1 On October 2, 1872, in Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, Phileas Fogg reads an article in The Telegraph about a new railway line in India. The adventure then begins because Fogg wants to prove that an 80-day voyage around the world is possible. The novel, though fictional, is based on various events in the 19th century. India’s first train was the Red Hill Railway in 1837 which was used to transport laterite stone for road-building work in which city?
2 Jules Verne’s earlier science fiction novel Journey to the Center of the Earth was about a German scientist and his nephew discovering an ancient world under the Earth’s crust. The voyage begins by them and a guide rappelling into Snæfellsjökull. This is an actual glacier-capped stratovolcano which tourists can visit till today. After 700,000 years, in 2012, the summit became ice-free for the first time, causing much distress to climate change activists. In which country is this?
3 Verne’s third voyage book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea tells the tale of a mysterious Captain Nemo, who travels around the world in a futuristic submarine which the American government mistakes for a sea monster. In 1958, the U.S. government launched the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine. Named to honour Captain Nemo’s vehicle, what was its name?
4 Ibn Battuta was an explorer who for over 30 years travelled over 117,000 km through Central Asia, China and the Indian sub-continent. His voyages are filled with adventures, meeting the last Mongol ruler, the Khan of the Golden Horde, Muhammad bin Tughluq and even worked in Madurai and the Maldives. The Ibn Battuta Mall, which is the world’s largest themed shopping mall, is designed around his travels. In which city is this?
5 Xuanzang was a Chinese monk who travelled across China and India in his efforts to bring Indian texts to China. During his extensive travels in India he also studied at what historians believe to be the world’s first residential university. Found in Bihar, it was responsible for promoting arts and academics during the 5th century. What is the name of this university?
6 This explorer’s 26-year-long journey is recorded in Book of the Marvels of the World. He was a Venetian merchant who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road and was one of the first to document the wealth and size of the Mongol Empire. He first came to India as an emissary of the great Kublai Khan and his report of Asian plants inspired Christopher Columbus to travel. Who was this explorer whose name lives on in the form a children’s game of hide-and-seek?
7 This explorer was the first person to link Europe and Asia through sea routes in 1497. By doing so he opened up a sea-based phase of global multiculturalism. When he landed in Calicut in 1498 it also allowed the advent of global imperialism, effects of which are felt till date. Who was this person whose trips at that time were the longest ocean-voyages in history?
8 Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian merchant who went on two voyages during the Age of Discovery, which were printed and made him famous. In 1507, Introduction to Cosmography was printed which had updated maps that included the ‘New World’. It was named in his honour, and for the first time a new continent had the name of a person. What was the name of the new land mass?
9 This British explorer made three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in which he travelled to all the seven continents, crossed both the poles and sailed all the oceans on his ship. He initially was sent to observe Venus’s transit across the sun. In 1992, the final shuttle built by NASA was named in honour of his ship, which also took a small piece of wood from Cook’s ship into space. What is the name of both the ships?
10 Jeanne Baret enlisted as an assistant to a naturalist onboard the scientific expedition of Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1763. Although many of the sailors had their suspicion about Jeanne, the truth was revealed much later when they landed in Tahiti. When Jeanne eventually returned to France, there was a huge government reward waiting. What had Jeanne become the first in the world to do?
Answers
1. Madras (Red Hills to Chintadripet)
2. Iceland
3. Nautilus
4. Dubai
5. Nalanda University
6. Marco Polo
7. Vasco da Gama
8. America
9. Endeavour
10. First woman to circumnavigate the world (she disguised herself as a man first)
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley
