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Ancient Egypt
Pharaohs & Pyramids
Monuments, rulers and the writing we spent centuries decoding.
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The Great Pyramid at Giza was built as a tomb for which pharaoh?
Building the Pyramids
The pyramids are less mysterious than they are enormous. Ten questions on how they were laid out, what they were made of, and who did the lifting.
About this topic
Pyramid building was a short, intense phase of Egyptian history. The serious ones went up over about five centuries in the Old Kingdom, and by the New Kingdom the whole idea had been dropped in favour of hidden rock-cut tombs. Everything in between is a story of engineers learning on the job, sometimes visibly, as the Bent Pyramid shows. Much of what we now know comes from unglamorous archaeology rather than the monuments themselves: bakeries, rubbish tips, gang graffiti and a workers' cemetery. That evidence has quietly demolished the older picture of slave armies driven by whips, and replaced it with something more like a state construction project.
Questions & answers
Building the Pyramids: all 10 questions and answers
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
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1The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur, which changes angle partway up, was built for which king?
- A Menkaure
- B Sneferu Correct
- C Djoser
- D Khufu
Answer: B. Sneferu
Why: The builders reduced the slope from roughly 54 degrees to about 43 partway through, most likely because the structure was showing signs of strain. Sneferu is credited with more than one large pyramid and moved more stone than any other Egyptian king.
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2The three main pyramids at Giza were built for Khufu, Khafre and which third king?
- A Menkaure Correct
- B Djedefre
- C Userkaf
- D Shepseskaf
Answer: A. Menkaure
Why: Menkaure's pyramid is much the smallest of the three, standing around 65 metres against Khufu's original 146. Its lower courses were faced with granite brought hundreds of kilometres downriver from Aswan.
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3What was the outer casing of the Great Pyramid made of?
- A Granite
- B Sandstone
- C Basalt
- D Fine white limestone Correct
Answer: D. Fine white limestone
Why: The casing came from quarries at Tura on the east bank of the Nile and would have made the finished pyramid gleam. Most of it was stripped away in the medieval period and reused for building in Cairo.
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4Roughly how tall was the Great Pyramid when it was finished?
- A About 210 metres
- B About 265 metres
- C About 146 metres Correct
- D About 92 metres
Answer: C. About 146 metres
Why: It stood around 146 metres and is now closer to 138 after the loss of its casing and capstone. It remained the tallest structure built by human beings for something like 3,800 years.
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5What does the excavated workers' settlement at Giza suggest about the pyramid builders?
- A They were priests of the royal funerary cult
- B They were organised Egyptian work crews who were fed and housed Correct
- C They were foreign slaves captured in war
- D They were criminals serving sentences
Answer: B. They were organised Egyptian work crews who were fed and housed
Why: Digging at the workers' town and cemetery turned up bakeries, breweries, fish stores and evidence of medical treatment for broken bones. Graffiti left in the monuments records the names of individual gangs, one of them calling itself the friends of Khufu.
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6What stone lines the King's Chamber inside the Great Pyramid?
- A Granite Correct
- B Alabaster
- C Marble
- D Basalt
Answer: A. Granite
Why: The chamber is built of massive granite blocks quarried at Aswan, roughly 800 kilometres to the south. Five hollow relieving chambers sit above it to spread the weight of the masonry overhead.
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7Egyptian pyramids were almost always built on which side of the Nile?
- A The east bank
- B On islands in the river
- C On the Mediterranean coast
- D The west bank Correct
Answer: D. The west bank
Why: The west was where the sun set, so it was the side associated with the dead, and the great cemeteries cluster there. Temples for the living gods tended to be built on the east bank instead.
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8Which pyramid at Giza still keeps some of its original casing near the summit?
- A Menkaure's
- B Djoser's
- C Khafre's Correct
- D Khufu's
Answer: C. Khafre's
Why: A cap of smooth limestone survives at the top of Khafre's pyramid and shows how all three once looked. Khafre's also sits on higher bedrock, which makes it look taller than Khufu's from many angles even though it is slightly smaller.
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9A sealed pit beside the Great Pyramid, opened in 1954, was found to contain what?
- A A hoard of copper tools
- B A dismantled full-size wooden boat Correct
- C A store of grain
- D Sacrificed horses
Answer: B. A dismantled full-size wooden boat
Why: The pit held a cedar vessel more than 40 metres long, taken apart into more than a thousand pieces and later reassembled. Whether it ever floated or was built purely for the funeral is still argued over.
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10New Kingdom pharaohs gave up pyramids in favour of what kind of tomb?
- A Rock-cut tombs hidden in a desert valley Correct
- B Mudbrick tombs inside temple walls
- C Shafts sunk beneath their palaces
- D Open stone sarcophagi in the desert
Answer: A. Rock-cut tombs hidden in a desert valley
Why: From roughly 1500 BC kings were buried in tombs cut into the rock of the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank opposite Thebes. The hope was to hide them from robbers, and it did not work in almost every case.
Frequently asked questions about Building the Pyramids
How many questions are in Building the Pyramids?
Building the Pyramids has 10 questions and takes about 8 minutes to finish. It is rated Hard and sits in our Ancient Egypt category.
How is Building the Pyramids scored?
Each of the 10 correct answers adds 10 XP, up to 100 XP for a clean run. Wrong answers cost you nothing, and your full question-by-question review is shown at the end.
Are the answers to Building the Pyramids explained?
Yes. All 10 questions carry a written explanation of why the correct answer is right, so the quiz works as a study sheet as well as a test.
Can I replay Building the Pyramids?
Yes, as often as you like. The questions and the answer options are reshuffled on each run, and you can use Practice Mistakes afterwards to retry only the ones you missed. No account is needed to play.
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