Q 01/05

Machu Picchu, likely built for the emperor Pachacuti, was the work of which civilization?

A) Maya

B) Inca

C) Chimú

D) Moche

Answer · why

B) Inca

Inca: Hiram Bingham mistook Machu Picchu for the last Inca capital, which was really Vilcabamba.

Q 02/05

The Rosetta Stone repeats one decree in hieroglyphs, Demotic and which third script?

A) Latin

B) Greek

C) Aramaic

D) Coptic

Answer · why

B) Greek

Greek: comparing the Greek text with the two Egyptian versions helped Champollion crack hieroglyphs in the 1820s.

Q 03/05

What kept water flowing along Rome's aqueducts?

A) Archimedes screws

B) A gentle downhill slope

C) Ox-driven pumps

D) Slave-worked treadwheels

Answer · why

B) A gentle downhill slope

A gentle downhill slope: the water moved by gravity alone, and where a valley was too deep for arches, engineers used inverted siphons to carry it dow...

Q 04/05

Which Greek city-state is often called the birthplace of democracy?

A) Sparta

B) Athens

C) Thebes

D) Corinth

Answer · why

B) Athens

Athens: citizens could exile a politician for ten years by scratching his name on pottery shards, a vote called ostracism.

Q 05/05

The Great Wall of China was primarily built to defend against invasions from which direction?

A) South

B) East

C) North

D) West

Answer · why

C) North

North: the walls guarded against steppe nomads such as the Xiongnu, yet in 1644 a Chinese general opened the gates at Shanhai Pass to the invaders.