Egyptian Pyramid Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Pyramid trivia quiz with over 50 questions about the Egyptian Pyramids!

Egyptian Pyramid Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

What are the Egyptian pyramids?
A: The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt.

Most Egyptian pyramids were built as what?
A: Tombs for the country's pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods.

By the time of the Early Dynastic Period, those with sufficient means were buried in what?
A: Bench-like structures known as mastabas.

The second historically-documented Egyptian pyramid is attributed to whom?
A: The architect Imhotep, who planned what Egyptologists believe to be a tomb for the pharaoh Djoser.

Imhotep is credited with being the first to conceive of what?
A: The notion of stacking mastabas on top of each other, creating an edifice composed of a number of "steps" that decreased in size towards its apex.

The result was the Pyramid of Djoser, which was designed to serve as a gigantic what?
A: Stairway by which the soul of the deceased pharaoh could ascend to the heavens.

Such was the importance of Imhotep's achievement that he was later what?
A: Deified by later Egyptians.

The most prolific pyramid-building phase coincided with the greatest degree of what?
A: Absolutist rule.

It was during this time that the most famous pyramids, the “what”, were built?
A: Giza pyramid complex.

Over time, as authority became less centralized, the ability and willingness to harness the resources required for construction on a massive scale decreased, and later pyramids were what?
A: Smaller, less well-built and often hastily constructed.

Long after the end of Egypt's own pyramid-building period, a burst of pyramid-building occurred where?
A: In what is present-day Sudan.

Al-Aziz Uthman (1171–1198) tried to destroy what?
A: The Giza pyramid complex.

Why did he give up after damaging the Pyramid of Menkaure?
A: Because the task proved too huge.

The shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent what?
A: The primordial mound from which the Egyptians believed the earth was created.

The shape of a pyramid is also thought to be representative of what?
A: The descending rays of the sun.

Most pyramids were faced with what?
A: Polished, highly reflective white limestone.

Why were they faced with highly reflective limestone?
A: In order to give them a brilliant appearance when viewed from a distance.

Pyramids were often also named in ways that referred to what?
A: Solar luminescence.

What was the formal name of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur?
A: The Southern Shining Pyramid.

What was the formal name of Senwosret at el-Lahun?
A: It was Senwosret is Shining.

The Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was what?
A: The physical gateway into the heavens.

One of the narrow shafts that extend from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards what?
A: The center of this part of the sky.

This suggests the pyramid may have been designed to serve as a means to what?
A: Magically launch the deceased pharaoh's soul directly into the abode of the gods.

As of November 2008, how many Egyptian pyramids have been identified?
A: 118.

The location of Pyramid 29, which Lepsius called the "Headless Pyramid", was lost for a second time after what?
A: The structure was buried by desert sands subsequent to Lepsius' survey.

It was found again only during what?
A: An archaeological dig conducted in 2008.

Many pyramids are in a poor state of preservation or what?
A: Buried by desert sands.

What was the most recent pyramid to be discovered?
A: Sesheshet at Saqqara, mother of the Sixth Dynasty pharaoh Teti.

The discovery was announced on what date?
A: 11 November 2008.

Where is the location of the Pyramid of Khufu?
A: Giza.

Khafre's pyramid is the only one that retains part of its original what?
A: Polished limestone casing, near its apex.

Since antiquity the Giza pyramid complex has been a what?
A: A popular tourist destination.

It was popularized in Hellenistic times when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as what?
A: One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Today it is the only one of those wonders that is what?
A: Still in existence.

Major pyramids located at Giza include the Pyramid of Djoser which is generally identified as what?
A: The world's oldest substantial monumental structure to be built of dressed stone.

At Saqqara is the Pyramid of Unas, which retains a pyramid causeway that is one of the what?
A: The best-preserved in Egypt.

Saqqara is also the location of what incomplete step pyramid?
A: Djoser's successor Sekhemkhet known as the Buried Pyramid.

Archaeologists believe that had this pyramid been completed, it would have been what?
A: Larger than Djoser's.

South of the main pyramid field at Saqqara is a second collection of what?
A: Later, smaller pyramids.