Navigating The Nile! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cairo

Cairo is located at the beginning of the Nile Delta, and the river flows through the city. Even though an ancient Egyptian capital was nearby, Cairo was really not founded by the ancient Egyptians; it began as a Roman fortress settlement called Babylon in the first century AD. Later it became a Byzantine city and was an important Coptic Christian community.

The area was conquered by the Arabs in 640, as part of their quest to spread their religion after the death of Mohammad, but the city of Cairo was not actually founded until the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in the late 900s.

Originally called al-Manṣūriyyah, Cairo became a center of learning with the third oldest university in the world. It was established as the capital in 972 (some sources say late 1100s), and continued to be the capital as others conquered Egypt.

Answer: Alexandria

The area around modern day Alexandria, on the western edge of the Nile Delta, was an important trading post for the ancient Egyptians going all the way back to the time of the Old Kingdom. By the time that it was founded by Alexander the Great sometime around 331 BC, Alexandria was little more than a fishing village. Alexander noticed that there were two great harbors in the area, and wanted to build a city based on the Greek design that was named after himself, of course.

After that it became an important city in Egypt, serving as the capital of the Ptolemy Dynasty, Roman Empire, and Byzantine Empire. Once holding the distinction of being the largest city in the ancient world, Alexandria was well known for its Great Library and Pharos, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

After its conquest by Arabs in 641 AD, the city became less important, until the late 1700s, when it again emerged as an important trading center.

Answer: Memphis

Memphis, which was at the entryway to the Nile River Valley, had its historical beginnings as the capital of a nome, or province, of Lower Egypt. Pharaoh Narmer (Menes) choose it as his capital because it was at the spot where Upper and Lower Egypt met.

This made it an important politically, but it was also a hub for trade and an important religious center. The ancient god Ptah, the guardian of craftsmen, was the city's patron deity, so it became an important manufacturing center as well. As other cities grew more powerful, Memphis declined in importance. By 641 it was mostly uninhabited, used as a stone quarry for buildings nearby. Today it is located near Mit Rahina in Greater Cairo, and the site is an open air museum.

Answer: Giza

Located three miles south of Cairo (and part of Greater Cairo) on the Nile's west bank, Giza is the third largest city in Egypt today. In the 2000s BC, it was used as a necropolis, and three massive pyramid projects were built there by the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty - Cheops, Khafre, and Menkaure - a father, son, and grandson. Khafre is also traditionally given credit for the construction of the Great Sphinx on the plateau.

The site is on the edge of the Western Desert - remember the ancients believed they would travel there to have their hearts weighed by Osiris - and about five miles from the Nile River, so we must take a break in our river cruise and travel by bus or car. Who would want to be so close to such an important historical site and not stop? Modern archaeologists have found the remains of a village for the workers and several cemeteries there. Arabs founded the city in 642 AD, and named it after the plateau.

Answer: Edfu

Known in ancient times as Behdet, the area around Edfu has been inhabited since the Predynastic Period; the city on the west bank of the Nile River, however, was inhabited from the end of the Old Kingdom (it was the capital of a nome) through the Byzantine period in Egypt. During the Hellenistic Period the city, then known as Apollonopolis Magna, was the site of temple building. One of the temples, the Temple of Edfu, which was a shrine to honor the god Horus, is considered to be one of the best preserved sites in Egypt today.

It was no longer used after the Roman Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, and amazingly kept its basic structure after an attempt at some point to burn it down. Edfu's population is smaller than some of the other cities discussed, however, it is still an important tourist and archaeological site today.

Answer: Elephantine Island

Considered today to be part of the city of Aswan, some historians say that the island was named Elephantine by the ancient Egyptians because it was shaped like an elephant's tusk, while others say that the rounded rocks on the river bank are reminiscent of elephants.

Its location is not far downstream from the first cataract in the Nile, which is an area of the river that is blocked by rapids and stones, and was near the ancient border between Upper Egypt and Nubia in ancient times. It was a fort settlement then, and was very important to the area's defense.

Interestingly, archaeologists have found two nilometers there, structures that measured the clarity and water level of the river in antiquity. Before the 1820s, there were also two almost-intact temples there that were ultimately destroyed. Today there are plenty of ruins for tourists to view, as well as accommodations to keep them comfortable during their visit.

Answer: Aswan

Located north of the famous Aswan Dam, the ancient Egyptians' name for the city of Aswan was Swenett. It was very important because there were stone quarries on both banks of the Nile that produced building materials used all throughout the ancient land.

It was also an important army post, as it guarded the southern border, and tolls and customs were collected there on all the boats going either way, up or down the Nile River. Because the city was north of the first cataract, the ancient Egyptians could sail about 750 miles north without hitting an obstacle, a journey estimated to take three or four weeks if one was navigating all the way to Alexandria.

The modern city has a population of over 1.5 million people, and has many modern conveniences, such as an airport, university, and, of course, accommodations for the many tourists who visit.

Answer: Khartoum

The ancient Egyptians were very interested in finding the source of the Nile, but there were too many obstacles - namely cataracts and desert - in their path. After the first cataract, which was just south of Aswan, there were five more before reaching Khartoum, and many called this stretch Cataract Nile.

The Egyptians did have contact with the Nubians (sometimes friendly, sometimes not so much) who lived in the region, and historians believe that the groups intermingled to the point that some pharaohs may have even had Nubian ancestry.

By the 25th Dynasty the Egyptians and Nubians had united as far south as modern Khartoum at the area known as The Confluence. The modern city, founded by the Ottomans in 1821, is an important trade center today that is located in the country of Sudan.

Answer: Heliopolis

Iunu, which the Greeks called Heliopolis, was an important city early in Egypt's history. It was not only the capital of a nome, it was also an important religious center for the worship of Atum, who became associated with Amun-Re, the state god of the sun in ancient Egypt.

By the time Alexander the Great visited the city, it was a renowned learning center, only to be eventually overshadowed by the learning that was taking place in Alexandria. During the Middle Ages the city was dismantled by Arabs, who used the building materials for the construction of buildings in Cairo.

The obelisk from the Temple of Ra-Atum is one of the masterpieces still intact today within the ruins of city, considered to be part of Greater Cairo, located near the town of Ayn Shams.

Answer: Luxor

While the ancient Egyptians called the city Waset, the Greeks called it Thebes, and it was renamed Luxor by the Arabs. Thebes was the capital of ancient Egypt during the 18-20 Dynasties of the New Kingdom. Why are there so many monuments there? It was an important religious center, filled with temples and other structures that were built to honor the state god, Amun-Re.

The Karnak Temple Complex was constructed on the east bank of the Nile, while the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, a necropolis with tombs and funerary temples for the powerful and wealthy, was built on the west bank. Today the economy of the city is based mostly on tourism, but there are other industries there as well.