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50 free Tunisia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Tunisia is where Africa reaches furthest north, where Carthage rose and fell, and where the Arab Spring began, and this quiz covers all of it: Dido and the Phoenicians, Hannibal and three Punic Wars, Roman Africa and the amphitheatre at El Jem, the Vandals and Belisarius, Kairouan's Great Mosque, the Aghlabids and Hafsids, Barbarossa and the beys, the French protectorate of 1881, Bourguiba's republic, Ben Ali's 23 years and the street vendor whose death in Sidi Bouzid toppled him. Easy questions ask for the capital, the neighbours, the sea and the desert; the harder ones want the goddess on the film festival prize, the highest peak, the salt lake below sea level, the island with a 2,600-year-old Jewish community, the beach town that inspired Luke Skywalker's home planet and the four groups that shared the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. There is also harissa, brik and couscous, Sidi Bou Said's blue doors, the Eagles of Carthage, Oussama Mellouli's golds and Ons Jabeur's Wimbledon finals. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its cities and its history, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which port city is Tunisia's second-largest city by population?
Sfax
Sfax is Tunisia's second-largest city, a Mediterranean port whose rectangular walled medina dates from the 9th century; ferries link it to the Kerkennah Islands offshore.
Q 02Tunisia is bordered by Libya and which other country?
Algeria
The Algerian border runs 965 km on the west; Libya's is 459 km in the south-east. The Mediterranean covers the rest.
Q 03The ruins of which Phoenician-founded ancient city lie just outside the Tunisian capital?
Carthage
Legend credits Queen Dido of Tyre with founding it in 814 BC. Utica, further north, was an even earlier Phoenician settlement.
Q 04Which Carthaginian general crossed the Alps with war elephants in 218 BC?
Hannibal
Hannibal led his army and its war elephants over the Alps in 218 BC and crushed Rome at Cannae in 216 BC, before being recalled to Africa and beaten at Zama in 202 BC.
Q 05In which year did Rome finally destroy its great rival at the end of the Third Punic War?
146 BC
In 146 BC Scipio Aemilianus took the city after a three-year siege, razed it and sold the survivors into slavery; the territory became the Roman province of Africa, a name that later spread to the whole continent.
Q 06The huge Roman amphitheatre at El Jem stood in which ancient city?
Thysdrus
Thysdrus, a prosperous Roman market town, built the amphitheatre around AD 238; able to seat some 35,000 spectators, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
Q 07Which Germanic people ruled a kingdom in Tunisia from 430 to 533 AD before Belisarius reconquered it?
The Vandals
The Vandals under Gaiseric crossed from Spain in 429 and took the Roman capital of Africa in 439; Justinian's general Belisarius destroyed their kingdom in 533-534, opening some 165 years of Byzantine rule.
Q 08Which Tunisian city, founded around 670 AD, has the world's oldest standing minaret?
Kairouan
Kairouan, founded by Uqba ibn Nafi about 670 AD as the first Muslim city in the Maghreb, grew around the Great Mosque of Uqba, whose minaret is the oldest surviving minaret in the world; UNESCO listed the city in 1988.
Q 09Which Ottoman corsair captured Tunis in 1534, though the Ottomans did not hold it permanently until 1574?
Barbarossa Hayreddin
Barbarossa Hayreddin, the Ottoman admiral, took the city in 1534, but Charles V's Spanish-led expedition retook it in 1535; Uluç Ali finally secured it for the Ottomans in 1574.
Q 10In 1881 France made Tunisia a protectorate under a document signed at which palace near Tunis?
Bardo
The Treaty of Bardo, signed on 12 May 1881 at the Bey's palace complex outside the capital, let France occupy the country with about 36,000 troops, citing Khroumir tribal raids across the western border as its pretext.
Q 11In which year did Tunisia gain independence from France?
1956
France recognised Tunisian independence on 20 March 1956, the date kept as Independence Day; the new state joined the United Nations in November of the same year.
Q 12Who was Tunisia's first president, known as the 'Supreme Combatant'?
Habib Bourguiba
Habib Bourguiba led the independence movement and served as president for thirty years until his prime minister had doctors declare him unfit in November 1987; his Code of Personal Status banned polygamy and abolished repudiation.
Q 13Which president fled Tunisia on 14 January 2011 after 23 years in power?
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Q 21What is Tunisia's highest mountain?
Jebel ech Chambi
Jebel ech Chambi rises 1,544 metres near Kasserine in the country's west, at the eastern end of the Atlas ranges; Chambi National Park, created in 1980, protects its forested slopes.
Q 22Chott el Djerid in southern Tunisia is what kind of geographic feature?
A salt lake
A salt lake that is dry for most of the year, Chott el Djerid lies between Tozeur and Kebili; a causeway crosses its bed, and its cracked crust near Nefta played the Lars homestead exterior in Star Wars.
Q 23Underground Berber homes in which Tunisian town served as Luke Skywalker's home in Star Wars?
Matmata
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, president since November 1987, flew to Saudi Arabia on 14 January 2011 as protests spread; his wife's Trabelsi family had controlled much of the economy, and he died in exile in Jeddah in 2019.
Q 14The 2011 revolution was sparked when street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in which town?
Sidi Bouzid
Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight outside the governor's office in Sidi Bouzid on 17 December 2010 after an official confiscated his produce cart; his death on 4 January 2011 fuelled the protests that toppled the regime.
Q 15The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize went to which Tunisian body of four civil-society groups?
The National Dialogue Quartet
The National Dialogue Quartet — the UGTT labour union, the UTICA employers' federation, the human rights league and the bar association — won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for steering the country back from crisis after two assassinations in 2013.
Q 16Which president suspended Tunisia's parliament and dismissed the prime minister on 25 July 2021?
Kais Saied
Kais Saied, a law professor elected president in 2019, invoked Article 80 of the constitution on 25 July 2021 to freeze parliament and sack prime minister Hichem Mechichi; he ruled by decree and imposed a new constitution the following year.
Q 17The June 2015 attack that killed 38 tourists on a beach took place at which resort?
Port El Kantaoui
Port El Kantaoui, the marina resort just north of Sousse, was where a gunman killed 38 tourists, 30 of them British, on the beach of the Riu Imperial Marhaba hotel on 26 June 2015.
Q 18Tunisia's crescent-and-star flag was created after which 1827 battle?
Navarino
After the Tunisian fleet was lost alongside the Ottoman navy at Navarino in 1827, Hussein II Bey created the red crescent-and-star flag so his ships could be told apart; it was adopted in 1831 and confirmed by the 1959 constitution.
Q 19Tunisia's currency, the dinar, is unusually divided into how many millimes?
1,000
The Tunisian dinar, introduced in 1960 to replace the franc, is divided into 1,000 millimes; the dinars of Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq are likewise split into 1,000 fils.
Q 20Cape Angela in Tunisia holds what geographic distinction?
Africa's northernmost point
Cape Angela, on the northern coast, is Africa's northernmost point; a 2014 remeasurement showed it lies slightly further north than Ras ben Sakka on nearby Cape Blanc, which had long held the title.
Matmata's troglodyte dwellings, dug into the earth around open courtyards, supplied the interior of the Lars homestead; the Hotel Sidi Driss pit-house played Luke's home in the 1977 film and again in 2002.
Q 24Which pepper variety, grown around Nabeul, is the traditional base of Tunisian harissa?
Baklouti
Baklouti, a red chilli grown around Nabeul on Cape Bon, is sun-dried and pounded with garlic, salt, coriander and caraway to make harissa, which UNESCO inscribed as intangible cultural heritage in December 2022.
Q 25The clifftop village of Sidi Bou Said near Tunis is famous for buildings painted in which two colours?
Blue and white
Blue and white became Sidi Bou Said's signature palette in the 1920s, popularised by Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger, whose palace Ennejma Ezzahra later became a centre for Arab and Mediterranean music.
Q 26The El Ghriba synagogue, one of the world's oldest in continuous use, is on which Tunisian island?
Djerba
Djerba's El Ghriba synagogue, in the village of Erriadh, hosts an annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage; legend says it holds a stone from Solomon's Temple, and the island's Jewish community traces itself to 586 BC.
Q 27The Tanit d'or, top prize at Tunisia's main film festival, is named after what?
A Carthaginian goddess
A Carthaginian goddess, Tanit, gives the Tanit d'or its name, and her raised-arms symbol marks the trophy; the festival, founded in 1966, was held every two years until it became annual in 2014.
Q 28In which year did Tunisia beat Mexico 3-1 for Africa's first World Cup finals win?
1978
At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, Tunisia came from behind to beat Mexico 3-1 in Rosario, the first victory by an African side at the finals; they then held holders West Germany to a 0-0 draw.
Q 29In which year did Tunisia win the Africa Cup of Nations as hosts?
2004
Tunisia won the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations as hosts, beating Morocco 2-1 in the final at Radès on 14 February 2004 with goals from Francileudo dos Santos and Ziad Jaziri.
Q 30Swimmer Oussama Mellouli won Olympic gold in 2008 in the 1500m freestyle and in 2012 in which event?
The 10 km marathon swim
The 10 km marathon swim in the Serpentine at London 2012 gave Mellouli gold days after his 1500 m freestyle bronze, making him the first swimmer to medal in both pool and open water at a single Games.