16 ancient Egypt trivia questions with answers, from the pyramids to Cleopatra

The Nile and the pyramids

1. 1The Nile valley

   Why did Egyptian civilisation concentrate along a single narrow strip of land?

   • AThe pharaohs forbade settlement away from the capital
   • BThe Nile's annual flood was the only reliable source of fertile soil and water
   • CThe desert was held by hostile empires
   • DThe Nile was the only route by which stone could be quarried
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   B. The Nile's annual flood was the only reliable source of fertile soil and water. The flood laid down black silt each summer — the Egyptians called their country Kemet, 'the black land', against the red desert on either side.

   From the “Ancient Egypt – Old, Middle, New Kingdoms” story in Histia · Full story: Ancient civilizations timeline

2. 2Giza · c. 2560 BCE

   The Old Kingdom is called the Age of the Pyramids. Which pharaoh commissioned the Great Pyramid at Giza?

   • AKhufu
   • BRamses II
   • CTutankhamun
   • DMentuhotep II
   Show the answer

   A. Khufu. Khufu — Cheops to the Greeks — built the largest of the three. His successors Khafre and Menkaure added the other two.

   From the “Ancient Egypt – Old, Middle, New Kingdoms” story in Histia · Full story: How were the Egyptian pyramids built?

3. 3Giza · the Old Kingdom

   Why were the pyramids built as tombs at such colossal expense?

   • AThey were observatories, aligned so that priests could track the stars and fix the calendar
   • BThey were designed as fortresses commanding the approaches to the Nile valley from the desert
   • CEgyptian belief held that the pharaoh's survival in the afterlife secured the order of the world
   • DThey began as royal granaries and were converted into tombs only in a later period
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   C. Egyptian belief held that the pharaoh's survival in the afterlife secured the order of the world. The king was the link between gods and people. Provisioning his afterlife was not vanity but statecraft: it kept maat, cosmic order, intact.

   From the “Ancient Egypt – Old, Middle, New Kingdoms” story in Histia · Full story: How were the Egyptian pyramids built?

4. 4c. 2686–1070 BCE

   Put the three kingdoms in order. Which came in the middle?

   • AThe Old Kingdom
   • BThe Ptolemaic period
   • CThe New Kingdom
   • DThe Middle Kingdom
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   D. The Middle Kingdom. Old Kingdom c. 2686–2181 BCE, Middle Kingdom c. 2055–1650, New Kingdom c. 1550–1070. Each is separated from the next by an 'Intermediate Period' of division.

   From the “Ancient Egypt – Old, Middle, New Kingdoms” story in Histia · Full story: Ancient civilizations timeline

Pharaohs and kingdoms

1. 5Thebes · c. 2055 BCE

   Which pharaoh reunited Egypt and opened the Middle Kingdom?

   • AKhufu
   • BMentuhotep II
   • CAkhenaten
   • DHatshepsut
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   B. Mentuhotep II. He ended the First Intermediate Period, more than a century of rival dynasties that followed the collapse of the Old Kingdom.

   From the “Ancient Egypt – Old, Middle, New Kingdoms” story in Histia · Full story: Ancient civilizations timeline

2. 6The Middle Kingdom · c. 2055–1650 BCE

   What changed in Egyptian ambition between the Old and Middle Kingdoms?

   • AThe capital was moved permanently to the Delta and the south was left to govern itself
   • BPharaohs gave up their claim to divine authority and ruled as first among the nobility
   • CEgypt abandoned the worship of the sun god in favour of a single state deity
   • DThe focus shifted from colossal royal tombs toward literature, art and trade
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   D. The focus shifted from colossal royal tombs toward literature, art and trade. The Middle Kingdom produced the classic works of Egyptian literature. Later Egyptians treated its language as the model, the way Europeans treated Latin.

   From the “Ancient Egypt – Old, Middle, New Kingdoms” story in Histia · Full story: Ancient civilizations timeline

3. 7The New Kingdom · 1279–1213 BCE

   Ramses II is remembered above all for what?

   • AFounding the first Egyptian library
   • BLong military campaigns and an enormous building programme
   • CAbolishing the worship of the old gods
   • DEnding the practice of mummification
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   B. Long military campaigns and an enormous building programme. He reigned some 66 years and put his name on monuments the length of Egypt — including many he had not built.

   From the “Ancient Egypt – Old, Middle, New Kingdoms” story in Histia

4. 8Rosetta · 1799

   Egyptian writing was unreadable for some 1,400 years. What finally allowed it to be deciphered?

   • AAn Egyptian–Greek dictionary preserved in the library at Alexandria
   • BThe Coptic manuscripts found buried in jars at Nag Hammadi in 1945
   • CThe inventory of Tutankhamun's tomb, labelled in both hieroglyphs and Greek
   • DThe Rosetta Stone, which repeated one decree in Greek and in Egyptian script
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   D. The Rosetta Stone, which repeated one decree in Greek and in Egyptian script. Found in 1799 and read by Champollion in 1822. Without a text whose meaning was already known, hieroglyphs would have stayed silent.

   From the “Ancient Egypt – Old, Middle, New Kingdoms” story in Histia

Cleopatra and Rome

1. 9Alexandria · 305–30 BCE

   Cleopatra was the last ruler of which dynasty?

   • AThe Ptolemaic dynasty
   • BThe Eighteenth Dynasty
   • CThe Achaemenid dynasty
   • DThe Seleucid dynasty
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   A. The Ptolemaic dynasty. The Ptolemies were Macedonian Greeks, descended from one of Alexander's generals, who ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries. Cleopatra was the last of them.

   From the “Cleopatra VII” story in Histia · Full story: How did Cleopatra die?

2. 10Alexandria · 51 BCE

   Cleopatra was unusual among the Ptolemies for one particular reason. Which?

   • AShe learned Egyptian, which her Greek-speaking dynasty had never bothered to do
   • BShe was the only Ptolemy to be crowned at Thebes rather than at Alexandria
   • CShe refused to marry within her own family, breaking a rule the dynasty had always kept
   • DShe was the first of the Ptolemies to have been born somewhere other than Egypt
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   A. She learned Egyptian, which her Greek-speaking dynasty had never bothered to do. After 250 years in Egypt the Ptolemies still governed in Greek. Cleopatra reportedly spoke nine languages, and was the first of her line to address Egyptians in their own.

   From the “Cleopatra VII” story in Histia · Full story: How did Cleopatra die?

3. 11Alexandria · 48 BCE

   When Cleopatra had herself brought to Caesar in 48 BCE, she was fighting a civil war for the Egyptian throne. Against whom?

   • AThe high priest of Amun at Thebes
   • BHer father, Ptolemy XII
   • CHer brother and co-ruler, Ptolemy XIII
   • DThe Roman governor of Egypt
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   C. Her brother and co-ruler, Ptolemy XIII. Ptolemaic custom married siblings and set them on the throne together. Cleopatra had been driven out by her brother's court, and Caesar's legions were the fastest way back.

   From the “Cleopatra VII” story in Histia · Full story: Who killed Julius Caesar, and why?

4. 12Egypt and Rome

   Why was Egypt so valuable a prize to Rome?

   • AIt controlled the only route to India
   • BIt was the richest grain province, and Rome's bread supply depended on it
   • CIt held the largest silver mines in the Mediterranean
   • DIt supplied Rome's legions with most of their cavalry
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   B. It was the richest grain province, and Rome's bread supply depended on it. Egyptian wheat fed the city of Rome. That is why, once annexed, Egypt became the emperor's personal possession — no senator was even allowed to enter it without permission.

   From the “Cleopatra VII” story in Histia · Full story: How did Cleopatra die?

5. 13Alexandria · 47 BCE

   Cleopatra named her son by Caesar 'Caesarion'. What did that name assert?

   • AThat he was the earthly incarnation of a Roman god and owed obedience to no one
   • BThat the Roman Senate had formally adopted him as a ward of the Republic
   • CThat he was Caesar's son and heir, giving her line a claim inside Rome itself
   • DThat Egypt now stood above Rome and would collect tribute from its provinces
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   C. That he was Caesar's son and heir, giving her line a claim inside Rome itself. The claim was dangerous. Octavian was Caesar's adopted heir, and a blood son was a rival — which is why Caesarion was killed once Octavian took Egypt.

   From the “Cleopatra VII” story in Histia · Full story: Who killed Julius Caesar, and why?

6. 1448–30 BCE

   Which of these happened LAST?

   • ACleopatra's death
   • BCleopatra's first meeting with Caesar
   • CThe Battle of Actium
   • DThe assassination of Julius Caesar
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   A. Cleopatra's death. Caesar in 48 BCE, his assassination in 44, Actium in 31, and Cleopatra's death in 30 — the year Egypt ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.

   From the “Cleopatra VII” story in Histia · Full story: How did Cleopatra die?

7. 15Actium · 31 BCE

   What made the defeat at Actium decisive for Egypt?

   • AEgypt was handed over to the Parthian Empire
   • BEgypt was divided between Antony and Octavian
   • CEgypt was annexed as a Roman province the following year
   • DEgypt lost its fleet but kept self-rule for another century
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   C. Egypt was annexed as a Roman province the following year. Three thousand years of pharaohs ended in 30 BCE. From then on Egypt was a province, governed for the emperor by a prefect he chose himself.

   From the “Cleopatra VII” story in Histia · Full story: How did Cleopatra die?

8. 16Rome · 31–27 BCE

   Octavian's victory over Antony and Cleopatra is usually taken to mark which turning point?

   • AThe beginning of the Punic Wars
   • BThe founding of the city of Rome
   • CThe division of Rome into Eastern and Western halves
   • DThe end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire
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   D. The end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. Actium removed Octavian's last rival. Four years later the Senate gave him the name Augustus, and one-man rule became permanent.

   From the “Cleopatra VII” story in Histia · Full story: How did Cleopatra die?