Tutankhamun Trivia
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47 free Tutankhamun trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Tutankhamun trivia quiz covers the boy pharaoh who mattered little in life and became the most famous Egyptian of all in death. The easy questions cover the basics: the dynasty he belonged to, roughly how old he was when he died, the man who found his tomb in 1922, the patron who paid for the dig, the mask everyone recognises and the nickname the newspapers gave him. From there it moves through his birth name and what it meant, the religious revolution of his father Akhenaten that he and his advisers reversed, the queen he married, the two daughters buried with him and the vizier and general who followed him on the throne. The harder end covers the DNA that made his parents full siblings, the malaria and the broken leg, the 130 walking sticks that showed no wear, the tomb number, the water boy who may have found the first step, the day the seal was broken, the meteorite dagger, the objects recycled from earlier owners, the amulet Carter is said to have stolen, Carnarvon's death and the curse that never was, the touring exhibitions that drew millions and the whale named after him in 2023. Every answer was checked against Tutankhamun's encyclopaedia entry before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Mythology quizzes are natural companions.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01To which dynasty of ancient Egypt did Tutankhamun belong?
The Eighteenth
The Eighteenth Dynasty's royal bloodline ended with Tutankhamun, who died without an heir, and within decades an army commander's family had founded a new dynasty.
Q 02About how old was Tutankhamun when he died?
18
Examinations and scans of the mummy put his age at death at about 18 or 19, which is why he is remembered as the 'boy king'.
Q 03Which god's cult at Thebes did King Tut restore to prominence, undoing Atenism?
Amun
Amun's temples got their wealth and priests back, and the king and queen swapped the -aten in their names for -amun to mark the change.
Q 04From which capital, built by Akhenaten, did Tutankhamun move the royal court early in his reign?
Amarna
Akhenaten's capital at Amarna was abandoned within a few years, and Thebes, home of the old gods, regained its place as Egypt's great religious centre.
Q 05What relationship between Tutankhamun's parents did the 2010 DNA study report?
Full brother and sister
Full brother and sister, both children of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye; the study's authors suggested such inbreeding may explain the king's frail health.
Q 06Which of Akhenaten's daughters did Tutankhamun marry?
Ankhesenpaaten
Ankhesenpaaten, Akhenaten's third daughter, changed her name to Ankhesenamun when the court turned back to the old gods.
Q 07How old was Tutankhamun when he became pharaoh?
Eight or nine
He became pharaoh at eight or nine, so powerful advisers governed in his name and steered the return to the traditional religion.
Q 08Which part of Tutankhamun's gold mask came off in 2014 and was hastily glued back with epoxy?
The beard
The beard came off when the mask was taken out of its case, and museum staff stuck it back with epoxy that left visible traces until conservators redid the repair in 2015.
Q 09Which instruments from Tutankhamun's tomb were played live on BBC radio in 1939?
Trumpets
Trumpets of silver and bronze, silent for over 3,000 years, were sounded by an army bandsman for an estimated 150 million listeners; the presenter claimed the silver one had shattered in an earlier attempt.
Q 10Atenism, the religion that Tutankhamun's reign reversed, centred on the worship of what?
The sun disc
The sun disc, called the Aten, had been raised above every other god by Akhenaten, who stripped the old priesthoods of their wealth; the boy king was first named Tutankhaten in its honour.
Q 11After Tutankhamun died, an Egyptian queen, probably his widow, asked which foreign power for a husband?
Hittites
The Hittites recorded the letter in their own annals: their king sent a son, who died on the way to Egypt, so the plan to put a foreign prince on the throne came to nothing.
Q 12Tutankhamun was one of the few pharaohs to be what during his own lifetime?
Worshipped as a god
Worshipped as a god in his own lifetime, Tutankhamun had temples to his deified form built in Nubia, an honour most kings received only after death.
Q 13DNA tests published in 2010 found traces of which disease in Tutankhamun's mummy?
Malaria
Q 21What is the usual explanation for Tutankhamun's unusually small tomb?
His own tomb was not finished
His own tomb was not finished when he died young, so a smaller one was adapted, though some Egyptologists suspect his successor simply swapped tombs and kept the grander one.
Q 22Under which designation is Tutankhamun's tomb known in the Valley of the Kings?
KV62
KV62 lay hidden under flood debris and the remains of ancient workmen's huts, which is why robbers and excavators alike missed it for some 3,000 years.
Q 23Which American excavator wrote in 1912 that the Valley of the Kings was 'exhausted'?
Theodore Davis
Malaria parasites of the most severe strain showed up in his samples, and the study's authors argued that a bout of it finished off a king already weakened by a bone disorder.
Q 14What proved Tutankhamun's leg broke before death rather than during modern handling?
Embalming substances were inside the fracture
Embalming substances were found inside the fracture of his left femur on the 2005 CT scan, so the break had to predate mummification; it was probably suffered days before his death.
Q 15More than 130 of which objects, some worn from use, were found in Tutankhamun's tomb?
Walking sticks
Walking sticks and staves filled the tomb; the 2010 study's authors took them as proof he needed a cane, though other scholars read them as badges of royal rank.
Q 16CT scans of Tutankhamun's skull showed which facial trait shared with his royal relatives?
An overbite
An overbite ran in the family line, and the reconstructions built from the 2005 scans gave the king the same slightly protruding front teeth.
Q 17What did the 1968 X-ray find inside Tutankhamun's skull that briefly fuelled a murder theory?
Two loose bone fragments
Two loose bone fragments showed up in Ronald Harrison's 1968 X-ray; the 2005 CT scan showed they came from the embalming or the modern unwrapping, not from a blow to the head.
Q 18Which successor is shown performing the opening-of-the-mouth ritual on Tutankhamun's burial chamber wall?
Ay
Ay, already an elderly man, is shown performing the rite that an heir carried out for the dead king, which legitimised his own claim to the throne.
Q 19Which commander-in-chief of Tutankhamun's army eventually became pharaoh himself?
Horemheb
Horemheb rose from the army to the throne and then turned on the memory of the kings he had served, erasing their names and taking over their monuments.
Q 20The search for Tutankhamun's missing mortuary temple led in 2021 to the discovery of what?
The lost city of Aten
The lost city of Aten, a settlement from Amenhotep III's reign with rooms still full of everyday objects, was hailed as one of the most important finds since Tutankhamun's own tomb.
Theodore Davis had found a pit of Tutankhamun's embalming leftovers and mistook another small find for the king's tomb, so he gave up the valley before the real one emerged.
Q 24Who led the excavation that found Tutankhamun's tomb?
Howard Carter
Howard Carter had searched the valley for years with little to show, and his patron had agreed to pay for only one more season when the tomb finally turned up.
Q 25Which aristocrat financed the search for Tutankhamun's tomb?
The 5th Earl of Carnarvon
The 5th Earl of Carnarvon began digging at Thebes as an amateur, soon felt the need of expert help, and so formed the partnership that found the tomb.
Q 26What was uncovered on 4 November 1922, the first sign of Tutankhamun's tomb?
A rock-cut step
A rock-cut step, found beneath the remains of ancient workmen's huts, proved to be the top of a sunken staircase leading down to a sealed doorway.
Q 27Roughly how many objects were catalogued from Tutankhamun's tomb?
5,000
About 5,000: his is the only royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings found nearly intact, so its contents survived where other kings' burial goods had been stripped in antiquity.
Q 28How long did it take to clear and catalogue Tutankhamun's tomb after its discovery?
Ten years
Ten years: thousands of fragile objects had to be recorded and conserved before they could be moved, and the last of them did not reach Cairo until 1932.
Q 29The blade of a dagger found in Tutankhamun's tomb was made of iron from what source?
A meteorite
The iron came from a meteorite: a 2016 X-ray fluorescence study showed the blade's nickel and cobalt levels match meteoritic iron; a miniature headrest, an Eye of Horus amulet and chisel blades were also iron.
Q 30Erased names show some of Tutankhamun's burial goods were first made for whom?
A predecessor
A predecessor: traces of the name Neferneferuaten, probably a woman who reigned just before him, lie under his own on pieces such as the small coffins that held his organs.