World monuments. Quiz

Do you know much about monuments other than the ones in your own country?

There are so many famous landmarks worldwide, do you know where they originate from or who built them?

Take this quiz to see how much you really know!

1. Which tower has the nickname “the iron lady”?

Correct answer is a. The Eiffel Tower was made of iron and weighs about 10,000.

Did you know that the heat of the sun causes the tower to grow about 6 inches?

2. At the different time of the day Taj Mahal appears to be in a different colour every time. What material was the Taj Mahal made of?

a) red sandstone             b) white marble              c) gold

Correct answer is b. Many types of marbles were used in construction of Taj Mahal. It appears pink in the morning, white in the day and it changes to golden in the moonlight.

3. According to the legend, which famous building will be destroyed if the ravens ever leave it?

a) St Peter’s Cathedral, Vatican City

b) The Tower of London

c) Tower of Pisa

Correct answer is b. The ravens are an enduring symbol of Monarchy, tradition, and history at the Tower of London.

7 ravens are kept at the Tower of London at all times – 6 of whom make up the number of ravens that is said to need to remain in order to protect the crown, and 1 of whom acts as a back up…just in case!

4. Which is the smallest tower to have achieved worldwide recognition?

a) The Leaning Tower of Pisa

b) The Eiffel Tower

c) Big Ben

Correct answer is a. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is only 55.86 meters tall. It stood straight only for 5 years upon completion of its initial construction and then started leaning towards one side. In 1999 the architects decided to remove ground from the high side. They straightened the tower by about 16 inches and returned it to the position it held in 1838.

5. Why were the Egyptian Pyramids built?

a) as monuments to the gods

b) as tombs for the pharaohs

Correct answer is b.

Did you know that the features of the Great Pyramid of Giza are so large they are visible even from the Moon!

6. What city is known as “the city on water”?

Correct answer is b). Atlantis is the city "under" the sea, if to believe in legends. Scientists have not found it yet.

7. They say that 2 to 3 million people died while building a monument. Which one?

a) the Great Wall of China

b) Stonehenge, England

c) Luxor Temple, Egypt

Correct answer is a). The length of the Great Wall of China is 21, 196 km.

8. Which of these famous sites is endangered by tourism?

a) Machu Picchu, Peru

b) Uluru, Australia

c) Brandenburg Gate, Germany

Correct answer is a).

Machu Picchu is also called the “City of the Incas”. UNESCO added it to their list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. In an effort to reduce damage caused by tourism, various restrictions have been placed on the number of people admitted to the site each day.

9. Which monument had been transported from the Old World to the New World?

a) The Statue of Liberty

b) The Eiffel Tower

c) The Great Sphinx

Correct answer is a).

The Statue is a gift to the United States from the people of France which commemorates the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

There are 25 windows in Lady Liberty’s crown to allow the visitors to have a panoramic view of the vicinity.

10. Which famous building did the Romans use for gladiator duels and public spectacles?

a) the Acropolis

b) the Colosseum

c) the Pantheon

Correct answer is b). Historical data suggests that the games played in the Colosseum for hundreds of years have claimed the lives of about 500.000 people and more than a million wild animals.

11. Why is the temple of Sikhs in India called “The Golden Temple”?

a) it is painted in yellow

b) it is made of gold

c) it is made of sandstone

Correct answer is b). The Golden Temple is regarded as the most sacred place of worship for the Sikhs. It is mostly made of marble but it is gold plated with real gold.

12. Which famous building resembles the swollen sails or the giant shells?

a) The Sydney Opera House, Sydney

b) Empire State Building, New York

c) Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

Correct answer is a). Look at this picture.

13. Which famous monument can be seen from almost every part of the city?

a) the Acropolis, Athens

b) the Colosseum, Rome

Correct answer is a). The Acropolis stands on the hill that overlooks the city of Athens.

14. Which temple was built as a home of the Hindu gods?

a) the Phnom Bakheng, Cambodia

b) the Taj Mahal, India

Correct answer is a) It is nowadays a popular tourist spot. The large number of visitors makes Phnom Bakheng one of the most threatened monuments of the South Asia.

15. It was destroyed by Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. Which one?

Correct answer is a). The city was the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century until it was captured by the Spanish in 1521.

Cortés wrote that Tenochtitlan was as large as Seville or Córdoba (the biggest cities at that time). It was five times the size of the London of Henry VIII.

16. What famous architectural masterpiece can you see in this picture?

a) Petronas Towers, Malaysia

b) Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Russia

c) Sagrada Familia, Spain

Correct answer is c). Sagrada Familia is one of the greatest works of Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi died well before finishing the basilica. There are only 8 of the planned 18 towers completed. When Gaudi was asked why he was putting so much time and effort in making the tops of the spires so elaborate, when no one could see them properly. He responded, “The angels will see them”.

17. Until 2016 it was strictly banned to take photos and videos of this modern construction in Brussels. Which one?

a) Atomium

b) Buckingham Palace

c) Brandenburg Gate

Correct answer is a) Atomium.

18. Which statue became a symbol of Christianity across the world?

a) Christ the Redeemer

b) The Great Sphinx Of Giza

c) The Thinker

Correct answer is a. A symbol of Christianity across the world, the statue has also become a cultural icon of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil.

19. What were the classic seven wonders of the ancient world?

a)                 Colossus of Rhodes

b)                Great Pyramid of Giza

c)                 Hanging Gardens of Babylon

d)                Colosseum

e)                 Lighthouse of Alexandria

f)                  Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

g)                Hagia Sophia

h)                Statue of Zeus at Olympia

i)                  Porcelain Tower of Nanjing

j)                  Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

k)                Stonehenge

Correct answers are: a, b, c, e, f, h, j

20. What are New7Wonders of the world?

a)                 Great Wall of China

b)                Petra

c)                 Red Square

d)                Colosseum

e)                 Moai

f)                  Chichen Itza

g)                Machu Picchu

h)                Timbuktu

i)                  Taj Mahal

j)                  Christ the Redeemer

k)                Alhambra

Correct answers are a, b, d, f, g, i and j.

The Great Pyramid of Giza, largest and oldest of the three pyramids at the Giza Necropolis in Egypt and the only surviving (and oldest) of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was granted honorary status.

I know for sure with this quiz you’ve remembered or maybe learnt some, not all, most famous landmarks and monuments around the world, as well as some, not everybody knows.

Each of these cultural icons is a symbol with various meanings, it may represent an epoch, a belief, a culture, a country or a city.