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60 free Saunas trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This saunas trivia quiz covers the hot room in all its forms, from the Finnish smoke sauna to the Russian banya, the Turkish hammam, the Mesoamerican temazcal and the Korean jjimjilbang. The easy questions are the ones any regular knows: what you throw water on, which country has more saunas than cars, what the birch bundle is for, and why the top bench is the hottest. From there it moves into the words (löyly, kiuas, vihta, Aufguss), the science of why 100 °C air does not cook you, and the etiquette that differs from Germany to Japan. The hard end covers the sauna's history and its stranger corners: the Neolithic stone structures of Orkney, the 15th-century Korean kiln saunas backed by King Sejong, the year the electric stove arrived, the world championships that ended with a death, the sauna 1,400 metres down a Finnish mine, the sauna in a Helsinki Ferris wheel gondola, and John Harvey Kellogg's electric light bath. There is also a run of questions on health, since sauna research is a genuine field. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the sauna, the Finnish sauna, the banya, the hammam and related traditions, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Finnic languages other than Finnish and Estonian, the word "sauna" and its cognates can also simply mean what?
A small cabin or cottage
In Finnish itself the word covers both the bath and the bathhouse, and it is the best-known Finnicism in many languages.
Q 02What is the Finnish word for the steam and heat produced when water is thrown on the hot stones?
Löyly
The Estonian equivalent is leili; a Helsinki public sauna opened in 2016 borrowed the word as its name.
Q 03In sauna vocabulary, what is the kiuas?
The stove and its rock pile
Modern versions are wood-burning metal stoves with a chimney, or electric heaters.
Q 04The bundle of leafy birch twigs used to gently beat the skin in a Finnish sauna is called a vihta or what?
Vasta
Vihta is the western Finnish word; venik is the Russian, viht the Estonian and vanta the Lithuanian.
Q 05The earliest Finnish saunas were of which type, heated for hours with no chimney and then aired before bathing?
Smoke sauna
The savusauna tradition nearly died out but was revived by enthusiasts in the 1980s.
Q 06For roughly how many hours is a traditional savusauna's rock pile fired before use?
6 to 8
Properly heated, it then yields heat for up to 12 hours.
Q 07The electric sauna stove was introduced in 1938 by Metos Ltd in which Finnish city?
Vaasa
Electric stoves are now the most common type in urban saunas.
Q 08Sauna culture in Finland was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in which year?
2020
The savusauna tradition of Võromaa in Estonia had been listed six years earlier.
Q 09The Finnish Sauna Society estimates Finland may have as many as how many saunas, for a population of about 5.5 million?
3,200,000
Official registers list at least 2 million.
Q 10Which day of the week is the traditional sauna day in Finland?
Saturday
Most Finns with the chance take at least one sauna a week.
Q 11Finland's deepest sauna sits about 1,400 metres underground in which mine?
Pyhäsalmi
Saunas are also found in corporate headquarters and the Parliament House.
Q 12A Second World War Finnish military field manual said a battalion needed how long a break to build saunas, warm them and bathe?
Eight hours
Finnish peacekeepers in Eritrea made a sauna one of the first buildings they put up.
Q 13Helsinki has a sauna built into one of the gondolas of what?
A Ferris wheel
The SkyWheel Helsinki offers a sauna cabin with a view over the harbour.
Q 21Why does the higher bench in a sauna feel hotter?
Hot air rises
Children are often seated on the lower benches; fresh steam can also be strongest in the far corners.
Q 22What was the starting temperature in the men's competition at the World Sauna Championships in Heinola?
110 °C
Half a litre of water was thrown on the stove every 30 seconds; the last person to walk out unaided won.
Q 23The World Sauna Championships were held annually from 1999 until they were stopped after a competitor's death in which year?
2010
Russian finalist Vladimir Ladyzhensky died in hospital; the reigning champion was also badly hurt.
Q 14Rajaportin Sauna, a public sauna established in 1906 by Hermanni and Maria Lahtinen, is in which Finnish city?
Tampere
It is often described as the oldest public sauna still operating in Finland.
Q 15A Helsinki public sauna that opened in 2016 on the Hernesaari shore, and made Time's 2018 list of the World's 100 Greatest Places, is owned by which Finnish actor?
Jasper Pääkkönen
Designed by Avanto Architects, the wooden building on the Hernesaari shore doubles as an outdoor auditorium.
Q 16According to Guinness, the world's largest sauna, the Koi Sauna, is at a thermal complex in Sinsheim in which country?
Germany
It measures 166 square metres, holds 150 people and has its own koi aquarium.
Q 17How did sauna culture spread to Central Europe after the Second World War?
Soldiers who had fought alongside Finland
Finnish soldiers built saunas in tents and even bunkers; the German visitors took the habit home.
Q 18In German-speaking countries, the ritual of pouring water on the stones and fanning the heat with a towel is called what?
Aufguss
It is led by a Saunameister; entering the sauna once the session has begun is considered bad manners.
Q 19Why can people tolerate sauna air of 100 °C when such temperatures would otherwise be fatal?
The humidity is kept low
Steam baths such as the hammam, where humidity approaches 100%, must be kept much cooler.
Q 20Because humidity approaches 100%, a hammam-style steam bath is typically kept at roughly what temperature?
50 °C
Any hotter and the wet heat would scald.
Q 24Who won the men's World Sauna Championships five years running from 2005 to 2009?
Timo Kaukonen
There were no real prizes; one year he received a set of speakers designed for home saunas.
Q 25Some spas offer "cold saunas" or cryotherapy rooms operating at roughly what temperature?
-110 °C
Users stay inside for only a few minutes.
Q 26A modern electric sauna typically takes how long to heat up?
15-30 minutes
A wood-fired continuous stove takes about an hour; a heat-storage stove much longer.
Q 27In Russia, bathers may wear a special hat made of which material to shield the head from the heat?
Felt
Protecting the head lets the wearer take more heat on the rest of the body.
Q 28A traditional Russian banya usually has how many rooms?
Three
A steam room, a washing room and an entrance room.
Q 29Which Moscow bathhouse is the most historically renowned of Russia's banyas?
Sanduny
The banya has been documented since the 12th-century Primary Chronicle.
Q 30In the Primary Chronicle, which ruler of Kievan Rus' had a bathhouse locked and set on fire to kill a Drevlian delegation?
Olga of Kiev
She had invited them to wash before meeting her; the story is one of the earliest written mentions of the banya.