10 most difficult ancient history riddles

The city is ancient - its largest pyramid, the Pyramid of the Sun, was completed by AD 100. It predates most known cultures of Mesoamerica. The origin of its founders is uncertain, and its original name is also unknown. It housed a population of about 150,000 people, making it one of the largest cities in the world at that time.

Dodona in Epirus in northwestern Greece was the oldest Hellenic oracle, possibly dating to the second millennium BCE according to Herodotus. The earliest accounts in Homer describe Dodona as an oracle of Zeus. Situated in a remote region away from the main Greek poleis, it was considered second only to the oracle of Delphi in prestige.

Eurybiades was the son of Eurycleides, and was chosen as commander in 480 BC because the Peloponnesian city-states led by Sparta, worried about the growing power of Athens, did not want to serve under an Athenian despite the Athenians' superior naval skill. For all the enmity between the two, Eurybiades was ultimately assisted by the Athenian naval commander Themistocles.

Aleph derives from an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting an ox's head. Tilt your head to the right and you will see this. The Phoenician word aleph means ox.

The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian people, identified since the 6th century BCE with the Etruscans of Italy.

The council of citizens (boulē) representatives assembled at the bouleteurion to confer and decide about public affairs. There are several extant bouleuteria around Greece and its former colonies.

Seshat was seen as a scribe and record keeper, and is credited with inventing writing. She also became identified as the goddess of accounting, architecture, astronomy, astrology, building, mathematics, and surveying. These are all professions that relied upon expertise in her skills.

Wa (倭, "Japan, Japanese", from Chinese 倭 Wō or Wa) is the oldest recorded name of Japan. The Chinese as well as Korean and Japanese scribes regularly wrote it in reference to Yamato (ancient Japanese nation) with the Chinese character 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese replaced it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance."

Tomyris was a Massagetean ruler who reigned over the Massagetae, an Iranian people from Scythian pastoral-nomadic confederation of Central Asia east of the Caspian Sea. Tomyris led her armies to defend against an attack by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire, and, according to Herodotus, defeated and killed him in 530 BC. The names of Tomyris, and her son Spargapises, who was the head of her army, are of Iranian origins.

Pedanius Dioscorides (40 – 90 AD) was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of De Materia Medica - a 5-volume Greek encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. He was employed as a physician in the Roman army.