Ancient Ruins of the World 1
Founded around the year 1350, this historical site began as a Khmer military and trading post. It wasn't long before this thriving trading post became the ancient capital of Thailand.
A) Luigi's Mansion
B) Ayutthaya
C) Eiffel Tower
Ayutthaya (Thailand)
This ancient fortress is possibly one of the most impressive ruins on the planet. Perched on a clifftop overlooking the Judaean Desert and the Dead Sea in Israel, the site is hauntingly beautiful. Dating back over thousands of years, it was built as the palace of King Herod.
A) Masada
B) Tyler's Castle
C) Moorhead
Masada National Park (Israel)
This ancient site located in Maharashtra, India is made up of a series of caves, monasteries and temples carved into the side of a basalt cliff. Out of 100 caves, only 34 are open to the public.
A) Bass Basalts
B) Firefly Taverns
C) Ellora Caves
Ellora Caves (India)
Now hanging up in the Art Institute of Chicago, this painting is one of the most famous paintings of the 20th century rural America. Grant Wood's defining masterpiece was painted in 1930 and depicts a farmer and his daughter.
A) Bomber Man
B) Tom Nook
C) American Gothic
American Gothic
Arguably the most famous artwork of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, this painting is one of the most magnificent paintings to ever emerge from the Dutch Golden Age. Painted in 1642 by Rembrandt Van Rijn, the enormous canvas portrays a group of civic guards as they head off to practice their shooting.
A) Whistler's Mother
B) Neighborhood Watch
C) Night Watch
Night Watch
Dotted along the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, this historical site is easily one of the most recognized ancient ruins in the world. Dating back over 5,000 years, these curious stone rings are some of the oldest stone structures on the planet.
A) Stonehenge
B) Mount Rushmore
C) Yellow Creek
Stonehenge (England)
The second largest medieval city after Beijing, this historical site was one of the wealthiest in India. Once a thriving epicenter of the Karnata Empire with temples and imperial palaces, now only crumbling ruins remain.
A) Behren's Ruins
B) Hampi
C) Gilpin's Castle
Hampi (India)
This impressive historical site is an impressive collection of thousands of life-sized soldiers and horses. Located in Xi'an, China, there are around 600 underground pits dating back to the 3rd-century BC. They were discovered by accident in the 1970s when locals were digging for a well point.
A) Tsushima
B) Power Ranger Statues
C) Terracotta Army
Terracotta Army (China)
One of the greatest and most distinctive works of surrealist art of all time, Salvador Dali's painting really does stand out from the crowd. In the 1931 painting, we can see melting pocket watches draped across a bleak landscape.
A) The Persistence of Memory
B) Knight's Ceremony
C) Taylor's Masterpiece
The Persistence of Memory
This is a series of expressionist paintings and prints by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch showing an agonized figure against a blood-red sky. Edvard Munch actually created several versions of this painting in various media. The first version was painted in 1893.
A) The Side-Eye
B) The Scream
C) The Eye-Roll
The Scream
Deep in the American Southwest, you'll find this National Park with its fascinating collection of 600 ancient clifftop dwellings. The most famous of these dwellings is the Cliff Palace, built into an enormous sandstone alcove that's protected it from the elements for over seven centuries.
A) Palo Alto
B) Mesa Verde
C) Yellowstone
Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado)
These eerie ruins can be found near the Italian city of Naples. When the iconic Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it destroyed this Roman city in waves of lava and took the lives of over 2,000 residents along with it.
A) Borobudur
B) Catedral
C) Pompeii
Pompeii (Italy)
From its perch above the city of Athens, this historical site - topped by the Parthenon - can be seen from any corner of the city. First built and inhabited by Pericles in the 5th-century BC, this site was eventually transformed into a city of temples.
A) Acropolis
B) Perth
C) Elkhart
Acropolis (Greece)
Painted between 1907 and 1908 during the height of Gustav Klimt's golden period, this painting veritably shimmers and shines before your eyes as gold, silver and platinum radiates forth from the canvas.
A) The Kiss
B) Quarry
C) Denise's Design
The Kiss
Although it is often compared with the Mona Lisa, Johannes Vermeer's painting was created in 1665 and depicts an imagined - rather than real - girl wearing a blue turban and a sizable glimmering earring.
A) Man with Fishing Pole
B) Girl with Pearl Necklace
C) Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl with a Pearl Earring
This historical site is an ancient fortress carved into a 200 meter vertical rock face in Sri Lanka. On top of what is now known as Lion Rock are the fascinating remains of an ancient civilization, thought to be the capital of the kingdom of Kassapa (Kashyapa).
A) Angkor
B) Giza
C) Sigiriya
Sigiriya (Sri Lanka)
An hour drive from Cancún, these ruins are the remains of an ancient clifftop fortress built by the Mayans. Walled on three sides, with the fourth open to the Caribbean Sea, the views are simply incredible.
A) Moai Statues
B) Teotihuacan
C) Tulum
Tulum (Mexico)
This ancient city is a captivating temple town in Myanmar. Once the capital of a powerful kingdom during the 11th and 13th centuries, it had over 10,000 temples, monasteries, shrines, pagodas, and stupas in zenith.
A) Tet
B) Bagan
C) Budapest
Bagan (Myanmar, Burma)
Another Art Institute of Chicago's, this painting came from the mind of Edward Hopper in 1942. In the oil painting, we can see four people in a diner late at night. Light shines out of the brightly lit interior illuminating the darkness outside through the large glass window.
A) Golden Hour
B) Nighthawks
C) Late Night Lunch
Painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1490s on a refectory wall in a monastery in Milan, this painting is one of the most recognizable artworks on Earth. While the years have not been kind to the original, the convent still sees people come from all over the world to catch a glimpse of this fabulous artwork depicting Jesus and his twelve Apostles.
A) The Last Supper
B) Birth of Venus
C) The Revelation
The Last Supper
One of the most impressive Greek and Roman ruins on Earth, this ancient city can be found in western Turkey. Dating back over 2,000 years, it was once home to the famous Temple of Artemis.
A) Petra
B) Ephesus
C) Machu Picchu
Ephesus (Turkey)
One of the most famous archaeological sites on Earth, this was once a thriving city on the Yucatán Peninsula. Built by the Mayans in 600 AD, it was abandoned in 1221 when Mayapan became the region's new capital.
A) Chichén Itzá
B) Colosseum
C) Tula
Chichén Itzá (Yucatán, Mexico)
With its grey temple-tops protruding through the lush canopy of the Guatemalan jungle, catching a glimpse of the ruins is something truly special. A popular day trip from Flores, these remote ruins are dotted with pyramids, temples and palaces.
A) Tikal
B) Semuc Champey
C) Santa Catalina
Tikal (Guatemala)
Consisting of some 250 different paintings, Claude Monet's masterpiece was painted at his home in Giverny, France between 1896 and 1926. The main subject of the painting is the water lily pond in the back of his garden with various other flowers.
A) Wave Crest
B) Water Lilies
C) Woodbridge
Water Lilies
Widely considered to be the most famous painting in the world, this piece has delighted on-lookers ever since it was painted in the early 1500s by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting is named after a lady of a wealthy family in Florence in 1911.
A) The Starry Night
B) Mona Lisa
C) Las Meninas
Mona Lisa