Aztec, Maya and Inca Trivia Questions

Tap a choice for the answer and its reason, from the Olmec coast to the Inca roads.

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San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and La Venta are two main Olmec sites. Which is the third?

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Scored round: 20 questions, no time limit.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with any school, exam board or quiz show. Bank checked October 3, 2026.

How it works

These Aztec, Maya and Inca trivia questions run in four rounds: the first farmers and the Olmec, Maya cities and Mesoamerican life, the Aztecs, and the Inca of the Andes, far to the south of Mesoamerica.

Read the full guide

Olmec trivia questions

First farmers and the Olmec asks the Olmec sites, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the first maize and the Three Sisters. Maya cities and Mesoamerican life adds Tikal's defeat by Caracol, the Venus calendar, cenotes and the ballgame.

Inca trivia questions

The Inca has the Realm of the Four Parts, Quechua, the Qhapaq Ñan and the last stronghold of 1572. Tap a choice to check it; the reason shows with the answer. Sacrifice and the gods of each people are left out.

Questions and answers

Which round has the trivia questions for the Aztec empire?

The third, The Aztecs: Nahuatl, the alliance of three cities founded in 1427, Lake Texcoco, the Huey Tlatoani, the two calendars and the Florentine Codex.

What are some easy questions from the pack?

Which was the first complex civilization of Mesoamerica? Which language did the Aztec peoples speak? What was the official language of the Inca Empire? The answers are the Olmec, Nahuatl and Quechua.

How were the answers checked?

Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Mesoamerica, Aztecs or Inca Empire, linked under the question. Which city now covers Tenochtitlan and who led the two conquests are asked by the site's older history packs.

All 52 questions with answers

First farmers and the Olmec 10

  • Between roughly which dates were the main Olmec sites occupied? Answer: 1200 to 400 BCE. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • The earliest example of maize in Mesoamerica, from about 4000 BCE, comes from a cave in which region? Answer: Oaxaca. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Mesoamerica is a Greek coinage for which idea? Answer: Middle America. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Mesoamerica is one of how many areas of the world where ancient civilizations arose independently? Answer: Six. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • The Olmec culture spread inland and south across which isthmus? Answer: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • On which island did the Spanish colonization of the Americas begin? Answer: Hispaniola. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and La Venta are two main Olmec sites. Which is the third? Answer: Tres Zapotes. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Squash and maize are two of the Three Sisters. Which crop is the third? Answer: Beans. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Which other cradle of civilization in the Americas lay in what is now Peru? Answer: Caral-Supe. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Which was the first complex civilization to develop in Mesoamerica? Answer: The Olmec. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica

Maya cities and Mesoamerican life 14

  • Around which year did the great city of Teotihuacán collapse? Answer: 600 CE. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • For more than how many years was the Mesoamerican ballgame played? Answer: 3000. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • In Mesoamerican thought, the number 4 was linked to what? Answer: The four corners of the universe. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Lake Cocibolca, the largest lake in Mesoamerica, is in which country? Answer: Nicaragua. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • The Maya kept a calendar cycle that tracked which planet? Answer: Venus. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Mesoamerican counting in twenties likely came from counting on what? Answer: Fingers and toes. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Monte Albán in Oaxaca was the capital of which people? Answer: The Zapotec. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • More than how many ballcourts have been found throughout Mesoamerica? Answer: 1300. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • The Puuc settlements of the northern Maya lowlands are named after what? Answer: Hills. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • What are the natural surface openings called through which people reached underground water? Answer: Cenotes. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • What is the period after Tikal's defeat of 562 commonly called? Answer: The Tikal Hiatus. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • What was the capital of the Toltec called? Answer: Tula. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Which city defeated Tikal in 562? Answer: Caracol. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica
  • Which is the longest river in Mesoamerica? Answer: The Usumacinta. Source: Wikipedia: Mesoamerica

The Aztecs 15

  • About how many people a day visited the central market of Tlatelolco, by one Spanish report? Answer: 60,000. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • Excavations of which temple in Mexico City are a main source of knowledge about the Aztecs? Answer: The Templo Mayor. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • In which year was the confederation of three city-states known as the Aztec Empire established? Answer: 1427. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • The name Aztec means 'people from' which legendary place of origin? Answer: Aztlan. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • On islets in which lake did the Mexica found Tenochtitlan? Answer: Lake Texcoco. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • Tenochtitlan and Texcoco were two members of the Triple Alliance. Which city was the third? Answer: Tlacopan. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • The Triple Alliance was formed to defeat which Tepanec state? Answer: Azcapotzalco. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • What was an Aztec city-state called? Answer: An altepetl. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • What was the Aztec ritual calendar of 260 days called? Answer: The tonalpohualli. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • What was the title of the Aztec emperor? Answer: Huey Tlatoani. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • What were the Aztec nobility called? Answer: Pipiltin. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • Which codex is an invaluable source on Aztec society and on the conquest as the Mexica saw it? Answer: The Florentine Codex. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • Which language did the Aztec peoples of central Mexico speak? Answer: Nahuatl. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • Which year is usually given for the founding of Tenochtitlan? Answer: 1325. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs
  • Who originated the modern use of the word Aztec, in 1810? Answer: Alexander von Humboldt. Source: Wikipedia: Aztecs

The Inca 13

  • How many men made up the force led by Pizarro? Answer: 168. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • In which century did the Inca civilization rise from the Peruvian highlands? Answer: The 13th century. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • In which mountains did Manco Inca set up the small Neo-Inca State? Answer: Vilcabamba. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • In which year was the last Inca stronghold conquered? Answer: 1572. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • The Inca built their empire without iron, the wheel, draft animals and which other thing? Answer: A system of writing. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • Under which leader did the Inca form the small Kingdom of Cuzco in the early 1200s? Answer: Manco Capac. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • What did the Spanish call Peru when Pizarro was named its governor? Answer: New Castile. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • What was the Inca Empire officially known as? Answer: The Realm of the Four Parts. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • What was the Inca road network called? Answer: Qhapaq Ñan. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • What was the official language of the Inca Empire? Answer: Quechua. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • What was the system of communal work in Andean villages called, older than the Inca? Answer: Mink'a. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • Which two sons of Huayna Capac fought a war of succession before the Spanish returned in 1532? Answer: Huáscar and Atahualpa. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
  • Who was the first European to reach the Inca Empire, in 1524? Answer: Aleixo Garcia. Source: Wikipedia: Inca Empire
How this list was compiled

Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Mesoamerica, Inca Empire and Aztecs. Each article was read on October 3, 2026, and the passage that states each fact was found in it before the question was kept. The pack asks places, dates, crops, calendars, words and offices. Left out on purpose: sacrifice, the gods of each people, and population estimates. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the subject, hard will stump most tables. Each question also carries the date its article was read. Licence: own work