Quiz template · Education
Ancient civilisations quiz questions and answers
20 questions on Egypt, Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China: pharaohs and hieroglyphs, Sparta and Homer, Augustus and the Terracotta Army.
Medium 20 questions 30 s each · about 16 min Checked against two sources
Use this at the end of a unit on the ancient world, or as a revision round before a test. It moves from the Nile to the Tiber and on to the Indus and the Qin tomb, with the names, places and dates a class is expected to know. Three of the questions kept for the app are hard enough to stretch the students who already read ahead. Twenty questions take about 16 minutes.
How to run it
- Play it as a team round. Give each table one phone, and the quiet students will argue over the answers as hard as the loud ones.
- After question 4, show the leaderboard and ask what the Rosetta Stone actually says. Most people know it was a key, and almost nobody knows it is a tax decree.
- Keep questions 16 to 20 for the app. Question 18, the year the Western Roman Empire ended, is your tie-breaker.
Questions and answers
1The ancient Egyptians wrote with a script made of pictures and symbols. What is it called?Easy
- ACuneiform
- BHieroglyphs
- CRunes
- DSanskrit
Reveal answer
B. Hieroglyphs
Hieroglyphs were the formal script of ancient Egypt, carved on temples and tombs. For everyday paperwork scribes used a faster script called Demotic.
2Which river made farming possible in ancient Egypt?Easy
- AThe Tigris
- BThe Euphrates
- CThe Nile
- DThe Jordan
Reveal answer
C. The Nile
Egypt's towns sat along the Nile, and the river's yearly flood left rich soil on the fields. Farmers planned the whole year around it, with seasons for flooding, planting and harvest.
3What title did the rulers of ancient Egypt hold?Easy
- ACaesar
- BSultan
- CShah
- DPharaoh
Reveal answer
D. Pharaoh
Pharaoh was the title of the Egyptian ruler, seen as both a king and a link to the gods. The word comes from an Egyptian term for the royal palace, the great house.
4The Rosetta Stone carries the same decree in how many scripts?Medium
- ATwo
- BThree
- CFour
- DFive
Reveal answer
B. Three
The stone has the text in hieroglyphs, in Demotic and in Greek. Scholars could read the Greek, and that gave them the key to the other two.
5Who announced the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822?Hard
- AThomas Young
- BHoward Carter
- CJean-Francois Champollion
- DNapoleon Bonaparte
Reveal answer
C. Jean-Francois Champollion
Champollion, a French scholar, read his findings to the Academy in Paris in September 1822. His English rival Thomas Young was in the audience.
6Which Greek city-state trained its boys as soldiers from the age of seven?Easy
- AAthens
- BCorinth
- CSparta
- DThebes
Reveal answer
C. Sparta
Spartan boys entered the agoge, a state training system, at seven. Sparta was the leading land power in Greece until its defeat at Leuctra in 371 BC.
7Who is traditionally named as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey?Easy
- AHomer
- BPlato
- CSophocles
- DHerodotus
Reveal answer
A. Homer
Both epics are credited to Homer, who probably lived in the 8th century BC. Many scholars think the poems grew out of a long oral tradition rather than one writer.
8Which philosopher tutored the young Alexander the Great?Medium
- ASocrates
- BPlato
- CPythagoras
- DAristotle
Reveal answer
D. Aristotle
Philip II of Macedon hired Aristotle to teach his son from 343 BC. Aristotle later opened his own school in Athens, the Lyceum.
9Who became the first Roman emperor in 27 BC?Medium
- AAugustus
- BJulius Caesar
- CNero
- DHadrian
Reveal answer
A. Augustus
Augustus, born Gaius Octavius, took the title in 27 BC and ruled until AD 14. His great-uncle Julius Caesar held power as dictator, never as emperor.
10Which language did the ancient Romans speak?Easy
- AGreek
- BLatin
- CItalian
- DEtruscan
Reveal answer
B. Latin
Latin was the language of Rome and its empire. Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian all grew out of it, which is why they share so many words.
11What number does the Roman numeral L stand for?Medium
- A5
- B10
- C100
- D50
Reveal answer
D. 50
L is 50, C is 100, D is 500 and M is 1,000. A smaller numeral in front of a larger one is subtracted, so XL is 40 and XC is 90.
12Hadrian's Wall, begun in AD 122, runs across which modern country?Medium
- AScotland
- BWales
- CEngland
- DFrance
Reveal answer
C. England
The wall runs 118 km across northern England, from the Tyne to the Solway. It marked the northern edge of the Roman province of Britannia.
13Mesopotamia, home of some of the first cities, lay between which two rivers?Medium
- AThe Nile and the Jordan
- BThe Tigris and the Euphrates
- CThe Danube and the Rhine
- DThe Indus and the Ganges
Reveal answer
B. The Tigris and the Euphrates
The name is Greek for between the rivers. The region covers most of modern Iraq with parts of Syria and Turkey, and its rich soil let farming villages grow into cities.
14The Terracotta Army was buried to guard the tomb of which ruler?Medium
- AKublai Khan
- BConfucius
- CGenghis Khan
- DQin Shi Huang
Reveal answer
D. Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang united China and became its first emperor. Farmers digging a well near Xi'an found the clay soldiers in 1974, and thousands more are still underground.
15Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were cities of which ancient civilisation?Medium
- AMinoan
- BPersian
- CIndus Valley
- DMesopotamian
Reveal answer
C. Indus Valley
The Indus Valley people built planned cities of brick in the 3rd millennium BC, in what is now Pakistan and India. The ruins of Mohenjo-daro are a World Heritage Site.
5 more questions in the full pack. Play all 20 live, free.
Get all 20 questions, ready to play live - free for 100 playersQuestions about this template
Which civilisations does the quiz cover?
Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome get the most questions, with Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and Qin dynasty China alongside them. Every answer is checked against two sources, and each one links to a museum, UNESCO or Wikipedia page you can show the class.
Can I run it live in a classroom?
Yes. Press Go live and show the PIN or QR code on the board. Students join from any device, answer within the timer and see the leaderboard after each question. The free plan covers 100 players in a session.
Do students need to install an app or make an account?
No. They open the link or scan the code, enter the PIN and a name, and play in the browser. Only the teacher needs a RiLiFi account.
Can I change the questions to match my syllabus?
Yes. Use this template to make a copy, then swap in questions on the period you teach, change the timer, or remove anything your class has not covered.
Sources
Every answer shown here was checked against two sources, listed below. Links last checked 27 October 2026.
- Egyptian hieroglyphs - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- britishmuseum.orgbritishmuseum.org
- Ancient Egypt - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Nile - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Pharaoh - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Rosetta Stone - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Jean-François Champollion - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- britishmuseum.orgbritishmuseum.org
- Spartan army - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Sparta - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Homer - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Iliad - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Aristotle - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Aristotle (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)plato.stanford.edu
- Augustus - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Roman emperor - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Latin - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Ancient Rome - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Roman numerals - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- 50 (number) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Hadrian's Wall - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire - UNESCO World Heritage Centrewhc.unesco.org
- britishmuseum.orgbritishmuseum.org
- Mesopotamia - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor - UNESCO World Heritage Centrewhc.unesco.org
- Terracotta Army - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro - UNESCO World Heritage Centrewhc.unesco.org
- Mohenjo-daro - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
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