Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor #1 by Abhi

Champion(s):

LorinBurte
Get off my lawn!


Runner(s)-Up:

RautY
The machines are winning


Quiz Description

The tales of Sinbad are a series of stories included in the One Thousand and One Nights, tracing the voyages of a man as he makes his fortune through fantastical adventures around the world. This quiz is inspired by Sinbad's voyages, taking you on a route through the oceans and listing topics according to where we alight--a knowledge of the Tales themselves is not required, though it does help.

Full Results:

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1 LorinBurte 403 96 15
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2 RautY 401 90 00
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3 MyrowitzJ 367 83 00
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4 VenguswamyK 361 76 15
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5 UllspergerA 333 70 15
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6 BillPennington 312 63 15
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7 AdamKing 309 56 00
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8 MatthewsP 291 50 15
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9 KleinJ 263 43 00
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10 BlumenthalS 166 36 00
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11 Vintsanity 131 30 00
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12 BringMoreLegos 97 23 00
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13 kanyewesteros 62 16 00
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14 DouglasLovesVixey 55 10 00
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15 JonesRW 35 3 00
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Questions:

Despite the nautical nature of the stories, each voyage begins inland, in Baghdad, where Sinbad lives. However, to begin sailing, Sinbad (and we) must depart from which legendary port, twice invaded by the British?

Click to Reveal Answer
Basra

Sailing east past Oman, one might land on the Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat, home to an ancient seaport which shares its name with a grassy, brown planet in the Star Wars universe. What is the name of old city and historical site?

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Lothal

Sinbad sails south from here in one of his tales, landing by happy incidence, or fortunately, on the island of Ceylon. What English word is derived from another name for this island, and might describe the manner in which Sinbad arrived?

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Serendipity

Let's take a short break from voyaging. Sinbad is celebrated in many art forms even today, including film. Which famous screen character met Sinbad on an adventure in 1936, an encounter deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry?

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Popeye the Sailor

Back to our journey. Sinbad is also a figure in classical music, arriving here on Ceylon in the 6th movement of a Russian symphony. What is the name of this symphony?

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Scheherazade

If Sinbad were to sail south from there today, he might land on a secretive island, populated mainly by men and gigantic roaring birds. Which island is this, home to a British military base and launching point for U.S. Air Force raids during the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

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Diego Garcia

Sailing west, one might wash ashore with airplane wreckage on RĂ©union, a volcanic island that is an overseas region (not territory) of France. Name any one of the other places in the world that share its legal status.

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Mayotte, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana

If we continue even further west, we alight at Madagascar, home to some gigantic birds of its own. Madagascar's extinct Elephant Bird is said to have inspired which mountain-sized creature which featured prominently in the Sinbad tales?

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Roc or Rukh

While we're still in Madagascar--the country produces nearly half of which valuable culinary commodity, barely beaten by Indonesia?

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Vanilla

Let's continue north. We follow the Swahili coast past Zanzibar, as Sinbad and many of his oceangoing compadres once did. The namesake tongue of the coast is jokingly said to have been born in Zanzibar, and gotten sick in Tanzania. Where did Swahili go to die?

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Kenya (Uganda also acceptable)

Careful not to get kidnapped by unsavory characters as we round the Horn of Africa to return home. In Sinbad's fifth of his seven voyages, he is enslaved by the Old Man of the Sea. Which other famously unlucky seafarer has the Old Man of the Sea appear in his own tale?

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Odysseus (Erik the Viking also acceptable)

As we sail towards Sinbad's home port, we might pass the city of Dubai. Today a center of real estate and finance, Dubai's wealth was initially built on the oil trade. But which global trade first brought Dubai to the Western world's attention?

Click to Reveal Answer
Pearls