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49 free Eiffel Tower trivia questions with answers. The Eiffel Tower was supposed to come down in 1909. This quiz covers why it did not, and everything else about the most visited paid monument in the world: the 1889 World's Fair it was built for, the two engineers who actually drew it, the artists who called it a tragic street lamp, the 2.5 million rivets, the private apartment where Edison dropped in, and the radio mast that helped catch Mata Hari. The easy questions are for anyone who has stood under it. The hard ones ask about the con man who sold it for scrap, the priest who found cosmic rays on it, the airplane flown beneath it, the general who refused to blow it up, and the Canadian city that tried to borrow it. There are also questions on the paint, the lifts, the restaurants and the sparkle. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's article on the tower, and each question carries a quotation from it as its source.
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Q 01In which city does the Eiffel Tower stand?
Paris
The Eiffel Tower stands in Paris, rising from the Champ de Mars, a park on the Left Bank of the Seine in the 7th arrondissement.
Q 02How many pillars support the Eiffel Tower at its base?
Four
The Eiffel Tower stands on four pillars, one at each corner of a square base about 125 metres on a side; they are named after the compass points.
Q 03The tower was built as the centrepiece of which event?
The 1889 World's Fair
It was the entrance arch and centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair (Exposition Universelle), held to mark the centenary of the French Revolution; the tower was meant to be temporary.
Q 04By what affectionate nickname is the tower known in France?
The Iron Lady
The French call the tower La dame de fer, 'The Iron Lady', after the roughly 7,300 tonnes of wrought iron it is built from.
Q 05Roughly how tall did the Eiffel Tower become after its 2022 aerial extension?
330 metres
A new digital-radio aerial fitted in March 2022 raised the Eiffel Tower from 324 to 330 metres, roughly the height of an 81-storey building.
Q 06How many levels of the tower are open to visitors?
Three
Three levels are open to visitors: the first and second floors, which have restaurants, and the summit, which has a champagne bar.
Q 07How many steps does it take to climb from the ground to the second level?
About 600
About 600 is the nearest figure: the official count is 674 steps from the ground to the second level; the stairs above it are closed to visitors.
Q 08Which structure did the Eiffel Tower overtake to become the world's tallest human-made structure?
The Washington Monument
The Washington Monument, 169 metres tall, had been the world's tallest structure since 1884; the 300-metre Eiffel Tower surpassed it in 1889 and held the title for 41 years.
Q 09Which New York skyscraper took the world's-tallest-structure title from the Eiffel Tower in 1930?
The Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building, completed in 1930 at 319 metres, was the first structure to top the Eiffel Tower, ending its 41-year reign as the world's tallest.
Q 10Which two engineers at Eiffel's company are credited with the tower's design?
Koechlin and Nouguier
The design came from Koechlin and Nouguier: Maurice Koechlin sketched the 300-metre 'great pylon' in May 1884 with fellow senior engineer Émile Nouguier, and Eiffel patented it with them that September.
Q 11What did architect Stephen Sauvestre add to the engineers' original design?
Decorative arches at the base
The arches are purely ornamental; they made the tower look more substantial and gave the fair a grand entrance.
Q 12How many rivets hold the tower's 18,038 iron pieces together?
2.5 million
About 2.5 million rivets join the 18,038 iron pieces, which were made at Eiffel's factory in Levallois-Perret and carted to the site; any part that did not fit was sent back, never altered on site.
Q 13How many workers died during the tower's construction?
One
Only one worker died in two years of building, an Italian who fell while off duty on a Sunday; Eiffel's movable gangways, guardrails and screens made the 300-man site unusually safe for its era.
Q 21The names of how many French scientists and engineers are engraved on the tower?
72
The 72 names, engraved in gilt letters beneath the first-floor balcony, were Eiffel's 'invocation of science' in reply to the artists' protest; painted over early in the 1900s, they were restored in 1986–87.
Q 22What was Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt testing when he died jumping from the first level in 1912?
A parachute suit
Franz Reichelt was testing a parachute suit of his own making; it failed to open when he jumped from the 57-metre first level on 4 February 1912, and newsreel cameras filmed the fatal fall.
Q 23A message intercepted by the tower's wireless station in 1917 helped convict which famous spy?
Mata Hari
Q 14Who led the 'Committee of Three Hundred' of artists protesting the tower?
Charles Garnier
Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris Opera, led the February 1887 'Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel'; the committee had one member for each metre of the planned 300-metre height.
Q 15Which writer supposedly lunched in the tower's restaurant daily because it was the one place he couldn't see it?
Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant, a signatory of the 1887 artists' protest against the 'useless and monstrous' tower, is said to have eaten at its restaurant daily because it was the one spot in Paris where he could not see it.
Q 16Roughly how long did Eiffel's 31 March 1889 climb to the top with officials take?
Over an hour
The climb took over an hour because the lifts were not yet working and Eiffel stopped often to explain features; at the top he raised a Tricolour to a 25-gun salute.
Q 17How many visitors climbed the 1,710 steps to the top before the lifts started running in May 1889?
Nearly 30,000
Nearly 30,000 people climbed to the top on foot before the lifts entered service on 26 May 1889; by the end of the fair almost 1.9 million had visited, paying 5 francs for the summit.
Q 18Which inventor visited Eiffel's private apartment at the top and gave him a phonograph?
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison visited Eiffel's top-floor apartment in September 1889 and presented him with a phonograph; Sarah Bernhardt and Buffalo Bill Cody, whose Wild West show played at the fair, also came that year.
Q 19The tower was originally due to be dismantled in which year?
1909
The tower was due to come down in 1909, when the concession Eiffel won in 1887 ran out and ownership passed to the City of Paris.
Q 20What saved the tower from its planned demolition?
Its value for radio telegraphy
Its value for radio telegraphy saved it: the army ran a wireless station there from 1903, and in 1914 its transmitter jammed German communications before the First Battle of the Marne.
Mata Hari was named in coded messages between Berlin and the German attaché in Madrid, intercepted at the tower, that referred to agent H-21; the dancer was shot by firing squad in October 1917.
Q 24Which car maker's illuminated name covered three sides of the tower from 1925 to 1934?
Citroën
André Citroën rented the tower for a giant illuminated 'CITROËN' sign of some 250,000 bulbs on three faces from 1925 to 1934, then the tallest advertising space in the world.
Q 25Which con artist 'sold' the tower for scrap metal in 1925?
Victor Lustig
Victor Lustig posed as a Posts and Telegraphs official inviting scrap dealers to bid for the tower's metal; his victim, André Poisson, was too embarrassed to go to the police, and a second attempt failed.
Q 26What did the French do to the tower's lifts when Germany occupied Paris in 1940?
Cut the cables
The French cut the cables of the lifts so the occupiers would have to climb; they were not repaired until 1946, and the swastika flag German soldiers hoisted on foot blew away within hours.
Q 27Which general did Hitler order to demolish the tower along with the rest of Paris in 1944?
Dietrich von Choltitz
Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, ignored Hitler's order to destroy the tower and the city; a Tricolour flew from the top again by 25 August 1944.
Q 28A communications mast in which Japanese city, inspired by the Eiffel design, became the world's tallest tower in 1958?
Tokyo
Tokyo Tower, a red-and-white lattice homage opened in 1958, reached 333 metres, topping the 320-metre Eiffel Tower of the time.
Q 29Which Canadian city reportedly negotiated to borrow the tower for its 1967 world's fair?
Montreal
Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau reportedly struck a secret deal with Charles de Gaulle to move the tower to Expo 67; the company operating the tower is said to have vetoed it.
Q 30What colour was the tower originally painted?
Reddish brown
It was painted reddish brown for its 1889 opening, after a Venetian-red anti-rust coat during construction; later schemes included yellow-brown from 1907 and, from 1968, the three-shade 'Eiffel Tower Brown'.