History trivia
Name an ancient city
Everyone has a first answer to “Name an ancient city”. The game is about the second, the third and the tenth: 95 answers are accepted, ranked by how rarely people think of them.
The obvious answers
Say one of these and you stay near the surface, with 10 points.
- Rome
- Athens
- Troy
- Babylon
The next answers people reach for
A step further down, worth 25 points each:
- Sparta
- Carthage
- Pompeii
- Alexandria
- Jerusalem
- Constantinople
- Thebes
- Memphis
- Persepolis
- Jericho
How deep does “Name an ancient city” go?
| Level | Accepted answers | Points |
|---|---|---|
| The Tip | 4 | 10 |
| Below the Surface | 10 | 25 |
| The Deep | 24 | 50 |
| The Abyss | 56 | 85 |
| Below the Iceberg | 1 | 100 |
The Deep holds 24 answers starting with A, B, C, D, E, H, K, L, M, N, O, P, S, T and U. The Abyss has 56 more, and one legendary answer waits below them all.
By the numbers
- 95 answers in total, 3 of them longer than one word.
- Shortest: “Ur”. Longest: “Great Zimbabwe”.
- T, A and C are the most common first letters; together they start 36% of the answers.
- 3 answers can be typed more than one way: “Xi'an” counts as Chang'an.
Tips for a rarer answer
- Start with T: 12 of the answers begin with it.
- Rome, Athens and Troy are safe but shallow. Aim past them.
- Remember the ones with short reigns and odd nicknames.
Play history trivia nowSee all 95 answers A–Z
Questions about this prompt
- What do most people say for “Name an ancient city”?
- The usual first answers are Rome, Athens, Troy and Babylon. In Icillion they are worth 10 points each, the least of any level.
- How many answers are there to “Name an ancient city”?
- 95 in all: 4 on The Tip, 10 Below the Surface, 24 in The Deep, 56 in The Abyss, and a single legendary answer Below the Iceberg.
- Which answers to “Name an ancient city” are the shortest and the longest?
- The shortest accepted answer is “Ur” and the longest is “Great Zimbabwe”.
- How hard is “Name an ancient city”?
- Medium. It takes some general knowledge. It comes up in Free play on Medium and Mixed.
More history trivia
- Name a Roman emperor
- Name an Ottoman sultan
- Name a famous explorer
- Name a writing system or script
- Name a famous inventor or inventor of a famous invention
- Name an Egyptian pharaoh
Something different: Name a SpongeBob SquarePants character · Name a cloud type · Name an amphibian
How deep does your knowledge go?
Seven prompts a day, twenty seconds each. Obvious answers float on the tip of the iceberg; rare ones sink all the way to the trench.
▼ Start today’s iceberg ▼