Terrific Tanzania! Trivia Quiz

Answer: 8

Tanzania has a lot of neighbors! To its northeast is Kenya. To its northwest is Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. To its west lies Democratic Republic of the Congo. To its southwest is Zambia. And to its south is Malawi and Mozambique.

Answer: Lake Natron

Lake Natron is a beautiful but dangerous lake in Tanzania that looks like a giant bowl of bright red juice from space. The lake gets its color from tiny red creatures that live in the water, which is filled with a burning, salty chemical called natron from a nearby volcano.

While the water is so harsh it can burn human skin and turn dead birds into hardened stony statues, it is actually a safe paradise for millions of flamingos. These pink birds have tough skin that protects them from the burning chemicals, making the lake the perfect place for them to nest and raise their babies away from predators.

Answer: Indian Ocean

Tanzania's eastern coast meets the warm Indian Ocean. It is a place of bright turquoise water and beautiful white sand beaches. It is a fantastic place for tropical exploring, where the waves constantly crash against shores famous for their historic trading ports. Underwater, the ocean is like a crowded, colorful city filled with giant coral reefs, playful dolphins, sea turtles, and massive humpback whales.

In fact, scientists even discovered a super rare, prehistoric fish called the coelacanth swimming off Tanzania's coast--a creature that has been around since the time of the dinosaurs.

Answer: Mt Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro is a giant, sleeping volcano in Tanzania that holds the world record for being the tallest free-standing mountain on Earth, meaning it stands all by itself right out on the flat African plains. Walking up this massive mountain is like traveling from the hot jungle to the icy North Pole in a short time because it is covered in five different types of nature.

It starts with a rainy jungle filled with monkeys and ends at a freezing peak. Because it is a walkable slope rather than a steep cliff, thousands of adventurous hikers climb all the way to its snowy top, called Uhuru Peak, every year.

Answer: Serengeti National Park

The Serengeti is a giant grassland in Tanzania that is famous for hosting the Great Migration, which is the largest animal walking tour on Earth. Every year, over two million animals (mostly wildebeests and zebras) team up to march in a giant line across the plains to sniff out fresh grass and rainwater.

It is a dangerous mission because the herds must cross deep rivers guarded by massive, hungry crocodiles, all while being chased across the savannah by lions and cheetahs.

Answer: Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a beautiful, sunny tropical Tanzanian island just off the coast that is famous for its gorgeous sandy beaches, bright turquoise water, and sweet-smelling air. It is nicknamed the "Spice Island" because the whole island is packed with farms growing tasty things like cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and cloves that get shipped to kitchens all over the world. Along with its historic capital of Zanzibar City (with its twisting stone alleys), the island is surrounded by colorful coral reefs and even has a jungle in the middle where colobus monkeys leap through the trees.

Answer: Nile River

Lake Victoria is a massive lake in Tanzania that holds the world record for being the largest tropical lake on Earth, and it is so incredibly huge that it looks like a sea. It is the main source of the famous Nile River, and it acts like a giant neighborhood for hundreds of different colorful, tropical fish called cichlids.

The lake has hippos splashing in the shallows, giant birds called shoebill storks hunting along the muddy shores, and hundreds of local fishermen gliding across the water in their wooden boats to catch food.

Answer: Remains of collapsed volcano

The Ngorongoro Crater is a huge green bowl in Tanzania that holds the world record for being the largest intact volcanic caldera on Earth, which means it is a massive volcano that collapsed into itself millions of years ago. Because the crater has steep rocky walls all around it, it acts like a giant natural zoo where over 30,000 wild animals live together in a perfectly flat, grassy paradise. Inside this magical bowl, you can spot the "Big Five" safari animals all in a single day, including massive elephants, lions, hippos, buffalo, and even the very rare black rhinoceros roaming safely away from the outside world.

Answer: Baobab

The baobab tree is a giant plant found all over Tanzania that holds the record for being one of the oldest and toughest trees in the world, living for over a thousand years. It is often called the "upside-down tree" because its thick branches look exactly like tangled roots reaching up into the sky, making it look like someone planted it upside down by mistake.

These ancient trees act like nature's ultimate water bottles, soaking up thousands of gallons of rainwater inside their massive, spongy trunks to survive hot droughts, which turns them into life-saving desert spots where elephants chew the bark for water, baboons feast on the tangy fruit, and owls nest inside cozy hollows.

Answer: Orchids

The Kitulo Plateau is a mountain grassland in Tanzania that is nicknamed "The Garden of God" because it is famous for its spectacular wild orchids, boasting over 45 different species that burst into a colorful blanket every single year. It is a very rare type of landscape called a metamorphic plateau, which means millions of years of intense heat and pressure deep underground baked and squeezed the rocks until they pushed up high where the air stays cool and breezy. Because it is so packed with unique flowers, it became the very first national park in tropical Africa created just to protect plants.