Armchair Traveller 7 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum in Jordan was a seabed hundred of thousands of years ago. It is now a desert landscape and has been used as a filming location in a number of movies, including those set on other planets. In "Red Planet", Wadi Rum was used as a Martian landscape, and in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" it was used for the fictional desert moon, Jedha.

The desert was used by famous historical figures like Lawrence of Arabia during the Great Arab Revolt. At the start of the 21st century, a Jordanian tourist company began to perform reenactments of a train robbery for tourists to experience the Arab Revolt for themselves.

Answer: South Africa

When the skyscraper was built, Ponte City Apartments were considered to be luxurious with fantastic views of Johannesburg in South Africa. The centre of the cylindrical building was hollow to allow more light into the building. During the 1980s and 1990s, however, the building became a hot spot for gang activity.

The owners left the building to decay and the hollow centre slowly filled with debris until the pile was five storeys high. In 2001, a new company took over the management of the building and improvements were started.

Answer: No

Not all cultures use nodding to mean "yes". In Bulgaria (and some other Balkan countries like Albania), nodding your head means the opposite: it means "no". There are a number of theories concerning the gesture's origin and why it is different to most other cultures. One of the most popular theories dates back to the Ottoman Empire.

When the Ottoman's gained control of Bulgaria, Christians were forced to convert to Islam. According to the story, many Bulgarians reversed the gesture so that they appeared to be agreeing to things when they were actually disagreeing.

Answer: White-tailed sea eagle

White-tailed sea eagles used to live in the Scottish Orkney Islands. They were persecuted to extinction in the 19th and early 20th centuries because they posed a threat to livestock. Luckily, white-tailed eagles also lived across the North Sea in Scandinavia. Reintroduction programs were set up elsewhere in Scotland, but it wasn't until 2018 that the first white-tailed eagle chick hatched in Orkney in over 100 years.

Unfortunately, the other three birds were not so lucky. None of them have been sighted anywhere since the 20th century and are considered to be extinct.

Answer: Wine

In the Spanish town of Haro, people celebrate St Peter's Day during a week-long wine festival. On St Peter's Day, battle participants use bottles, buckets, and water guns to have a water fight with a difference. Residents and tourists celebrate the town's wine-making traditions by fighting with wine instead.

The tradition started in the 17th century and has happened annually since then - that's a lot of wine!

Answer: Ainu

The Ainu people were indigenous to the Hokkaido island of Japan. In the past, the Ainu people were persecuted in law. Their native language was made illegal and anyone who associated themselves with Ainu culture faced persecution. For a long time, the Ainu people were forced to assimilate as the Japanese government attempted to modernise the country in the 19th century.

In 2008, however, the government officially recognised the Ainu people as the original inhabitants of the island with their own language, culture, and religion.

Answer: It was the year of the first death caused by the Great Famine in Ireland.

The lower classes of 19th century Ireland became almost entirely dependent on potatoes for food. When the potato crops across Europe began to fail, the poorer citizens of Ireland were severely affected. A fungal disease called phytophthora infestans was to blame for the failed crops in Ireland, as well as other places in Europe. Around one million people died as a result of the famine, and West Cork claims to be the site of the first famine death.

Answer: Winter Olympics

When the Winter Olympics arrived in Yugoslavia (as it was then called), Sarajevo gained a bobsleigh track and a cable car. Less than a decade later, the city was under siege and the bobsleigh track was used by Bosnian Serb forces as an artillery position.

Despite the war, the track was mostly intact and when it was over, people began to use the track for cycling. In the 21st century, renovation work began and a new cable car was built on Trebević mountain.

Answer: They became rooms in a 'dispersed hotel'.

Santo Stefano di Sessanio was a tiny medieval village in central Italy. Much of the town's population moved to larger cities during the 20th century, leaving less than 100 local inhabitants. Many similar Italian towns were modernised in an attempt to attract tourists or permanent residents, but not Santo Stefano di Sessanio. The vacant medieval houses were transformed into an 'albergo diffuso' - a 'dispersed hotel'.

From the buildings' exteriors, you wouldn't know there was a hotel there at all. The houses maintained their medieval style both inside and out: there were small windows, uneven wooden floors, and open fires. Much of the furniture was made of reclaimed wood, too. The rustic, old-fashioned feel didn't end at the hotel either. Local residents made their living from traditional skills. They made and gave tutorials on things like traditional bread baking and weaving.

Answer: A telephone box

Since the 1920s, the UK's streets have been dotted with phone boxes. Many of them, particularly those in London, were painted red to make them stand out. Phone boxes were incredibly useful in the first half of the 20th century when only the richer minority could afford a telephone in their own home. The popularity of the phone box declined as more people bought a landline phone, and then it declined again with the invention of the mobile phone.

Nevertheless, the red phone box is a British icon and tourists love to take pictures of them. While some of the boxes can still be seen on the streets of London, many of them are no longer functional. Some phone boxes have been given an interior makeover: they have been transformed into small businesses like a library, a phone repair shop, and a cafe.