Q 01/05

The most famous lighthouse of antiquity, one of the Seven Wonders, stood at which city?

A) Rhodes

B) Alexandria

C) Carthage

D) Halicarnassus

Answer · why

B) Alexandria

Alexandria's Pharos stood over 100 metres tall, and its name outlived it: a lighthouse is still a phare in French and a faro in Spanish and Italian.

Q 02/05

What did a 15th-century sultan build on the foundations of the fallen Pharos lighthouse, reusing its stones?

A) A royal tomb

B) A fortress

C) A palace

D) A customs house

Answer · why

B) A fortress

A fortress, the Citadel of Qaitbay, still guards the harbour there, and divers have mapped hundreds of huge stone blocks on the seabed around it, some...

Q 03/05

The Tower of Hercules, a Roman lighthouse still working after some 1,900 years, stands in which country?

A) Spain

B) Italy

C) Portugal

D) Greece

Answer · why

A) Spain

Spain's Tower of Hercules, at A Coruña, has guided ships since Roman times; an 18th-century restoration added the top storeys, so the Roman tower now ...

Q 04/05

Who were the first keepers of Hook Head, Ireland's 800-year-old lighthouse, tending its fire for some four centuries?

A) Monks

B) Soldiers

C) Pilots

D) Convicts

Answer · why

A) Monks

Monks were the obvious keepers: tradition says a monk named Dubhán kept a beacon on the headland from the 5th century, long before the tower, and his ...

Q 05/05

Estonia's Kõpu lighthouse, in use since 1531, was built at the demand of which Baltic power, tired of losing ships?

A) The Hanseatic League

B) The Kalmar Union

C) The Teutonic Order

D) The Kingdom of Poland

Answer · why

A) The Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League's merchants kept losing ships on a shoal beside the Baltic's busiest east-west route, so they pressed for a tower on the island's...