Q 01/05

The only largely intact statue of Khufu, builder of Egypt's largest pyramid, stands roughly how tall?

A) About 3 inches

B) About 12 inches

C) About 6 feet

D) About 30 feet

Answer · why

A) About 3 inches

About 3 inches is all that survives in one piece of the man behind Egypt's largest pyramid. The tiny seated figure was dug up at Abydos in 1903, far f...

Q 02/05

Under which Greek form of his name is Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, also widely known?

A) Mycerinus

B) Sesostris

C) Cheops

D) Ozymandias

Answer · why

C) Cheops

Cheops is how Greek writers rendered the name, pronounced KEE-ops in English. A rarer Greek version, Suphis, comes from a different ancient historian.

Q 03/05

How did medieval explorers find Khufu's granite sarcophagus, the only object left in the King's Chamber?

A) Sealed under thick plaster

B) Broken open and empty

C) Buried in fallen rubble

D) Filled with desert sand

Answer · why

B) Broken open and empty

Broken open and empty is how it turned up: whatever it once held had been carried off long before. The coffer was cut from a single block, and its lid...

Q 04/05

Greek writers blamed slaves, but who do modern finds at Giza suggest really built Khufu's pyramid?

A) Foreign prisoners of war

B) Temple priests

C) Hired Nubian soldiers

D) Conscripted labourers

Answer · why

D) Conscripted labourers

Conscripted labourers, thousands of them, are what the camps point to, not chained captives. The slave story came from Greek visitors writing some 2,0...

Q 05/05

Which son of Khufu built a Giza pyramid that looks taller than his father's because it stands on higher ground?

A) Khafre

B) Kawab

C) Djedefhor

D) Menkaure

Answer · why

A) Khafre

Khafre set his pyramid on bedrock about 10 metres higher, so it seems to top his father's. Measured from base to tip, Khufu's is still the bigger of t...