Q 01/05

By what Greek name, handed down by Herodotus, is the Great Pyramid's builder Khufu also known?

A) Chephren

B) Mycerinus

C) Cheops

D) Amenophis

Answer · why

C) Cheops

Cheops is the Greek form of Khufu. Herodotus, writing some 2,000 years after the king's death, cast him as a tyrant who shut Egypt's temples and set h...

Q 02/05

The Great Pyramid was built during which era of ancient Egyptian history?

A) The New Kingdom

B) The Middle Kingdom

C) The Ptolemaic Kingdom

D) The Old Kingdom

Answer · why

D) The Old Kingdom

The Old Kingdom raised it more than 4,400 years ago, so early that Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the pyramid's builders.

Q 03/05

Roughly how tall was the Great Pyramid when it was newly built?

A) About 15 metres

B) About 50 metres

C) About 150 metres

D) About 450 metres

Answer · why

C) About 150 metres

About 150 metres: it stood some 147 metres tall when new. The loss of its outer casing and its tip has since lowered it to around 138 metres.

Q 04/05

The Great Pyramid was the world's tallest structure for over 3,700 years until it was overtaken by what?

A) A Mayan temple

B) A medieval cathedral

C) A Roman lighthouse

D) A Persian minaret

Answer · why

B) A medieval cathedral

A medieval cathedral finally topped it: Lincoln's central spire, raised in the early 1300s, is often given the credit. A storm later blew that spire d...

Q 05/05

Howard Vyse named chambers he blasted open inside the Great Pyramid in 1837 after Wellington and which admiral?

A) Francis Drake

B) William Bligh

C) Horatio Nelson

D) Thomas Cochrane

Answer · why

C) Horatio Nelson

Horatio Nelson got the third chamber up, above Wellington's. Vyse reached them with gunpowder, and red-painted gang marks the builders had left on the...