Eiffel Tower Trivia
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37 free Eiffel Tower trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
49 free Eiffel Tower trivia questions with answers. The Eiffel Tower was supposed to come down in 1909. This quiz covers why it did not, and everything else about the most visited paid monument in the world: the 1889 World's Fair it was built for, the two engineers who actually drew it, the artists who called it a tragic street lamp, the 2.5 million rivets, the private apartment where Edison dropped in, and the radio mast that helped catch Mata Hari. The easy questions are for anyone who has stood under it. The hard ones ask about the con man who sold it for scrap, the priest who found cosmic rays on it, the airplane flown beneath it, the general who refused to blow it up, and the Canadian city that tried to borrow it. There are also questions on the paint, the lifts, the restaurants and the sparkle. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's article on the tower, and each question carries a quotation from it as its source.
30 of 37 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which famous monument's inner iron skeleton was designed by Gustave Eiffel, a few years before his Paris tower?
The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty's copper skin hangs on a skeleton Eiffel designed after the statue's first engineer, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, died in 1879.
Q 02The Eiffel Tower was built for a world's fair marking the 100th anniversary of what?
The French Revolution
The French Revolution's centenary was the occasion, so most of Europe's monarchies refused to take part in the fair officially.
Q 03By what affectionate nickname is the tower known in France?
The Iron Lady
The French call the tower La dame de fer, 'The Iron Lady', after the roughly 7,300 tonnes of wrought iron it is built from.
Q 04Which symbol did Anne Hidalgo want kept on the Eiffel Tower after the 2024 Games?
Olympic rings
Olympic rings went up for the Games, and Hidalgo's plan to keep them upset Gustave Eiffel's descendants, who said the tower was not meant as an advertising platform.
Q 05In 1989, which famous high-wire artist walked a sloping cable across the Seine to the Eiffel Tower's second level?
Philippe Petit
Philippe Petit made the walk with the approval of Paris mayor Jacques Chirac, 15 years after secretly crossing between New York's Twin Towers.
Q 06Which structure did the Eiffel Tower overtake to become the world's tallest human-made structure?
The Washington Monument
The Washington Monument had only just become the world's tallest in 1884, after its construction stalled for more than 20 years, when the tower overtook it.
Q 07Which New York skyscraper became the first building to stand taller than the Eiffel Tower?
The Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building's needle-like spire was raised into place in 1929, lifting it past both 40 Wall Street and the Eiffel Tower.
Q 08What did Stephen Sauvestre add to the engineers' original Eiffel Tower design?
Decorative arches at the base
Decorative arches at the base were Sauvestre's addition, and they hold nothing up: they were added just to make the tower look sturdier.
Q 09Which US city's casino has a half-size Eiffel Tower copy?
Las Vegas
Las Vegas got its copy at the Paris resort, where the architect worked from Gustave Eiffel's original blueprints.
Q 10Who led the 'Committee of Three Hundred' of artists protesting the tower?
Charles Garnier
Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris Opera, led the February 1887 'Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel'; the committee had one member for each metre of the planned 300-metre height.
Q 11Which French writer supposedly lunched at the Eiffel Tower because it was the one Paris spot with no view of it?
Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant had signed the artists' 1887 protest against the tower, and is said to have eaten there just to avoid seeing it.
Q 12How many visitors climbed the Eiffel Tower's 1,710 steps to the top before its lifts started running in May 1889?
Nearly 30,000
Nearly 30,000 made the climb on foot, passing a second-level printing press where Le Figaro turned out a special souvenir edition.
Q 13Which inventor visited Gustave Eiffel's private apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower?
Thomas Edison
Q 21A communications mast in which Japanese city, inspired by the Eiffel design, became the world's tallest tower in 1958?
Tokyo
Tokyo Tower, a red-and-white lattice homage opened in 1958, reached 333 metres, topping the 320-metre Eiffel Tower of the time.
Q 22What colour was the Eiffel Tower originally painted?
Reddish brown
Reddish brown came first, and ahead of the 2024 Olympics painters began turning it a golden yellow-brown, said to be the shade Eiffel himself wanted.
Q 23Why is the tower painted in three progressively different shades?
To complement the sky
The shades are graded to complement the sky: darker at the base and lighter at the top, so the colour reads evenly against the Paris sky; the tower has been fully repainted 19 times since 1889.
Thomas Edison came up during the 1889 fair and presented Eiffel with one of his new phonographs as a gift.
Q 14What saved the Eiffel Tower from its planned demolition?
Its value for radio telegraphy
Its value for radio telegraphy saved it, and in the First World War its radio station went on to serve the French military.
Q 15Which elasticity researcher is missing from the Eiffel Tower's 72 names?
Sophie Germain
Sophie Germain's research on elasticity went unhonoured there, and a 1913 book suggested she was left out simply for being a woman.
Q 16What was Franz Reichelt testing when he died jumping from the Eiffel Tower's first level in 1912?
A parachute suit
A parachute suit of his own design, which failed to open while cameras filmed his fatal jump from the first level.
Q 17Which car maker's illuminated name ran down three sides of the Eiffel Tower from 1925?
Citroën
Citroën's name went up because the tower's grand lighting scheme could only be paid for with advertising, and André Citroën agreed to sponsor it.
Q 18Which con artist 'sold' the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal in 1925?
Victor Lustig
Victor Lustig posed as a government official, told scrap dealers the tower was too costly to keep, and talked one of them into paying for it.
Q 19What did the French do to the Eiffel Tower's lifts when Germany occupied Paris in 1940?
Cut the cables
Cut the cables: the French did this to make the tower useless to the occupiers, instead of wrecking the lifts outright.
Q 20Which general did Hitler order to demolish the tower along with the rest of Paris in 1944?
Dietrich von Choltitz
Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, disobeyed the order and surrendered the city to Free French forces on 25 August 1944.
Q 24Roughly how much paint goes on the Eiffel Tower each time it is repainted?
60 tonnes
About 60 tonnes of paint goes on each time, and painters repeat the job roughly every seven years to keep the iron from rusting.
Q 25On a sunny day, which way does the top of the Eiffel Tower lean?
Away from the sun
Away from the sun: the iron on the sunny side heats up and expands, which tilts the top of the tower the other way.
Q 26When does the Eiffel Tower sparkle after dark?
Every hour on the hour
Every hour on the hour: the sparkle began for the millennium, and because those lights weren't built to last, a new set replaced them in 2003.
Q 27Which singer performed from the Eiffel Tower at the Paris 2024 opening ceremony?
Céline Dion
Céline Dion made it her first live performance since revealing she has stiff person syndrome.
Q 28Which English seaside town built its own Eiffel-inspired tower after its mayor visited the 1889 fair?
Blackpool
Blackpool Tower opened in May 1894 after Mayor John Bickerstaffe saw the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 fair; at 158 metres it is about half the height of the Paris original.
Q 29Which landmark faces the Eiffel Tower directly across the Seine?
The Palais de Chaillot
The Palais de Chaillot is where the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Q 30Which American firm built the original curved lifts to the second level when no French firm bid?
Otis
Otis was the only firm willing to take the risk, because the tower's sloping legs meant its lifts had to climb at a changing angle to the second level.