for 22 of them, and a 2003 law recognises them as national languages, though Spanish remains the country's only official one.
Q 11After proclaiming independence in 1821, the Captaincy General of Guatemala briefly joined which state?
First Mexican Empire
The First Mexican Empire of Agustín de Iturbide absorbed the provinces in 1822, one of them only after a Mexican army crushed its resistance; when Iturbide abdicated in 1823 they broke away as a federation.
Q 12Which fried-chicken chain was founded in Guatemala in 1971 and has since spread to North America and Europe?
Pollo Campero
Pollo Campero grew out of the Gutiérrez family's poultry business in 1971; it now has hundreds of restaurants in several countries, and its first US franchises opened in 2002.
Q 13Which body of water borders Guatemala to the south?
Pacific Ocean
Q 21The Maya site of El Mirador, famed for massive pyramids, lies in which region of Guatemala?
Petén Basin
Petén Basin jungle hides El Mirador, a Preclassic city that flourished from about 300 BC and was largely abandoned around AD 150, centuries before Tikal reached its height.
Q 22Guatemala has long claimed part or all of the territory of which neighbour?
Belize
Belize has lived with the claim since it was a British colony; voters in both countries agreed, in referendums in 2018 and 2019, to let the International Court of Justice settle it.
Q 23Guatemala's vibrant traditional textiles are often woven on what type of loom?
Backstrap
The backstrap loom uses sticks and a strap around the weaver's waist to hold tension; it was the only loom of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the treadle loom arriving with the Spanish.
The Pacific Ocean meets a narrow plain built of debris washed down from the volcanoes, which is why the south coast holds some of Guatemala's richest farmland; the Caribbean shore lies far to the northeast.
Q 14Temple I at Tikal, the tomb of King Jasaw Chan K'awiil, is named for which animal carved on its lintel?
A jaguar
A jaguar: the lintel shows a king seated on a jaguar throne, which gave the Temple of the Great Jaguar its name; the 47-metre pyramid was raised over his tomb in the 8th century.
Q 15What is the deep lake in western Guatemala ringed by escarpments and three volcanoes?
Atitlán
Lake Atitlán, more than 300 metres deep, is the deepest lake in Central America; the volcanoes Atitlán, Tolimán and San Pedro stand over it, and Aldous Huxley called it Lake Como with immense volcanoes added.
Q 16What is the national instrument of Guatemala?
Marimba
The marimba is Guatemala's national instrument; in 1894 Sebastián Hurtado of Quetzaltenango built a chromatic version, adding a second row of wooden bars that works like a piano's black keys.
Q 17In the colonial era, the Captaincy General of Guatemala was a subdivision of which viceroyalty?
New Spain
The Captaincy General of Guatemala, stretching from Chiapas to Costa Rica, answered nominally to the Viceroyalty of New Spain in Mexico City, though its own Audiencia ran day-to-day government.
Q 18Which Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Guatemala was an indigenous rights activist?
Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Rigoberta Menchú Tum won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for indigenous rights during Guatemala's civil war, and later ran for president in 2007 and 2011.
Q 19What does the white stripe on Guatemala's flag symbolize?
Purity and Peace
Purity and peace is the usual reading of the white band; in 1871 Guatemala turned the old federation's blue-white-blue stripes upright so that its flag would stand apart from its neighbours' horizontal ones.
Q 20Which famous Guatemalan author won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967?
Miguel Ángel Asturias
Miguel Ángel Asturias was stripped of his citizenship and driven into exile in 1954; it was restored in 1966, and a year later he won the Nobel while serving as Guatemala's ambassador in Paris.
Q 24In the Popol Vuh, the K'iche' Maya creation story, the gods finally make lasting humans out of what?
Maize
Maize: the gods' people of mud crumbled and their people of wood were swept away in a flood, so the first true humans were shaped from white and yellow corn.
Q 25Which near-constantly active volcano looms southwest of Antigua Guatemala?
Volcán Fuego
Volcán Fuego, called Chi Q'aq' ('where the fire is') in Kaqchikel, erupts almost continuously and straddles the departments of Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepéquez southwest of Antigua.
Q 26The scroll on Guatemala's coat of arms carries the date of independence and which single word?
Libertad
Libertad heads the scroll, above 15 September 1821; the crossed rifles behind it stand for the will to defend the country, the swords for honour and the laurel wreath for victory.
Q 27What political event happened in Guatemala in 1944, often called the 'October Revolution'?
Overthrow of a dictator
The October Revolution was the overthrow of a dictator: on 20 October 1944 officers Jacobo Árbenz and Francisco Arana toppled Federico Ponce Vaides, successor to Jorge Ubico, opening ten years of democratic reform.
Q 28Which of these major rivers forms part of Guatemala's border with Mexico?
Usumacinta River
The Usumacinta River marks part of the frontier with Chiapas; before roads reached this jungle it was the only way through, and the Maya cities of Yaxchilán and Piedras Negras stand on its banks.
Q 29What are the lay brotherhoods that keep up saints' cults in indigenous Guatemalan towns called?
Cofradías
Cofradías began in Europe as lay confraternities gathered around a patron saint; in indigenous towns their officers take turns paying for the saint's fiesta, a burden that also brings prestige.
Q 30Guatemala is the world's biggest exporter of which spice?
Cardamom
Cardamom reached Guatemala before World War I with a German planter; the country was out-producing India by 1980, and it ships nearly the whole crop abroad because Guatemalans barely use it.