QFI 2013 - travel quiz Finals. by udupa, shiv and ramkey

1. The QFI Travel Quiz
Finals
Around the World in 80 Questions

2. QFIesta 2013
Thanks to all our sponsors, without
whom this would not be possible

3. QFIesta 2013
Thanks also to
IIT Madras,
Dr. L. S. Ganesh
and
IIT Madras Quiz Club
for their continued support of QFI
We would also like to thank Rajen Prabhu

4. Coin Brothers
Written Round
+15 if 1-2 teams answer correctly
+10 if 3-5 teams answer correctly
+5 if 6-8 teams answer correctly

5. 1. Coin from which part of the world?

6. 2. Identify either the person depicted, or the currency.

7. 3. Identify the structure shown on the coin

8. 4. Identify the person shown.

9. Answers follow…

10. 1. Coin from which part of the world?

11. Answer
 Greenland

12. 2. Identify either the person depicted, or the currency.

13. Answer
 Balboa

14. 3. Identify the structure shown on the coin

15. Answer
 Esplenade—Theaters by the Bay (The Durian
building will also do )

16. 4. Identify the person shown.

17. Answer
 Aung San

18. Clockwise
+10, -10 on pounce
+10 on bounce

19. This monument was a
handy tool for Groucho
Marx to ensure that
contestants on his ‗You
Bet Your Life!‘ quiz show
answered at least one
question right
What question involving
this monument would
Groucho Marx ask?
On what famous
monument from history is
this one modeled after?

21. Answer
 ―Who is buried in Grant‘s Tomb?‖
 Marx asked an elementary consolation question for a
total of $25 (later $100) which did not count toward the
scores. The questions were made easy in hopes that
nobody would answer incorrectly, and included such
examples as "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?", "When
did the War of 1812 start?", "How long do you cook a
three-minute egg?", and "What color is an orange?" The
question about Grant's Tomb became such a staple of
the show that both Marx and Fenneman were shocked
when one man got the question "wrong" by answering
"No one". As the contestant then pointed out, Grant's
Tomb is an above ground mausoleum.
 Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

22. What concept did the famous railway engineer Sandford Fleming
come up with after missing a train when he was in Ireland?

24. Answer
 Time zones

27. Answer
 Patrick Leigh Fermor

28. Why is this place called Al-Maghtas in
Jordan a site of pilgrimage?

30. Answer
 This is where Jesus was purportedly baptised by
St. John

31. This quintessential summer cocktail from
the Caribbean comes in three chief
styles—Guyanese, Barbadian, and
Trinidadian. All varieties are based on
booze (usually rum), lots of shaved ice,
and a splash of Angostura bitters. The
name of the cocktail may be familiar to
most people because of an equipment that
was originally used in its preparation.
Name the cocktail / equipment.

33. Answer
 Swizzle / Swizzle stick

34. Desolate place called Ghost Ranch in New Mexico—why does it attract
tourists with an inclination to the arts?

36. Answer
 They come to see what Georgia O‘Keeffe saw

37. What‘s common to the following
‗places‘? Superior, Delmarva,
Absaroka, Scott, Transylvania,
Westsylvania, Deseret, Nickajack.
(not an exhaustive list)

39. Answer
 Proposed US States that did not make the cut

40. The Marchenstrasse is a
600km route from Hanau
to Bremen in Germany that
is a major tourist attraction.
What does it celebrate /
what is the route
commonly known as?

42. Answer
 The Fairy Tale Road – celebrating the life and
stories of the Brothers Grimm

43. Time balls were originally meant to serve
as a maritime time signaling aid. With
respect to this use, how is the ceremonial
time ball dropped every new year (thus
signaling midnight) at Times Square
different from the rest?

45. Answer
 The time is to be recorded when the ball begins
descending, not when it reaches the bottom. In
Times Square, however it is midnight when the
ball reaches the bottom

46. This street was originally named _____ Avenue, but after WC Handy
wrote a song that called it _____ Street, everyone started calling it a
street instead of an avenue, and the name was officially changed.
What you hear is Duke Ellington‘s take on the song. Name the street,
and the city you will find it in.

48. Answer
 Beale Street
 Memphis

49. Houston‘s airport used to get many
complaints for long baggage wait times, and
adding more baggage handlers still did not
reduce the complaints. So, what did the
airport authorities do to tackle this problem?

51. Answer
 Set up the airport in a way that required that
travelers walk much farther to get to the baggage
carousels. This reduced the perceived time spent
waiting for the baggage.

52. The route from Kargil to Leh is one of the most
dramatic anywhere in the world. The stretch from the
Lamayuru monastery (4000 mtrs) to Khalste (3100
mtrs) takes one through a series of 23 hairpin bends
in just 32 kms and is officially called the Gata loops /
Hangru loops. What is the unofficial / affectionate
name by which this stretch is known?

54. Answer
 Jalebi bends

55. This is the tomb of Allama Afzal Khan, a mullah from Shiraz who was Shah
Jahan‘s Prime Minister. His tomb is one of the overlooked gems in Agra,
and gets its name from what used to once cover the entire surface of the
monument. Incidentally, this was the first instance of this kind of decoration
being used in India. Identify the monument.

57. Answer
 Chini ka Rauza (Chini refers to tiles)

58. This city in Andalusia is known as the home of flamenco, as
well as horsemanship (the image shows a gait called the
Spanish walk that originated here)
The city was also the venue for the controversial season-
ending 1997 European Grand Prix where Michael
Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve were involved in a
crash.
The city also lends its name to a popular fortified wine
variety that is made from white grapes grown locally.
Name the city, and the wine.

60. Answer
 Jerez
 Sherry

61. What touristy breakfast activity
has been now made illegal by
Death Valley officials after it
became cumbersome to clean
the messy aftermath?

63. Answer
 Frying eggs directly on the road (because the
temperatures are so high!)

64. This book by William
Least Heat-Moon is now
considered a classic in
the travel genre, and
describes a 14,000 mile
journey across roads
connecting rural
America, completely
avoiding big cities.
Why is it named ‗Blue
Highways‘?

66. Answer
 Because blue was the colour in which village
roads were depicted in the old Rand McNally
atlases

67. Connect via a
‗Memory of the
World‘.

69. Answer
 The 4 surviving copies of the Magna Carta—2 at
the British Library, 1 at Lincoln Cathedral, 1 at
Salisbury Cathedral

70. Sometime in the second half of the 19th
Century, eight (ten according to some
accounts) elephants were tied in harnesses
and hung from the ceiling of the Jai Vilas
Mahal in Gwalior. For what reason?

72. Answer
 To see if the ceiling could withhold the two 3.5
tonnes chandeliers that the Scindia king had
imported from Belgium

73. Being built off the coast of Ras-al-Khaimah in the UAE, this is the Real
Madrid Resort Island, which as the picture shows also features the crest
of the club. However, what is the one change that will be made to the
familiar Real Madrid emblem once the islands are complete?

75. Answer
 The crown in the logo will not feature the cross

76. What‘s this in Chicago?

78. Answer
 The foundation for the Chicago Spire, a project
that has been abandoned since 2008. When
planned (by no less than Santiago Calatrava), it
was to be the tallest building in North America

79. This World Heritage Site, home to 20 stunningly located Eastern Orthodox
monasteries, is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. Today Greeks
commonly refer to it as the Holy Mountain. Though land-linked, it is practically
accessible only by ferry. The number of daily visitors is restricted and only males are
permitted to visit the territory which is called "Garden of the Virgin" by the monks.
Residents on the island must be males aged 18 and above who are members of the
Eastern Orthodox Church, and must be either monks or workers.
It is named after one of the Giants – children of Gaia – in Greek mythology who
threw a massive rock against Poseidon which fell in the Aegean sea and became a
mountain. Name this site.

81. Answer
 Mount Athos

84. Answer
 Fontainebleau Palace

85. Hitachi Seaside Park in Japan (visuals next slide), covering an
area of 3.5 hectares, is a flower park and a popular tourist
destination. It is particularly famous for a certain genus of
flowers – containing the phrase baby blue eyes in their
common names – having transparent blue petals. Over 4.5
million of these flowers bloom all over the park during spring.
Name this genus of flower whose name literally translates to
‗woodland loving‘.

88. Answer
 Nemophila

89. Anticlockwise
+10, -10 on pounce
+10 on bounce

90. ‗Crooked Forest‘ in Poland attracts tourists because of the
odd shape of the pine trees that grow here. What is certain
that these are not natural but have become this way due to
human intervention. Give either of the two theories that
explain this crooked shape.

92. Answer
 Bent to serve as ‗compass timbers‘, deliberately
shaped to help in shipbuilding for use in shaping
corners, etc.
 A heavy vehicle having passed over them when
they were still young

93. This region is named after the
Rajput king who ruled in the 15th
Century. This king had a Muslim
name as he was named after a
Muslim mendicant with whose
blessings Rao Mokal and Rani
Nirwan delivered him after being
childless for several years.
Identify the region, famed for its
fresco paintings on houses.

95. Answer
 Shekhawati (after Rao Shaikha)

96. These nomads found in Himachal and J&K are related to the
Gujjars and apparently still live a life unchanged over centuries,
roaming from high altitude meadows to the plains in the winter
and returning after the snows have melted. Identify. (Alia Bhatt
is only posing with them—she is not one of them!)

98. Answer
 Bakarwals

99. Srirangam was attacked by the Sultanate forces in 1323 and Lord
Ranganatha's jewels and the temple gold were taken away. The
forces also wanted to seize an idol of the Lord which they believed
was made of pure gold. Unable to locate the idol, the Sultanate
forces killed the temple authorities and later launched a massive
hunt. Fearing that the forces would capture the idol, a devadasi
named Vellayi performed a dance before the commander of the
forces thus gaining time for the idol to be taken away safely to
Madurai so as to avoid it being captured. Her dance lasted for
hours together and finally she took the commander to the eastern
gopuram and pushed him down. After killing him, Vellayi jumped to
her death from the tower chanting the name of Ranganathar.
How is she immortalized in the Srirangam temple?

101. Answer
 On the eastern entrance of
the Srirangam temple, there
stands a white tower which is
popularly known as the
Vellayi Gopuram
It is generally believed that
the tower is so called as it has
been painted white by the
temple authorities. But the
tower has actually been
named after the devadasi
Vellayi.

102. This is the Kronborg Castle in Denmark. What do the English
call the town in which you find this castle?

104. Answer
 Elsinore (Helsingor in Danish)
 The Elsinore Castle in Shakespeare‘s Hamlet is
based on the Kronborg Castle

105. And heard that instant in an unknown tongue,
Which yet I understood, articulate sounds,
A loud prophetic blast of harmony;
An Ode, in passion uttered, which foretold
Destruction to the children of the earth
By deluge, now at hand.
Extract from a Wordsworth poem called ‗The Prelude‘.
What common beach-goer activity has he just carried out?

107. Answer
 Listening to a sea-shell by pressing it against
your ear

108. This is Biosphere 2, probably the best known ecological experiment, now more a
curiosity rather than doing any cutting edge science. What/Where is Biosphere 1?

110. Answer
 Biosphere 1 is the Earth 

111. What is the
observation deck
on this building
called?

113. Answer
 Top of the Rock

114. As per the original script of ‗North by
Northwest‘, where specifically was Cary
Grant supposed to have a sneezing fit?
Much to Hitchcock‘s disappointment, the
organisation that gave him the permission
to shoot at this location, refused to allow
this particular part of the script.

116. Answer
 Inside Lincoln‘s nostril on Mount Rushmore

117. What climbing /
mountaineering
equipment is named
after a Swiss
company started by
Adolph Juesi and
Walter Marti, that
was one of the
earliest companies
to manufacture such
equipment?

119. Answer
 Jumar

120. Every July, as part of an 800 year old ritual,
six boats embark on a five-day rowing trip
upriver from Eton to Oxford with the people
in them wearing bright scarlet blazers.
What do they do on this five-day long trip?

122. Answer
 Take a census of the swans (which is officially the
Queen‘s property)

123. William Burroughs‘s ‗Naked Lunch‘ features two
fictional places—Interzone and The Island. Based on
the information provided about The Island, deduce
which real-life place inspired Interzone.
The Island is a British Military and Naval Station that
is on the other side of a narrow stretch of sea. A
chief attraction on the Island are the purple-assed
‗Tripoli baboons‘ which probably came their on pirate
ships in the 17th Century. The Island even has a
Department of Baboon Maintenance to ensure that
all the baboons are well-cared for.

125. Answer
 Tangier
 The Island is of course Gibraltar

126. On the left is a scene from a bazaar in Cairo in 1875. On the
right is a work of art by the French painter Michel Martin
Drolling that can be considered the best example of something
in 19th Century art. Explain how the pictures connect.

128. Answer
 Mummy Brown, a popular pigment in 19th Century
paintings was derived by grinding old mummified
remains extracted from Egyptian catacombs

129. This one-of-a-kind artifact
can today be found at the
Swedish Museum of
Natural History in
Gothenburg (pic below)
The pictures here show the
object being moved from a
different museum it was
housed in until 1918 to its
current location.
What is it?

131. Answer
 The only stuffed and mounted blue whale in the
world—known as the Malm Whale

132. The garter belt was invented by an otherwise unknown chap
named Fereol Dedieu. However for a long time, as per urban
legend possibly triggered by certain structural similarities, who
was supposedly the inventor of the garter belt?

134. Answer
 Gustave Eiffel

135. This is Annie
Edson Taylor.
What did she do
that resulted in this
photo-op dubbing
her as the ‗Queen
of the Mist‘?

137. Answer
 Plunged over the Niagara falls in a barrel

138. While a lot of people make the obvious connect, there
is very little evidence supporting it. Also, the presence
of an eccentric scientist, Johann Dippel, has not lent
the theory as much credibility as one would have
hoped for.
Name this castle. What was Dippel‘s most well known
contribution?

140. Answer
 Castle Frankenstein
 Discovered the pigment Prussian Blue

141. This is the historic Cabrillo Bridge in the city of
San Diego. From its opening in 1914, suicides
have been very common on this bridge.
However, the number of suicides have
dropped drastically since the 1970s. Why?

143. Answer
 The much bigger and impressive Coronado
Bridge became functional in 1969, and jumpers
shifted their allegiance to the new bridge

144. This commune in the
Piedmont region of Italy
takes its name from a city in
Egypt which had an ancient
temple dedicated to Horus
(the name of the city
translates to ―City of Horus‖)
Though these underground
temples dedicated to
humanity were built in the
1970s in the commune, they
were revealed to the general
public only in the 1990s, and
has since stunned people
with all the detailed artwork
that is present here.
Name the commune.

146. Answer
 Damanhur

147. A 1939 advertisement
for what? Which famous
artist designed it?

149. Answer
 London underground
 Man Ray

150. This artifact was built in 1664 in Gottorp, Germany. In 17-14, it is given
as a gift to Peter the Great but is destroyed by fire in 1747. The
reconstructed globe, stolen by the Germans in World War II and
recovered by US troops, now resides at the St. Petersburg
Kunstkammer.
The Gottorp Globe is considered the world‘s first what?

152. Answer
 Planetarium

153. What is depicted in this
JMW Turner painting?
Also, what is the story
behind this stone whose
local name is Teufelsstein

155. Answer
 The Devil‘s Bridge, at St. Gotthard‘s Pass
 According to a local myth, building the first bridge was
very hard and so the Devil himself agreed to build it.
The condition attached to the construction was that
the Devil would get the soul of the first to pass over
the bridge. So, when the bridge was finished, people
chased a goat over the bridge. Angered by the trick,
the Devil went to pick up a large stone
(called Teufelsstein, the Devil's Stone) in order to
smash the bridge to pieces. On his way to the bridge
however, he encountered an old believing woman
with a cross. Scared of the cross, he left the stone
and fled.

156. The Duck and
Cover is a pub in
which city? Also
what calendar are
they following—
alternatively figure
out which year in
AD were they
established in?

158. Answer
 Kabul
 Solar Hijri (SH) / 2009 (1387 + 622)