Famous Explorers Quiz
From Marco Polo to the Moon landing: 15 questions on the explorers who redrew the map.
In which year did Christopher Columbus first reach the Americas?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1492
Columbus sailed from Spain in August 1492 with the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María and sighted land in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, convinced he had reached Asia.
Columbus made four voyages in total and died in 1506 still insisting he had found a route to the Indies.
Which mission carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the first Moon landing in 1969?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Apollo 11
Apollo 11's lunar module Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility on 20 July 1969, and Armstrong stepped onto the surface while Michael Collins orbited above in the command module.
Apollo 10 had flown a full dress rehearsal two months earlier, descending to within about 15 km (9 miles) of the lunar surface without landing.
Which merchant traveler spent years at the court of Kublai Khan and dictated a famous account of his journeys?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Marco Polo
Marco Polo left Venice in 1271 and spent about 17 years in the service of Kublai Khan before returning in 1295, later dictating his story to a fellow prisoner in a Genoese jail.
His book inspired Columbus, whose own annotated copy of Marco Polo's travels still survives in Seville.
Whose expedition completed the first voyage around the world, even though he was killed in the Philippines in 1521?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Ferdinand Magellan
Magellan left Spain in 1519 with five ships, found the strait at the tip of South America that bears his name and crossed the Pacific, but was killed in a battle on Mactan in April 1521.
The expedition gave the Pacific its name: Magellan called it Mar Pacífico, the peaceful sea, after the calm waters he met there.
Who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole, in December 1911?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Roald Amundsen
Amundsen's Norwegian team reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911 using dog sleds and skis, arriving about five weeks before Scott's British party, which died on the return journey.
Amundsen had originally planned to go to the North Pole and only told his crew about the switch to Antarctica once they were at sea.
Who became the first human to travel into space, in April 1961?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Yuri Gagarin
Gagarin orbited the Earth once aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961 in a flight lasting 108 minutes, beating the American Alan Shepard into space by about three weeks.
Gagarin never flew in space again and died in a training jet crash in 1968 at the age of 34.
The name America derives from which Italian navigator who explored South America's coast around 1500?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Amerigo Vespucci
German mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller labeled the new continent America on his 1507 world map in honor of Vespucci, who had argued that the lands were a new world rather than part of Asia.
Waldseemüller's 1507 map, the first to use the name, was bought by the US Library of Congress in 2003 for 10 million dollars.
Which British navigator charted the east coast of Australia in 1770 and claimed it for Britain?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
James Cook
Aboard HMS Endeavour, Cook sighted Australia's east coast in April 1770, charted it northward and claimed it at Possession Island near Cape York, naming the territory New South Wales.
Endeavour's naturalist Joseph Banks collected so many unfamiliar plants that Cook named their first landing place Botany Bay.
Which Portuguese explorer was the first European to reach India by sea, arriving at Calicut in 1498?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Vasco da Gama
Da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the Indian Ocean to reach Calicut in May 1498, opening a sea route that let Portugal dominate the spice trade for a century.
Bartolomeu Dias had rounded the Cape a decade earlier in 1488 but turned back before reaching India.
Which Chinese admiral commanded huge treasure fleets that sailed as far as East Africa between 1405 and 1433?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Zheng He
Zheng He, a Muslim eunuch in the service of the Yongle Emperor, led seven voyages with fleets of hundreds of ships that reached Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and the Swahili coast.
His largest ships were reportedly several times the size of Columbus's Santa María, and one voyage brought a giraffe back to the Ming court.
Which explorer's ship Endurance was crushed by pack ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Ernest Shackleton
Shackleton's Endurance was trapped in ice in January 1915 and sank that November, after which he led all 27 of his men to safety in an epic of survival lasting nearly two years.
The wreck of Endurance was found in March 2022 at a depth of about 3,000 m (10,000 ft), remarkably well preserved by the cold water.
Which Sherpa mountaineer reached the summit of Everest with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Tenzing Norgay
Tenzing Norgay, on his seventh Everest expedition, and the New Zealander Edmund Hillary became the first people confirmed to stand on the summit at 8,849 m (29,032 ft).
News of the ascent reached London on the morning of Elizabeth II's coronation, 2 June 1953.
Where was Captain James Cook killed in a clash with islanders in February 1779?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Hawaii
Cook was killed on 14 February 1779 at Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaii after a dispute over a stolen boat escalated into a fight on the beach.
Cook was the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands, which he named the Sandwich Islands after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich.
Who took command after Magellan's death and brought the ship Victoria back to Spain in 1522?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Juan Sebastián Elcano
The Basque navigator Elcano led the Victoria across the Indian Ocean and around Africa, reaching Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522 with just 18 of the roughly 240 men who had set out.
The Spanish king granted Elcano a coat of arms showing a globe with the Latin motto Primus circumdedisti me, meaning 'You first circled me'.
Who was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas, crossing the Isthmus of Panama in 1513?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama with a small force in September 1513, waded into the ocean in full armor and claimed it and all its shores for the Spanish crown.
Balboa was beheaded in 1519 on trumped-up treason charges ordered by his rival and father-in-law, the governor Pedrarias Dávila.
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All History quizzes →About the Famous Explorers Quiz
Marco Polo spent 17 years at the court of Kublai Khan. Magellan's expedition circled the globe but only 18 men came home. Captain Cook charted Australia and died on a Hawaiian beach, and in 1969 Neil Armstrong took exploration off the planet altogether.
These 15 questions cover the great names of discovery on land, sea and in space: Columbus and Vespucci, Vasco da Gama, the Chinese admiral Zheng He, Amundsen's race to the South Pole, Shackleton's Endurance, Tenzing and Hillary on Everest, and Gagarin's first orbit. Expect famous dates early on and harder questions about Elcano and Balboa near the end. Ideal for geography lovers and pub quiz regulars.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
Which explorers are in this quiz?
Columbus, Marco Polo, Magellan, Elcano, Vasco da Gama, Vespucci, Balboa, Zheng He, James Cook, Amundsen, Shackleton, Tenzing Norgay, Yuri Gagarin and the Apollo 11 crew.
Who was the first person to sail around the world?
Magellan started the voyage in 1519 but died in the Philippines; the Basque navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the circumnavigation in 1522.
Is this explorers quiz hard?
It is medium overall. Most players know Columbus and Armstrong, while Elcano, Balboa and the dates of Zheng He's voyages separate the true explorers.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- In which year did Christopher Columbus first reach the Americas?
1492 Columbus sailed from Spain in August 1492 with the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María and sighted land in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, convinced he had reached Asia. Columbus made four voyages in total and died in 1506 still insisting he had found a route to the Indies. - Which mission carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the first Moon landing in 1969?
Apollo 11 Apollo 11's lunar module Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility on 20 July 1969, and Armstrong stepped onto the surface while Michael Collins orbited above in the command module. Apollo 10 had flown a full dress rehearsal two months earlier, descending to within about 15 km (9 miles) of the lunar surface without landing. - Which merchant traveler spent years at the court of Kublai Khan and dictated a famous account of his journeys?
Marco Polo Marco Polo left Venice in 1271 and spent about 17 years in the service of Kublai Khan before returning in 1295, later dictating his story to a fellow prisoner in a Genoese jail. His book inspired Columbus, whose own annotated copy of Marco Polo's travels still survives in Seville. - Whose expedition completed the first voyage around the world, even though he was killed in the Philippines in 1521?
Ferdinand Magellan Magellan left Spain in 1519 with five ships, found the strait at the tip of South America that bears his name and crossed the Pacific, but was killed in a battle on Mactan in April 1521. The expedition gave the Pacific its name: Magellan called it Mar Pacífico, the peaceful sea, after the calm waters he met there. - Who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole, in December 1911?
Roald Amundsen Amundsen's Norwegian team reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911 using dog sleds and skis, arriving about five weeks before Scott's British party, which died on the return journey. Amundsen had originally planned to go to the North Pole and only told his crew about the switch to Antarctica once they were at sea. - Who became the first human to travel into space, in April 1961?
Yuri Gagarin Gagarin orbited the Earth once aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961 in a flight lasting 108 minutes, beating the American Alan Shepard into space by about three weeks. Gagarin never flew in space again and died in a training jet crash in 1968 at the age of 34. - The name America derives from which Italian navigator who explored South America's coast around 1500?
Amerigo Vespucci German mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller labeled the new continent America on his 1507 world map in honor of Vespucci, who had argued that the lands were a new world rather than part of Asia. Waldseemüller's 1507 map, the first to use the name, was bought by the US Library of Congress in 2003 for 10 million dollars. - Which British navigator charted the east coast of Australia in 1770 and claimed it for Britain?
James Cook Aboard HMS Endeavour, Cook sighted Australia's east coast in April 1770, charted it northward and claimed it at Possession Island near Cape York, naming the territory New South Wales. Endeavour's naturalist Joseph Banks collected so many unfamiliar plants that Cook named their first landing place Botany Bay. - Which Portuguese explorer was the first European to reach India by sea, arriving at Calicut in 1498?
Vasco da Gama Da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the Indian Ocean to reach Calicut in May 1498, opening a sea route that let Portugal dominate the spice trade for a century. Bartolomeu Dias had rounded the Cape a decade earlier in 1488 but turned back before reaching India. - Which Chinese admiral commanded huge treasure fleets that sailed as far as East Africa between 1405 and 1433?
Zheng He Zheng He, a Muslim eunuch in the service of the Yongle Emperor, led seven voyages with fleets of hundreds of ships that reached Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and the Swahili coast. His largest ships were reportedly several times the size of Columbus's Santa María, and one voyage brought a giraffe back to the Ming court. - Which explorer's ship Endurance was crushed by pack ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915?
Ernest Shackleton Shackleton's Endurance was trapped in ice in January 1915 and sank that November, after which he led all 27 of his men to safety in an epic of survival lasting nearly two years. The wreck of Endurance was found in March 2022 at a depth of about 3,000 m (10,000 ft), remarkably well preserved by the cold water. - Which Sherpa mountaineer reached the summit of Everest with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953?
Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay, on his seventh Everest expedition, and the New Zealander Edmund Hillary became the first people confirmed to stand on the summit at 8,849 m (29,032 ft). News of the ascent reached London on the morning of Elizabeth II's coronation, 2 June 1953. - Where was Captain James Cook killed in a clash with islanders in February 1779?
Hawaii Cook was killed on 14 February 1779 at Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaii after a dispute over a stolen boat escalated into a fight on the beach. Cook was the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands, which he named the Sandwich Islands after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. - Who took command after Magellan's death and brought the ship Victoria back to Spain in 1522?
Juan Sebastián Elcano The Basque navigator Elcano led the Victoria across the Indian Ocean and around Africa, reaching Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522 with just 18 of the roughly 240 men who had set out. The Spanish king granted Elcano a coat of arms showing a globe with the Latin motto Primus circumdedisti me, meaning 'You first circled me'. - Who was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas, crossing the Isthmus of Panama in 1513?
Vasco Núñez de Balboa Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama with a small force in September 1513, waded into the ocean in full armor and claimed it and all its shores for the Spanish crown. Balboa was beheaded in 1519 on trumped-up treason charges ordered by his rival and father-in-law, the governor Pedrarias Dávila.
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