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60 free Nazareth trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Nazareth is a small hill town in Galilee that most of the world knows from a single phrase - Jesus of Nazareth - and today it is the largest Arab city in Israel, with a Muslim majority, a Christian minority and two rival churches each claiming the exact spot where the angel spoke to Mary. This Nazareth trivia quiz opens with the easy questions - which angel, which country, which gospel, what the name might mean - and then walks through two thousand years of history: the Roman-era house dug up in 2009, the Crusader prince who made it his capital, the Mamluk sultan who wrecked its churches, the Druze emir and Arab sheikh who let them be rebuilt, Napoleon's brief visit, and the Canadian-born Israeli officer who refused an order to expel its people in 1948. The harder questions dig into the archaeology and the arguments: the synagogue inscription that gave the first non-Christian mention of the town, the marble tablet threatening death to tomb-robbers, the Brutalist basilica finished in 1969, Mary's Well, the Jesus Trail and the twin-town in Tuscany. Because the name travelled, the last stretch covers Nazareth, Pennsylvania - Moravians, Martin guitars, the Andrettis and a certain song by the Band - and the Scottish hard-rock group that borrowed the name. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the city, its churches, the inscription, the Pennsylvania borough and the band, and the sentence that supports each answer is saved with the question. For the wider story, try our Israel and Jesus trivia quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Nazareth is the largest city in which of Israel's six administrative regions?
Northern District
It sits in the hills of Lower Galilee, roughly 25 km from the Sea of Galilee.
Q 02Nazareth is often described as the capital of which community?
The Arab citizens of Israel
It serves as their cultural, political, religious and commercial centre.
Q 03Roughly what share of Nazareth's Arab population is Christian?
31%
The town had a Christian majority through the British Mandate; refugees from the 1948 war shifted the balance.
Q 04Nazareth's population in 2024 was closest to which figure?
76,000
It is the only urban area in Israel with more than 50,000 residents where Arabs are the majority.
Q 05According to Luke, which angel appeared to Mary in Nazareth to announce she would bear Jesus?
Gabriel
Nazareth is also called Mary's home village in Luke; Matthew has the family settle there after returning from Egypt.
Q 06Which Crusader leader captured Galilee in 1099 and made Nazareth his capital?
Tancred
He ruled the Principality of Galilee as a vassal of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Q 07One theory derives the name Nazareth from the Hebrew word 'netzer', which means what?
Branch
It would tie the town to Isaiah's messianic 'branch' from the roots of Jesse; a rival theory prefers a verb meaning 'watch' or 'guard'.
Q 08How many times does the phrase 'Jesus of Nazareth' appear in English translations of the New Testament?
Seventeen
The Greek original actually says 'Jesus the Nazarene' or 'the Nazoraean'.
Q 09In the Quran, Christians are called by which term, understood as 'followers of the Nazarene'?
Naṣārā
The Arabic name of the town itself is an-Nāṣira.
Q 10The first non-Christian reference to Nazareth is a synagogue inscription found in 1962 in which ancient city?
Caesarea Maritima
It lists the priestly families resettled in Galilee after the Bar Kokhba revolt and dates to about AD 300.
Q 11Who gave the earliest non-scriptural mention of the town, calling it 'Nazara' in a text of about AD 221?
Sextus Julius Africanus
He also wrote of the desposynoi, relatives of Jesus who he said kept careful records of their descent.
Q 12What is the 9,000-year-old Neolithic funerary centre about two miles from Nazareth called?
Kfar HaHoresh
Some 65 individuals were found buried under huge plaster structures, some weighing three tons.
Q 13Which Franciscan priest led the major excavations of Nazareth's 'Venerated Area' from 1955 to 1965?
Bellarmino Bagatti
Q 21Which Mamluk sultan destroyed Nazareth's Christian buildings in 1263 and barred Latin clergy?
Baybars
Pilgrims in 1294 found only a small church protecting the grotto.
Q 22In 1620 which Druze emir let the Franciscans build a church at the Grotto of the Annunciation?
Fakhr-al-Din II
The friars had been evicted from the ruined basilica in 1584.
Q 23Which 18th-century Arab ruler of the Galilee turned Nazareth from a village into a large town?
Daher al-Umar
He let the Franciscans build a church in 1730 and the Greek Orthodox build theirs in 1767, and his Seraya was the town hall until 1991.
He found Middle Bronze Age pottery and Iron Age silos and grinding mills in the basin.
Q 14To what maximum did James F. Strange revise his estimate of Nazareth's population in the time of Christ?
480
His first calculation had been roughly 1,600 to 2,000 people.
Q 15In 2009 Yardenna Alexandre announced the first find of what from the village of Jesus's day?
A house
It stands next to the Basilica of the Annunciation and is displayed in the International Marian Center.
Q 16Around 570 the Anonymous of Piacenza reported seeing what in Nazareth's synagogue?
The bench where Jesus sat
He claimed Christians could lift it but Jews could not.
Q 17Which Byzantine emperor expelled the Jews from Nazareth in 629-630 after driving out the Persians?
Heraclius
A Christian author claimed Nazareth's Jews had helped the Persian invaders of 614.
Q 18Bishop Arculf, visiting around 670, remembered seeing how many churches in Nazareth?
2
One stood at Joseph's house and one at Mary's; the synagogue may already have become a mosque.
Q 19Which 1187 clash returned Nazareth to Muslim control and forced out the Crusaders?
Battle of Hattin
The remaining Crusaders and European clergy were forced out of the town.
Q 20Which French king attended mass in the Grotto of the Annunciation in 1251, accompanied by his wife?
Louis IX
Frederick II had negotiated safe passage for pilgrims from Acre in 1229.
Q 24Which French leader briefly captured Nazareth in 1799 during his Syrian campaign?
Napoleon Bonaparte
He toured the holy sites and toyed with naming one of his generals duke of Nazareth.
Q 25Which general did Napoleon consider appointing as duke of Nazareth?
Jean-Andoche Junot
The title never materialised; Junot later became Duke of Abrantes instead.
Q 26Kaloost Vartan's 1864 Nazareth medical mission was sponsored by a missionary society based in which city?
Edinburgh
The 'hospital on the hill' is still known as the Nazareth Hospital, or the English Hospital.
Q 27In the 1922 British census, roughly what percentage of Nazareth's 7,424 residents were Christian?
66%
About a third were Muslim and around one percent Jewish; 16 languages were recorded.
Q 28Nazareth delayed which utility until the 1930s while it improved its water supply?
Wired electricity
Two reservoirs and several new cisterns were built instead.
Q 29Which British district commissioner of Galilee was assassinated in Nazareth in September 1937?
Lewis Andrews
Rebel leaders wanted to use Nazareth to protest the plan to put Galilee inside a Jewish state.
Q 30Nazareth surrendered to Israeli troops on 16 July 1948 during which named military offensive?
Operation Dekel
The Muslim mayor asked residents to stop all resistance to spare the town from destruction.