Our Ancient World quiz takes you from Göbekli Tepe and Jericho to Angkor, Great Zimbabwe and Machu Picchu. In 10 timed rounds you're shown an ancient city, a civilisation, a former country name or a wonder of the ancient world, along with its period, and you pick the modern country where it stood. Play World or one region, on Explorer to learn the map of the past or on Expert, where the wrong answers are neighbours and near-misses. After every answer a short fact card tells you a little more.
Every round names one entry from a fixed, hand-checked set of ancient places and peoples. A label above the question tells you what kind it is: an ancient city, a civilisation, a former name or a wonder. The name appears in large letters, with its period in a turquoise pill underneath, such as "c. 1894 BCE" for Babylon or "renamed 1972" for Ceylon.
There are four kinds of question. "In which modern country did this city stand?" asks about sites such as Carthage, Petra or Teotihuacan. "Which modern country was the heart of this civilisation?" covers peoples such as the Minoans, the Khmer Empire or the Olmec. "Which country was once known as this?" asks about former names such as Persia, Dahomey or Hibernia. "Where did this wonder of the ancient world stand?" covers the wonders, from the Great Pyramid of Giza to the Colossus of Rhodes.
Borders have changed many times since these places were built. Questions always ask about modern countries, the ones on today's map.
Cities make up most of the set, so most rounds are city questions, with civilisations, former names and wonders mixed in. No entry comes up twice in one game, and a country is never the answer more than twice. Each question has a 15-second timer, and after every answer a fact card shows the entry's period, a one-line fact and the modern country with its flag.
Only entries that sit in a single modern country are ever asked. The Maya civilisation and the Indus Valley civilisation each span more than one of today's countries, so they never appear as a question.
Scoring is the same as the Flags and Capitals quizzes. A right answer earns 500 points, plus a speed bonus of up to 500 more: answer within the first second for the full bonus, and it falls steadily to nothing at 15 seconds. A wrong answer or running out of time scores 0.
Ten rounds make a perfect game of 10,000. Right answers in a row build an answer streak, which resets when you miss. Your best score is kept for each region and difficulty.
On Explorer, the three wrong answers are random countries from the same region as the right one. It's the gentler way to learn which corner of the world each place belongs to.
On Expert, the wrong answers come from close by: the right country's neighbours first, then other countries in the same part of the region. A question about Persepolis might offer Iran's neighbours, and a question about Tikal its Central American neighbours. For former names, Expert prefers other countries that also changed their names, so Burma may sit next to Siam's answer.
Whatever the difficulty, there is only ever one right answer among the four.
The region filter uses each entry's own region, so Africa means ancient Africa: Meroë, Aksum, Timbuktu, Kilwa Kisiwani and the rest. Asia has the most entries, from Ur and Uruk to Nara and Gyeongju. Europe runs from Knossos and Delphi to Stonehenge and Skara Brae, and the Americas from Caral to Cahokia.
Oceania has just one entry, Nan Madol, so it can't make a 10-round game on its own. Choose World to meet it alongside everything else.
Learn the clusters. Iraq holds Babylon, Ur, Uruk, Nineveh and Ctesiphon. Peru holds Machu Picchu, Cusco, Caral, Chan Chan and the Nazca Lines. Egypt has Memphis, Thebes, Giza and Alexandria, and Greece has Knossos, Mycenae, Delphi and Olympia.
Use the fact cards. Many facts point straight at the modern place: Thebes is "at modern Luxor", Pataliputra is "modern Patna" and Tenochtitlan lies "beneath modern Mexico City".
Watch for names that travel. Benin City is in Nigeria, while Dahomey was renamed Benin. Great Zimbabwe gave the modern country its name, and Rhodesia became Zimbabwe at independence.
- Where do the facts come from?
- From a fixed, hand-checked set of entries. Every period and fact you see in the game comes word for word from that set.
- Why does the quiz ask about modern countries?
- Borders have changed many times. Asking about today's countries gives every question one clear answer.
- Why don't the Maya or the Indus Valley appear?
- Each spans more than one modern country, so no single answer would be right.
- Can I play Oceania on its own?
- Not yet. Oceania has only one entry, Nan Madol, which isn't enough for 10 different rounds. Play World to meet it.
- Does Ancient World appear in the Mixed quiz?
- Yes. Every Mixed game includes at least one Ancient World question.