World Mythology · Unit 9

Mesopotamian Myths

Gilgamesh, Marduk, Inanna and the oldest written stories

These are the oldest written stories in the world, and their age is the point: Gilgamesh was already ancient when the Greek myths were new.

The unit covers the Epic of Gilgamesh and his friendship with Enkidu, Inanna, Marduk and the Enuma Elish, and the Mesopotamian flood story that predates the biblical one.

This unit breaks down into 18 short steps and 110 questions, starting at difficulty 2 and building to 4. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 18
Questions: 110
Difficulty: 2-4

What this unit covers

Inanna and Ishtar
Enkidu and Friendship
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Marduk and the Enuma Elish
The Mesopotamian Flood Story

Where this fits

Pairs with History's The First Civilizations. Connects to Creation and Flood Myths.

Where people slip

Gilgamesh contains a flood narrative with a warned survivor, an ark and birds sent to find land. The parallel with Noah is close and the Mesopotamian version is considerably older.

How the unit is structured

Mesopotamian Myths runs as 18 short steps that unlock in order. 13 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 2 and climb to 4 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 18 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 110 in the unit altogether.

Enkidu and Friendship

True or falseLevel 2
1. Enkidu lived with wild animals before he came to the city.
Answer: True
True. He ran with the herds and drank at the waterholes.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
2. Which themes run through the Epic of Gilgamesh? Pick all that apply.
- Friendshipcorrect
- The fear of deathcorrect
- The limits of human powercorrect
- The invention of the wheel
Friendship, the fear of death and the limits of human power drive the story.
Fact or fibLevel 3
3. The friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu is one of the oldest friendship stories we have.
Answer: True
True. It was written down more than three thousand years ago.
Fill the blankLevel 3
4. Gilgamesh and Enkidu also killed the Bull of ____, sent to punish them.
- Heavencorrect
- Egypt
- Stone
- Winter
The Bull of Heaven was sent by an angry goddess.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
5. How did Gilgamesh and Enkidu first meet?
- They wrestled, then became friends
- They met at a wedding
- They shared a boat
- They were brothers from birth
They fought a great wrestling match, then became inseparable friends.
Type the answerLevel 3
6. Who was the wild man friend of Gilgamesh?
Answer: Enkidu
Enkidu was created as his equal and became his companion.

Inanna and Ishtar

Match the pairsLevel 2
7. Match each Mesopotamian god to what they ruled.
Answer: Marduk = Babylon and order; Inanna = Love and war; Shamash = The Sun and justice; Ereshkigal = The underworld
Each great god had a city and an area of power.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
8. Which Mesopotamian goddess ruled both love and war?
- Inannacorrect
- Ereshkigal
- Ninhursag
- Gula
Inanna, later called Ishtar, was goddess of love and of battle.
True or falseLevel 2
9. Inanna was linked with the planet we call Venus.
Answer: True
True. The bright morning and evening star belonged to her.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
10. Which symbols belonged to Inanna or Ishtar? Pick all that apply.
- An eight-pointed starcorrect
- The lioncorrect
- The planet Venuscorrect
- The olive tree
The eight-pointed star, the lion and the planet Venus were all hers.
Fact or fibLevel 3
11. Mesopotamian gods were often linked to a particular city.
Answer: True
True. Each city had its own patron god and great temple.
Guess the numberLevel 3
12. How many gates did Inanna pass through on her way into the underworld?
Answer: 7 gates
There were seven gates, and she gave up one thing at each.

Marduk and the Enuma Elish

Multiple choiceLevel 2
13. Which god was the chief god of the city of Babylon?
- Mardukcorrect
- Osiris
- Zeus
- Odin
Marduk rose to become the greatest god of Babylon.
Picture questionLevel 2
14. 🏛️ Which Mesopotamian building does this picture suggest?
- A zigguratcorrect
- A Greek theatre
- A Viking longhouse
- A Roman bath
A temple tower stands for the ziggurat, the great stepped temple of Mesopotamia.
Fact or fibLevel 3
15. Mesopotamia lay between two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Answer: True
True. The name Mesopotamia means the land between the rivers.
Fill the blankLevel 3
16. Mesopotamian temples were built as tall stepped towers called ____.
- zigguratscorrect
- pyramids
- cathedrals
- castles
Ziggurats rose in stages above the flat plain.
Match the pairsLevel 3
17. Match each older Mesopotamian god to what they ruled.
Answer: Anu = The sky; Enlil = Wind and storm; Enki = Fresh water and wisdom; Nanna = The Moon
Before Marduk rose, these were the great gods of Sumer.
Put in orderLevel 4
18. Put the events of the Enuma Elish in order.
Answer: Fresh and salt waters mingle -> The young gods disturb the old ones -> Marduk defeats Tiamat -> The world and humankind are made
The waters mingle, young gods disturb the old, Marduk fights Tiamat, and the world and humans are made.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Fact or fibLevel 2
19. Gilgamesh was described as part god and part human.
Answer: True
True. The epic calls him two-thirds god and one-third man.
Fill the blankLevel 2
20. The wedge-shaped writing of ancient Mesopotamia is called ____.
- cuneiformcorrect
- hieroglyphs
- runes
- ogham
Cuneiform means wedge-shaped.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
21. Who was Gilgamesh?
- A mighty king of the city of Urukcorrect
- A Greek sea captain
- An Egyptian priest
- A Roman general
Gilgamesh was the powerful king of the city of Uruk in ancient Mesopotamia.
True or falseLevel 2
22. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written on clay tablets.
Answer: True
True. Scribes pressed wedge-shaped signs into wet clay.
Spell itLevel 3
23. Spell the name of the king who is the hero of the world's oldest great epic.
Answer: Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is spelled G-i-l-g-a-m-e-s-h.
Choose all that applyLevel 4
24. Which parallels have scholars noticed between Gilgamesh and later epics? Pick all that apply.
- A hero grieving a fallen companioncorrect
- A journey to the world's edgecorrect
- A meeting with a survivor of a great floodcorrect
- A wooden horse used to take a city
A grieving hero, a journey to the edge of the world and a wise survivor all recur in later literature.

The Mesopotamian Flood Story

Choose all that applyLevel 2
25. Which are true about Mesopotamian myths? Pick all that apply.
- They were written in cuneiform on claycorrect
- They came from cities such as Uruk and Babyloncorrect
- They are among the oldest myths we can readcorrect
- They were carved on Greek temples
They were written in cuneiform on clay, came from cities like Uruk and Babylon, and are thousands of years old.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
26. What did the flood survivor release to see whether the water had gone down?
- Birdscorrect
- Goats
- Fish
- Torches
He sent out birds, and when one did not return he knew there was dry land.
Build the sentenceLevel 3
27. Build a sentence about ancient writing.
Answer: Myths were written on clay tablets
Mesopotamian myths were written on clay tablets.
Fact or fibLevel 3
28. Much of early astronomy grew out of Mesopotamian attempts to read the will of the gods in the sky.
Answer: True
True. Careful star records made for omens became the basis of real astronomy.
Put in orderLevel 3
29. Put the Mesopotamian flood story in order.
Answer: A god warns one man -> He builds a great boat -> The flood covers the land -> He releases birds to find dry ground
A warning came, a boat was built, the flood raged, and birds were sent to find land.
Fill the blankLevel 4
30. Small carved stones rolled across clay to sign documents were called cylinder ____.
- sealscorrect
- drums
- lamps
- wheels
Cylinder seals also preserve many images of gods and myths.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 13 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Picture question
Put in order
Sort into groups
Spell it
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Mesopotamian Myths

110 questions across 18 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about Mesopotamian Myths

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

What Is the Epic of Gilgamesh? The Oldest Story We HaveWritten on clay four thousand years ago, the epic follows a king who loses his friend and goes looking for a way not to die. The plot, the flood.September 14, 2026 · 5 min read

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