Ra Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
50 free Ra trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ra trivia quiz covers the ancient Egyptian sun god from his cult centre at Heliopolis to his fusion with Amun as King of the Gods. The easy questions are ones anyone with a passing interest in Egypt can answer: what Ra was god of, the animal head he usually wears, the boat he sails across the sky, the serpent that attacks him every night and the pharaoh who briefly replaced him with the sun disc. The harder end is for mythology and Egyptology readers: the two barques of day and night, the ram-headed form he takes in the underworld, the beetle god of the morning sun, the mound and bird of Heliopolis, how humans were made from Ra's tears, the goddess sent to slaughter humanity and the trick with red beer that stopped her, the dynasty that built sun temples in his honour, the number of forms invoked in the Litany of Re, and how Isis extracted his secret name. A couple of questions cover Ra in modern film. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for Ra, his associated deities and his cult before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Egyptian Mythology, Ancient Egypt and Greek Gods quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01At which Egyptian temple does the dawn sun reach the innermost shrine of its sun gods on two days a year?
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel: around 22 February and 22 October the first rays run the whole length of the rock-cut temple, which was moved uphill in the 1960s to save it from the Aswan High Dam.
Q 02With which bird's head is Ra most commonly depicted?
A falcon
A falcon, but only by day: for the journey through the underworld each night, Egyptian artists gave the sun god a different animal's head altogether.
Q 03What sits on top of Ra's head in his classic depiction?
A sun disc encircled by a cobra
A sun disc encircled by a cobra: the rearing snake, the uraeus, was the god's fierce protector, and pharaohs wore one on the brow for the same protection.
Q 04Ra's cult city, which the Greeks called Heliopolis, now lies beneath the suburbs of which modern city?
Cairo
Cairo: the temple city the Egyptians called Iunu was once one of Egypt's great religious centres, yet almost nothing of it is left above ground.
Q 05Beside which pyramid was a cedar ship buried, perhaps to carry its king across the sky with Ra?
The Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza: Khufu's ship lay sealed in a pit beside it for some 4,500 years until 1954, when it was found virtually intact.
Q 06Which daughter of Ra personified truth, justice and cosmic order?
Ma'at
Ma'at rode in her father's barque, and every king's first duty was to uphold her, order itself, against the chaos that pressed in on Egypt.
Q 07Which animal's head did Ra take on the night boat through the underworld?
A ram
A ram: in tomb paintings of the night journey the sun god stands ram-headed in a cabin on deck, ringed by the coils of a protective serpent called Mehen.
Q 08Which giant serpent tried to stop Ra's boat every night?
Apophis
Apophis could never be killed for good, so priests helped Ra along: they made wax models of the serpent, then spat on them, hacked them up and burned them.
Q 09Which god, elsewhere a villain, rode with Ra and overcame the serpent each night?
Set
Set stood at the prow of the barque and drove his spear into the serpent: the god of storms and disorder was the one strong enough for the job.
Q 10Each dawn, Ra's return from the underworld was pictured as his rebirth from which sky goddess?
Nut
Nut was said to swallow the sun each evening, carry it through her star-covered body overnight and give birth to it again at dawn.
Q 11With which god did Ra merge each night in the depths of the underworld?
Osiris
Osiris: in the deepest hour of the night the two became one, Ra as the soul and Osiris as the body, and the union gave the sun the strength to rise again.
Q 12Which god represented Ra as the rising sun?
Khepri
Khepri, the scarab god: Egyptians watched dung beetles roll their balls along the ground and young ones crawl out as if self-made, and pictured a giant beetle pushing up the sun.
Q 13As the setting sun, Ra was identified with which creator god of Heliopolis?
Atum
Atum, the self-made creator, appears in the books of the underworld as an old man leaning on a stick: the sun grown old by evening.
Q 21How did Ra stop his rampaging Eye from destroying humanity?
With beer dyed red to look like blood
With beer dyed red to look like blood: she lapped it up and slept off her rage, and Egyptians marked the rescue each year with a festival of drinking.
Q 22Which goddess is said to behead the chaos serpent to protect Ra?
Bastet
Bastet, the 'cat of Ra': papyri and tomb paintings show a cat slicing up the serpent with a knife, a scene also read as Ra himself in feline form.
Q 23Which goddess cheered the sulking Ra by baring herself until he laughed?
Hathor
Hathor: insulted by another god, Ra had lain down and stopped ruling, and her cheeky display got him laughing and back to work, which kept the world running.
Q 14Which vast temple complex at Thebes was the chief home of Amun-Ra?
Karnak
Karnak: almost every pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty added to it, and its priests grew so rich that for a time they ruled southern Egypt themselves.
Q 15With which god was Ra merged as the sun 'of the two horizons'?
Horus
Horus: the pair became Ra-Horakhty, 'Ra who is Horus of the Two Horizons', and it is in this merged form that the sun god is most often shown in Egyptian art.
Q 16Which primeval mound rose from the waters of Nun at the start of creation?
The Benben
The Benben, the first land to catch the light, gave its shape and its name to the benbenet, the capstone that crowned a pyramid.
Q 17From what flower did Ra emerge at the dawn of time in one version of the creation myth?
A lotus
A lotus: the Egyptian water lily opens each morning and closes again at dusk, a daily rebirth that made it a fitting cradle for the newborn sun.
Q 18Which two deities were the first pair Ra created?
Shu and Tefnut
Shu and Tefnut, air and moisture: the lone creator made them from his own body, with no partner, and their children were the earth and the sky.
Q 19In Egyptian myth, humankind sprang from which part of Ra?
His tears
His tears: in one telling he wept when his lost children were brought back to him, and the first men and women sprang up where the drops fell.
Q 20Which goddess did Ra send as his Eye to punish humankind for plotting against him?
Sekhmet
Sekhmet, the lioness who sent plagues, was also the patron of doctors: her priests were known as skilled healers, since the goddess who brought disease could take it away.
Q 24How did Isis force Ra to reveal his secret name?
With a snakebite only she could cure
With a snakebite only she could cure: she shaped the snake from dust and the old god's own spittle, so his magic could not touch its venom, then named her price.
Q 25Which sacred bull, an embodiment of Ra, had its cult at Heliopolis?
Mnevis
Mnevis was a living black bull kept at Heliopolis: his movements were read as oracles, and when he died he was embalmed and buried with full honours.
Q 26What name is given to the family of gods that Ra headed at Heliopolis?
The Ennead
The Ennead takes its name from the Greek for nine. Its priests' claim to first place was not accepted everywhere: Memphis and Thebes put their own gods at the top.
Q 27The Fifth Dynasty's open-air temples to Ra were built around an altar and which monument?
An obelisk
An obelisk: unlike Egypt's enclosed temples, these stood open to the sky, and offerings were made on an altar in full sunlight.
Q 28In Genesis, which Hebrew patriarch marries the daughter of a priest of On, Ra's holy city?
Joseph
Joseph: Pharaoh gave him Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife, along with an Egyptian name of his own, Zaphenath-Paneah.
Q 29Which title did Egypt's kings write before their birth name from the pyramid age onward?
Son of Ra
Son of Ra: the title made every king the sun god's heir, and in time the god's name was also worked into the throne name each pharaoh took at his accession.
Q 30Which pharaoh closed the old gods' temples and built a new capital for his sun god?
Akhenaten
Akhenaten, born Amenhotep IV, renamed himself for his god and aimed his reform above all at Amun; within a few years of his death Tutankhamun had reopened the old temples.