Pyramids Trivia
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59 free Pyramids trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Pyramids are the one building type almost every ancient civilisation seems to have arrived at independently, and this quiz treats them that way. It starts at Giza, with the Great Pyramid's original height, its 2.3 million blocks, the caliph who tunnelled into it, the papyrus logbook that names it, and the hidden void found with cosmic-ray detectors. Then it works back through the experiments that made it possible: Djoser's six-tier Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the collapsed 'false pyramid' at Meidum, the Bent Pyramid's emergency change of angle, and the Red Pyramid that finally got it right. From there it heads south to Sudan, which has more pyramids than Egypt, and across the Atlantic to the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the largest by volume anywhere, El Castillo's 365 steps and equinox serpent, Teotihuacan's Avenue of the Dead and Uxmal's Pyramid of the Magician. The last stretch covers the copies and homages: Rome's Pyramid of Cestius, I. M. Pei's glass entrance at the Louvre and its 666-pane rumour, the Luxor's sky beam and San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid. The easy questions suit anyone who has seen a photograph of Giza; the expert tier reaches Shepseskaf, Piankhy and the Diary of Merer. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the individual monuments, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. If you want to go deeper on the biggest one, there is a separate Great Pyramid of Giza quiz.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the only one still largely intact?
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza, built for Khufu around 2560 BC, is the oldest of the seven wonders and the only one that survives; the others fell to earthquakes, fire or demolition.
Q 02How tall was the Great Pyramid when it was completed?
About 146 metres (481 ft)
The Great Pyramid originally rose about 146 metres (481 ft); loss of its polished casing stones and apex has reduced it to roughly 138 metres.
Q 03For roughly how long did the Great Pyramid remain the tallest human-made structure on Earth?
More than 3,700 years
The Great Pyramid was the tallest human-made structure for more than 3,700 years, roughly 3,800, from about 2560 BC until the 160-metre spire of Lincoln Cathedral topped it in 1311.
Q 04Roughly how many large stone blocks were quarried to build the Great Pyramid?
About 2.3 million
About 2.3 million blocks, averaging roughly 2.5 tonnes each, went into the Great Pyramid, a total mass close to 6 million tonnes.
Q 05The white limestone that once cased the Great Pyramid was shipped from which quarry?
Tura
The fine white casing limestone came from the Tura quarries on the Nile's east bank opposite Giza; the King's Chamber granite came from Aswan, far to the south, in blocks of up to 80 tonnes.
Q 06Which Abbasid caliph is said to have tunnelled into the Great Pyramid in AD 832?
al-Ma'mun
Caliph al-Ma'mun's workmen forced the so-called Robbers' Tunnel into the Great Pyramid; legend says he found a jar of coins worth exactly the cost of the digging, possibly planted to placate his crew.
Q 07The Diary of Merer, a Great Pyramid supply logbook, was found in 2013 at which Red Sea site?
Wadi al-Jarf
Pierre Tallet's team found the Diary of Merer in 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an Old Kingdom Red Sea harbour; it logs limestone shipments from Tura to the pyramid, called Akhet Khufu.
Q 08Writing around 450 BC, Herodotus claimed the Great Pyramid took how long to build?
20 years
Herodotus wrote that the pyramid itself took 20 years, after 10 years spent on its causeway, with 100,000 men working in three-month shifts; modern estimates are far lower.
Q 09Modern historians estimate roughly how many workers built the Great Pyramid?
20,000 to 30,000
Mark Lehner and others estimate about 20,000 to 30,000 workers; the excavated workers' town at Giza, with bakeries and cattle bones, shows paid crews fed bread, beer and beef, not slaves.
Q 10The lower 'air shafts' Waynman Dixon opened in 1872 lead from which part of the Great Pyramid?
Queen's Chamber
Waynman Dixon located the Queen's Chamber's two shafts in 1872 after noticing a crack in the south wall; unlike the King's Chamber shafts they stop short of the pyramid's exterior.
Q 11What technique found the hidden cavity above the Great Pyramid's Grand Gallery in 2017?
Muon radiography
The team nicknamed it the Big Void; muons are cosmic-ray particles that pass through rock at different rates depending on its density.
Q 12The Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Egypt's first pyramid, was built for which Third Dynasty king?
Djoser
Djoser, a Third Dynasty king of about 2650 BC, was buried beneath the Step Pyramid at Saqqara; the monument reopened to visitors in March 2020 after a 14-year restoration.
Q 13How many tiers does the Step Pyramid at Saqqara have?
Six
The Step Pyramid rises in six tiers of diminishing size to about 62.5 metres; it began as a flat mastaba that was enlarged in stages.
Q 21Which of the three main pyramids at Giza is the smallest?
Menkaure's
Menkaure's pyramid originally stood about 65 metres tall, less than half the height of Khufu's; its lowest courses were cased in Aswan granite rather than limestone.
Q 22The builder of the smallest Giza pyramid died before it was done; which successor finished it?
Shepseskaf
Shepseskaf, who followed him on the throne, finished the complex hastily in mudbrick; the granite casing stopped at about sixteen courses, with some blocks never dressed smooth.
Q 23How long is the Great Sphinx of Giza from paw to tail?
About 73 metres (240 ft)
Q 14Which royal official, later worshipped as a god, is credited with designing Egypt's first step pyramid?
Imhotep
Imhotep, the king's chancellor and high priest of Heliopolis, designed the Step Pyramid at Saqqara; centuries later he was deified as a god of medicine and healing, and his tomb has never been found.
Q 15The partially collapsed monument at Meidum is known in Egyptian Arabic by a nickname meaning what?
The false pyramid
Locals call the Meidum monument el-heram el-kaddab, 'the false pyramid', because the collapse of its outer layers left a tower-like core rising from a mound of rubble.
Q 16The Bent Pyramid rises at about 54°, but its upper section was finished at what shallower angle?
43°
The Bent Pyramid's slope drops from about 54° to 43° partway up, a change usually read as a mid-build response to signs of structural instability.
Q 17Sneferu's Bent Pyramid stands at which royal necropolis about 40 km south of Cairo?
Dahshur
The Bent Pyramid stands at Dahshur, the necropolis Sneferu founded about 40 km south of Cairo; it keeps much of its original polished limestone casing.
Q 18Egypt's first successful smooth-sided 'true' pyramid, built by Sneferu, is known by which colour name?
Red
The Red Pyramid takes its name from the reddish limestone of its exposed core; it was originally cased in white limestone and is Egypt's third-largest pyramid.
Q 19Sneferu, builder of the Bent Pyramid, was the first pharaoh of which Egyptian dynasty?
The Fourth
Sneferu founded the Fourth Dynasty around 2613 BC; his son Khufu followed him and built the Great Pyramid at Giza.
Q 20Why does the pyramid of Khafre look taller than the Great Pyramid next to it, even though it is shorter?
It stands on higher bedrock
Its bedrock sits about 10 metres higher, and it also keeps a cap of original casing stones near its summit.
The Great Sphinx is about 73 metres (240 ft) long and 20 metres high, carved from the bedrock of the Giza plateau, most likely in the reign of Khafre.
Q 24A popular but false story blames whose troops for shooting off the Great Sphinx's nose?
Napoleon's
Napoleon's troops arrived in 1798, yet Frederic Norden's drawings of 1737 already show the Sphinx without its nose; chisel marks suggest it was deliberately pried off centuries earlier.
Q 25The Great Sphinx has the head of a human and the body of which animal?
A lion
The Great Sphinx pairs a lion's crouching body with a human head, probably Khafre's; Egyptian sphinxes are usually male and wingless, unlike the winged female sphinx of Greek myth.
Q 26In his Dream Stele, the pharaoh Thutmose IV refers to the Great Sphinx as which solar deity?
Hor-em-akhet
Thutmose IV's stele calls the Sphinx Hor-em-akhet, 'Horus in the Horizon', Hellenised as Harmachis, and promises him the throne for clearing away its sand; the statue's Old Kingdom name is unknown.
Q 27The Pyramid Texts, the oldest Egyptian funerary spells, were first inscribed in which Fifth Dynasty king's pyramid?
Unas
Unas, last king of the Fifth Dynasty, had the spells carved in his Saqqara pyramid around 2350 BC; Gaston Maspero entered it in 1881, and the tradition later fed the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead.
Q 28Which country has more surviving pyramids than any other?
Sudan
Sudan has more than 200 surviving pyramids, the steep, narrow royal tombs of ancient Nubia, outnumbering Egypt's.
Q 29The Nubian pyramids of the Nile Valley were built by the rulers of which ancient kingdom?
Kush
The Kingdom of Kush ruled Nubia from Napata and later from a capital further upstream; its kings adopted pyramid burial and ruled Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.
Q 30The last Nubian royal pyramid went up around AD 350 at which site?
Meroë
The royal cemetery at Meroë, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, received the last Nubian pyramid around AD 350, when the kingdom that built it collapsed.