1
What was the name of the ancient trade route that passed through central Asia?
Silk Road
Amber Road
Spice Routes
Incense Route
71% got this right
The Silk Road was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century.
2
What's the name of this dangerous sport, played with a goat carcass for a ball?
Buzkhashi
Kabaddi
Kurash
Polo
33% got this right
Buzkashi is the national sport of Afghanistan.
3
What do you call this traditional Uzbek rice dish?
Plov
Laghman
Manti
Kabob
15% got this right
Plov is the Uzbek version of pilaf.
4
What formerly the fourth largest lake in the world has now almost completely dried up?
Aral Sea
Caspian Sea
Lake Baikal
Lake Balkhash
26% got this right
The Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects.
5
What central Asian city has given name to a style of oriental carpets?
Bukhara
Khiva
Shakhrisabz
Tashkent
33% got this right
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time
6
Who was the famous 15th century ruler, astronomer and mathematician based in Samarkand?
Ulugh Beg
Thābit ibn Qurra
Omar Khayyam
Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi
3% got this right
Ulugh Beg was notable for his work in astronomy-related mathematics, such as trigonometry and spherical geometry.
7
What ethnic group constitutes roughly half the population of Chinese central Asia?
Uyghurs
Tajiks
Kyrgyz
Kazakhs
42% got this right
Scholars estimate that at least one million Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in the Xinjiang internment camps.
8
In what Kazakh city lies the Cosmodrome from which all crewed Russian spaceflights are launched?
Baikonur
Almaty
Nur-Sultan
Pavlodar
29% got this right
The spaceport is in the desert steppe of Baikonur, about 200 km east of the Aral Sea and north of the river Syr Darya.
9
Different places in central Asia claim to be the birthplace of this popular 13th century satirist. Who is he?
Nasreddin Hodja
Alisher Navoi
Omar Khayyám
Abu Abdulrh Rudaki
22% got this right
He appears in thousands of stories, sometimes witty, sometimes wise, but often, too, a fool or the butt of a joke.
10
What's the historical Latin/Greek name of the Amu Darya river?
Oxus
Jaxartes
Indus
Erymandrus
29% got this right
Alexander the Great crossed the river three times between 329 and 327 BC.
