Ancient Egypt Quiz

Answer: Hatshepsut. Reigning around 1479-1458 BC, Hatshepsut adopted all the royal attributes, including the braided false beard. After her death, her successor Thutmose III had some of her images chiselled away.

Answer: Three. Akhet, the flood; Peret, the growing season; Shemu, the harvest. The whole life of the country followed the rhythm of the Nile rather than heat and cold.

Answer: The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines. Each organ, embalmed separately, was protected by one of the four sons of Horus, whose heads often decorated the lids: human, baboon, jackal and falcon.

Answer: They were cased in polished white limestone that shone in the sun. A casing of fine Tura limestone gave the pyramids smooth, gleaming faces. After an earthquake in 1303, much of it was taken to build the mosques and palaces of Cairo.

Answer: To hide their tombs from robbers. Pyramids, practically giant signposts, had all been plundered. The kings chose tombs cut into the rock of a remote valley… which did not stop most from being emptied, except Tutankhamun's.

Answer: Herodotus. Herodotus, who visited Egypt around 450 BC, noted that the whole fertile country was just a narrow strip of silt deposited by the river. Without the flood, Egypt would be nothing but desert.

Answer: Their food rations were no longer being delivered. Under Ramesses III, grain rations were arriving weeks late. The workers downed tools and sat in front of the temples shouting "We are hungry!". They eventually got what they wanted.

Answer: Black and red. Black ink was made from soot, red from ochre. Red highlighted headings, dates or corrections, a habit that has lasted down to teachers' red pens.

Answer: Tutankhaten. Born during the reforms of Akhenaten, probably his father, he bore a name honouring Aten. When he returned to the old gods, he changed it to honour Amun: "living image of Amun".

Answer: Its slope was reduced during construction. Begun at an angle of about 54°, Pharaoh Sneferu's pyramid showed signs of instability, so the builders switched to about 43° for the upper part. Sneferu then had the more cautious Red Pyramid built.

Answer: Urinating on wheat and barley grains to see if they sprouted. If the grains sprouted, the woman was pregnant; wheat predicted a girl and barley a boy, according to the papyrus. A 1963 study showed that urine from pregnant women often did make the grains sprout: the test was not so absurd!

Answer: Lincoln Cathedral, in England. Thanks to its central spire, Lincoln Cathedral reportedly reached about 160 m, compared with Khufu's original 146 m. The spire collapsed in 1548 and the cathedral lost its title.