60 free Tutankhamun trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Tutankhamun trivia quiz covers the boy pharaoh who mattered little in life and became the most famous Egyptian of all in death. The easy questions cover the basics: the dynasty he belonged to, roughly how old he was when he died, the man who found his tomb in 1922, the patron who paid for the dig, the mask everyone recognises and the nickname the newspapers gave him. From there it moves through his birth name and what it meant, the religious revolution of his father Akhenaten that he and his advisers reversed, the queen he married, the two daughters buried with him and the vizier and general who followed him on the throne. The harder end covers the DNA that made his parents full siblings, the malaria and the broken leg, the 130 walking sticks that showed no wear, the tomb number, the water boy who may have found the first step, the day the seal was broken, the meteorite dagger, the objects recycled from earlier owners, the amulet Carter is said to have stolen, Carnarvon's death and the curse that never was, the touring exhibitions that drew millions and the whale named after him in 2023. Every answer was checked against Tutankhamun's encyclopaedia entry before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Mythology quizzes are natural companions.
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Q 01To which dynasty of ancient Egypt did Tutankhamun belong?
The Eighteenth
He was its third-to-last pharaoh, ruling roughly 1332 to 1323 BC.
Q 02About how old was Tutankhamun when he died?
18
He had come to the throne aged eight or nine and reigned about nine years.
Q 03What was Tutankhamun's name at birth?
Tutankhaten
It meant 'living image of Aten', the sun-disc god of his father Akhenaten's religion.
Q 04Which god's cult at Thebes did Tutankhamun restore to prominence, undoing Atenism?
Amun
He and his queen swapped the -aten in their names for -amun and recorded the change on the Restoration Stela.
Q 05From which capital, built by Akhenaten, did Tutankhamun move the royal court on becoming king?
Amarna
The court went to Memphis for administration; Thebes regained its role as the great religious centre.
Q 06According to DNA testing, what was the relationship between Tutankhamun's parents?
Full brother and sister
Both appear to be children of Amenhotep III and Tiye; his father is the KV55 mummy, thought to be Akhenaten, and his mother 'The Younger Lady'.
Q 07Which of Akhenaten's daughters did Tutankhamun marry?
Ankhesenpaaten
She became Ankhesenamun; the couple's two daughters died at or soon after birth and were buried in his tomb.
Q 08How old was Tutankhamun when he became pharaoh?
Eight or nine
He followed the short reigns of two of Akhenaten's successors.
Q 09What throne name did Tutankhamun take on his accession?
Nebkheperure
Priests of his cult held titles such as 'First Prophet of Nebkheperure'.
Q 10When in his reign did Tutankhamun set up the Restoration Stela marking his return to the old gods?
Regnal year 4
A later pharaoh usurped the stela and claimed the restoration for himself.
Q 11Which official, 'overseer of the treasuries', carried out Tutankhamun's restoration programme?
Maya
He wrote that he 'did not neglect what he had commanded to make splendid the temples'.
Q 12At Karnak, Tutankhamun laid out an avenue of sphinxes leading to the temple of which goddess?
Mut
The sphinxes had been made for Akhenaten and Nefertiti and were given new ram heads.
Q 13With which northern kingdom did Tutankhamun re-establish diplomatic relations?
The Mitanni
Gifts from various countries in his tomb suggest his diplomacy worked; battles with Nubians and Asiatics were also recorded.
Q 21Which successor is shown performing the opening-of-the-mouth ritual on Tutankhamun's burial chamber wall?
Ay
The rite was performed by the next pharaoh, so Ay's succession was settled by the funeral; he was probably an old man.
Q 22Which commander-in-chief of Tutankhamun's army eventually became pharaoh after Ay?
Horemheb
He defaced Ay's tomb but left Tutankhamun's untouched, and later chose Ramesses I as his heir.
Q 23The search for Tutankhamun's missing mortuary temple led in 2021 to the discovery of what?
The lost city of Aten
His actual mortuary temple was probably destroyed by a successor and has never been found.
Q 14Roughly how many arrows were found in Tutankhamun's tomb?
Over 400
With more than 40 bows, they suggest serious archery training; one bow's tips were carved as bound enemies strangled when the string was drawn.
Q 15Tutankhamun was one of the few pharaohs to be what during his own lifetime?
Worshipped as a god
Temples to his deified form stood at Kawa and Faras in Nubia, and the Stela of Huy at Karnak hymns him as a local Amun.
Q 16Which two medical conditions have been confirmed in Tutankhamun's mummy?
Malaria and a leg fracture
DNA showed repeated infection with the most severe malaria strain; the compound fracture showed no healing.
Q 17How could scientists tell Tutankhamun's leg broke before death, not during modern handling?
Embalming substances were inside the fracture
The ragged edges also differed from the sharp breaks of modern mummy damage.
Q 18How many canes and sticks were found in Tutankhamun's tomb?
More than 130
A recent study found almost no wear on their tips, suggesting they were regalia rather than walking aids.
Q 19How tall was Tutankhamun's mummy?
About 167 cm (5 ft 6 in)
That was on the tall side for the period; his teeth were in excellent condition with the family overbite.
Q 20What did the 1968 X-ray find inside Tutankhamun's skull that briefly fuelled a murder theory?
Two loose bone fragments
CT scans showed they came from the modern unwrapping, not a blow to the head.
Q 24Why was Tutankhamun buried in a sepulchre unusually small for a king?
His royal tomb was unfinished when he died unexpectedly
Burial had to happen within the customary 70 days, so a tomb meant for someone else was adapted.
Q 25What is the number of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings?
KV62
KV55 held the mummy thought to be his father; debris from cutting KV9 buried the entrance and saved it.
Q 26Which American excavator gave up the Valley of the Kings concession in 1914, declaring the valley 'exhausted'?
Theodore Davis
He had found the king's embalming cache and thought it was the lost tomb itself.
Q 27Who led the excavation that found Tutankhamun's tomb?
Howard Carter
He had begun a systematic search of the valley in 1915 and took ten years to catalogue the finds.
Q 28Which aristocrat financed Carter's excavations?
The 5th Earl of Carnarvon
George Herbert took up Egyptology after a doctor sent him to Egypt's warm climate following a 1901 car accident.
Q 29On what date was the first step of the tomb's staircase uncovered?
4 November 1922
Some accounts credit a water boy, Hussein Abdul Rasoul, digging outside the work area.
Q 30On what date was the seal to the burial chamber broken before some twenty witnesses?
17 February 1923
Letters published in 2022 suggest Carter had already stolen objects from the tomb before the official opening.