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98 free Turkey trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free Turkey trivia questions with answers. Straddling two continents, Turkey is a land where ancient empires, stunning landscapes, and rich traditions collide. From the domes of Istanbul to the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia, how well do you know this extraordinary country?
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Q 01What is the capital city of Turkey?
Ankara
Ankara has been Turkey's capital since 1923, when Atatürk's new republic moved the government away from Istanbul; two millennia earlier, as Ancyra, it was the centre of Celtic Galatia.
Q 02Which strait separates the European and Asian sides of Istanbul?
Bosphorus
The Bosphorus (also spelled Bosporus) is the narrow strait that divides Istanbul into European and Asian halves, connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara.
Q 03Turkey is located on how many continents?
Two
Turkey spans two continents: Anatolia lies in Asia, while East Thrace in Europe holds only about three percent of the land but most of Istanbul.
Q 04What is the largest city in Turkey by population?
Istanbul
Istanbul is by far Turkey's largest city, with a population of more than 15 million; the capital Ankara is a distant second at around 5 million.
Q 05Cappadocia's fairy chimneys were formed by erosion of what type of rock?
Volcanic tuff
The fairy chimneys are eroded from volcanic tuff, soft compacted ash laid down by ancient eruptions of Mount Erciyes, Mount Hasan and Göllüdağ, often capped by harder basalt.
Q 06Pamukkale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Turkey, is famous for white terraces made of what?
Travertine
The terraces are travertine, a limestone deposited by calcium-rich hot springs; Pamukkale means 'Cotton Castle', and the Greco-Roman spa city of Hierapolis was built on top of it.
Q 07Which sea borders Turkey to the north?
Black Sea
The Black Sea forms Turkey's whole northern coast, from the Bulgarian border to Georgia; the Mediterranean lies to the south, the Aegean to the west, and the Caspian never touches Turkey.
Q 08Mount Ararat, the highest peak in Turkey, is traditionally associated with which biblical event?
Noah's Ark coming to rest
Noah's Ark coming to rest there is a medieval identification with the Bible's 'mountains of Ararat'; the 5,137 m peak even appears, ark and all, on the coat of arms of neighbouring Armenia.
Q 09The Dardanelles strait connects the Aegean Sea to which body of water?
Sea of Marmara
The Dardanelles (also called the Strait of Gallipoli) connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. From there, the Bosphorus connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea.
Q 10Who was the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923?
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923, after leading the Turkish War of Independence. He served as its first president until his death in 1938.
Q 11Which Ottoman sultan conquered Constantinople in 1453?
Mehmed II
Sultan Mehmed II, known as Mehmed the Conqueror, captured Constantinople on May 29, 1453, at just 21 years old, ending over 1,000 years of Byzantine rule.
Q 12Who became Turkey's second president after Atatürk died in 1938?
İsmet İnönü
İsmet İnönü, Atatürk's long-serving prime minister, was elected president the day after Atatürk died; parliament titled him Millî Şef, 'National Chief', and he kept Turkey out of the Second World War until 1945.
Q 13Who began excavating the mound of Hisarlık, identified as Troy, in 1871?
Heinrich Schliemann
Q 21The blue glass nazar boncuğu, seen across Turkey, is meant to protect against what?
The evil eye
The evil eye is what the nazar wards off; the word comes from Arabic for 'sight', and Greeks call the same charm a máti, simply 'eye'.
Q 22What is the longest river lying entirely within Turkey?
Kızılırmak
The Kızılırmak, 'Red River', the ancient Halys, runs about 1,355 km in a great arc through Anatolia to the Black Sea; the Euphrates and Tigris are longer but flow on into Syria and Iraq.
Q 23What layered Turkish dessert is made with phyllo dough, nuts and honey or syrup?
Baklava
Baklava is built from dozens of filo sheets, each brushed with melted butter before the next goes on, layered with chopped pistachios or walnuts and soaked in syrup after baking.
Heinrich Schliemann, a self-made merchant, dug at Hisarlık from 1871 with Frank Calvert's guidance and in 1873 announced 'Priam's Treasure', a hoard he smuggled out of the Ottoman Empire.
Q 14The Gallipoli Campaign of 1915-1916, fought over the Dardanelles, was part of which war?
World War I
World War I's Gallipoli campaign saw Ottoman forces, commanded in part by Mustafa Kemal, later Atatürk, hold the Dardanelles against the Allied landings.
Q 15Which Ottoman sultan of the 16th-century golden age was known in the West as 'the Magnificent'?
Suleiman I
Suleiman I (r. 1520-1566) took Belgrade and Rhodes, crushed Hungary at Mohács in 1526 and besieged Vienna in 1529; his legal reforms earned him the Turkish title Kanuni, 'the Lawgiver'.
Q 16Ephesus, home to one of the Seven Wonders, lies beside which present-day Turkish town?
Selçuk
Ephesus lies just outside Selçuk in İzmir Province; its Temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders, and the two-storey façade of the Library of Celsus still stands.
Q 17Constantinople was the capital of which empire for more than a millennium before the Ottoman conquest of 1453?
Byzantium
Byzantium, the Eastern Roman Empire, was ruled from Constantinople from 330 until Mehmed II's Ottomans took the city in 1453.
Q 18In which year was the Ottoman sultanate abolished, ending the empire?
1922
The Grand National Assembly abolished it on November 1, 1922; Mehmed VI left the country on November 17, and the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on October 29, 1923.
Q 19What is the traditional Turkish bath experience called?
Hammam
A hammam is the Turkish steam bath, centred on a heated marble platform, the göbek taşı, where bathers are scrubbed; Ottoman baths continued the Roman and Byzantine bathhouse tradition.
Q 20What is the name of the whirling spiritual dance performed by Sufi practitioners in Turkey?
Sema
The sema is the whirling ceremony of the Mevlevi dervishes; the word means 'listening' in Arabic, and the order traces the rite to the 13th-century poet Rumi himself.
Q 24What do Turks call the starch-and-sugar sweet the English know as 'Turkish delight'?
Lokum
Lokum is a gel of starch and sugar, flavoured with rosewater, mastic or citrus and dusted with powdered sugar; Istanbul confectioners were selling it by the late 18th century.
Q 25Which Turkish drink is made from yoghurt whisked with cold water and salt?
Ayran
Ayran is yoghurt whisked with cold water and salt, the standard partner to kebabs; boza is a fermented grain drink, şalgam a purple turnip juice and şıra unfermented grape must.
Q 26What is the name of Istanbul's historic covered market, one of the largest and oldest in the world?
Grand Bazaar
The Grand Bazaar (Kapali Carsi) in Istanbul dates to 1461 and is one of the world's largest and oldest covered markets, with over 4,000 shops across 61 covered streets, attracting up to 400,000 visitors daily.
Q 27Which southeastern Turkish city is considered the world capital of baklava?
Gaziantep
The recipe arrived in 1871 with a local named Çelebi Güllü, who learned it from a Syrian chef in Damascus; in 2013 Gaziantep baklava became the first Turkish product with EU protected status.
Q 28Turkish coffee is traditionally brewed in what small long-handled pot?
Cezve
The cezve, a small long-handled pot usually made of copper, takes its name from the Arabic for 'ember'; a demlik is a teapot and a fincan the tiny cup the coffee is served in.
Q 29What was Istanbul's Hagia Sophia originally built as?
Christian cathedral
Hagia Sophia was built as the Christian cathedral of Constantinople, completed under Emperor Justinian in AD 537; its 31-metre dome crowned the world's largest church for nearly a thousand years.
Q 30What gives Istanbul's Blue Mosque its nickname?
Its interior tiles
The nickname comes from its interior tiles: more than 20,000 blue-painted İznik tiles line the walls. Officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, it was completed in 1616 and has been a UNESCO site since 1985.