Which ancient city are you?
Here’s an exciting way to learn more about some ancient cities. We feature here six of them. It’s a personality quiz to find out which ancient civilisation you are most closely linked to. Before you try it out, read a little about why they are important and then go ahead and try your hand at this quiz.
Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. One of the first Western visitors to the temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese friar who visited it in 1586. He said that it “is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements, which the human genius can conceive of”.
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world. It is associated with ancient Egypt, as the famous Giza pyramid complex and the ancient city of Memphis are found in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta, Cairo was founded in 969 AD by the Fatimid dynasty.
Rome is the capital city of Italy and a special comune of Italy (named Comune di Roma Capitale) as well as the capital of the Lazio region. It is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City (the smallest country in the world) is an independent country inside the city boundaries. This the only existing example of a country within a city; for this reason, Rome has sometimes been defined as the capital of two states.
Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel, located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru, on a mountain ridge. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was constructed as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti.
Varanasi, also known as Benares, is a city on the banks of the river Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, India. A major religious hub, it is the holiest of the seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri) in Hinduism and Jainism.
Istanbul, formerly known as Byzantium and Constantinople, is the most populous city in Turkey. Istanbul is a transcontinental city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosporus strait (which separates Europe and Asia) between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea.