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1.Which of these sites has been labelled as the fourth holiest place in Islam?
Great Mosque of Kairouan
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Taj Mahal
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Dome of the Rock
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The Kaaba (and the surrounding mosque), the Prophet's Mosque in Medina and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem are the holiest, second holiest and third holiest respectively. The other sites to have been labelled the fourth holiest are the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, the Sanctuary of Abraham in Hebron, Bukhara, Eyüp in Istanbul and Harar.
2.Out of these three countries, which contains the tallest church building?
Sweden
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Estonia
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The Netherlands
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St. Olaf's Church in Tallinn is 123.8 metres tall, while Uppsala Cathedral (Sweden) is 118.7 metres and the Dom Tower of Utrecht (Netherlands) is 112.5 metres.
3.What process is carried out on the Ise Grand Shrine, an important Shinto shrine, every twenty years?
It is rebuilt
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It is repainted
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It is cleaned
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It is supposed to symbolise the Shinto belief of the death and renewal of nature and the impermanence of all things. Additionally, it allows for the passing of building techniques from one generation to the next.
4.Templo Mayor, the main temple of the Aztecs, was dedicated to which two gods?
The goddess of healing and the goddess of the moon
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The god of war and the god of rain and agriculture
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The god of sacrifice and the goddess of earth
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Each god had a shrine at the top of the pyramid, and each shrine had its own staircase.
5.Which of these cities doesn't have a functioning Zoroastrian fire temple?
Mumbai
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Tehran
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Samarkand
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Of the 167 fire temples in the world, 45 are in Mumbai.
6.The oldest church of the continental United States is located in which state?
Florida
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California
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New Mexico
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The church in question is the San Miguel Mission, built by the Spanish in 1610.
7.Which of these buildings was completed first?
Cathedral of Santa María la Menor (Santo Domingo)
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Imperial Mosque (Pristina)
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Golden Temple (Amritsar)
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It was built by the Ottomans in 1461. The cathedral was completed in 1541 and the Golden Temple (a Gurdwara) was completed in 1589.
8.The three Roman temples in present-day Baalbek, Lebanon, were dedicated to Jupiter, Venus and which other god?
Vulcan
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Juno
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Bacchus
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The Temple of Bacchus (god of wine) is the best preserved out of the three; its base measures 66 by 35 metres and is 31 metres high. The Temple of Jupiter was the largest built in the Roman Empire; today, however, only six of the 30 metre columns with their entablature remain.
9.The largest Buddhist temple (single temple rather than a temple complex) is located in which country?
Indonesia
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Myanmar
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China
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Borobudur, located in Java, is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It is built as a single large stupa and takes the shape of a mandala when viewed from above. Each side of the temple is 118 metres long.
10.In addition to the pharaoh herself, which god is the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut dedicated to?
Osiris
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Amun
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Sekhmet
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Because of how the temple is aligned, when the Sun rises on the winter solstice, the sun shines through a light-box which focusses the light on features inside the temple. The first thing that the sunlight illuminates is a depiction of the god Amun-Ra, a fusion of Amun and Ra, the Sun god.
11.Cusco Cathedral sits on foundations built by the Incas. Which type of building originally sat on those foundations?
Palace
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Market
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Temple
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The palace had originally been built for Viracocha, the ruler (Sapa Inca) of the Kingdom of Cusco from around 1410 to 1438, before the Incas formed an empire.
12.Which of these cathedrals was built around a mosque?
Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens
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Cathedral of Saint Domnius in Split
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Seville Cathedral
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The sahn (courtyard), as well as La Giralda (originally built as a minaret but was then converted into a bell tower), are elements from the mosque that have been preserved.
13.A Great Synagogue is located in which Australian city?
Sydney
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Brisbane
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Canberra
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It was built to unite two Jewish congregations in the city.
14.The ziggurat Chogha Zanbil was built by which civilisaton?
Babylonians
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Elamites
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Medians
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It is one of only a small number of surviving ziggurats found outside of Mesopotamia.
15.Which Canadian city contains the country's largest church?
Montreal
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Vancouver
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Toronto
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The church, Saint Joseph's Oratory, has an interior area of 6,825 m².