The Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the Pyramid of Zoser, is the oldest known free standing stone structure in the world and the first of the Egyptian Pyramids. King Zoser’ name was Netjerykhet. The name Zoser was given by New Kingdom visitors to the monument, thousands of years later. The original name of the Step Pyramid [more...]
Is the Pyramid of Kufu (the Great Pyramid of today) really one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? Actually, no. It was the Pyramid of Khafre, the second largest pyramid at Giza which was the Great Pyramid of the Seven Wonders, even though smaller in both height and volume than the Great Pyramid of Kufu. [more...]
Scissors are small cutting implements which are familiar for a lifetime and too frequently overlooked in the march of human progress. We know the history of the garden hoe and plow, both simple cutting surfaces. But scissors are a little more complex, yet little is available of their history. Do they date back one century, [more...]
Although much of the world celebrates Christmas on Dec. 25 as the supposed birthday of Jesus of Nazareth, and our calendar is based on the assumption that year-counting began the year of his birth, the chances that he was born on Dec. 25, 1 BC (there was no year 0), are extremely remote. Christmas is [more...]
The Ancient Romans were known for their highly evolved civilization, and for their inventions like the aqueduct. They were also known to love food and eating, and they often threw elaborate banquets to impress their friends with their knowledge of food and wine and to show off their wealth. That wasn’t how they ate all [more...]
Etruscan civilization evolved in northern and central Italy about 800 BC. This era gave way in 7th century BC to an increasingly orientalizing culture that was influenced by Greek traders and Magna Graecia, the Hellenic civilization of southern Italy. The Etruscan civilization flourished in the northern part of what is now Italy, before the arrival [more...]
Anatolia is the Asiatic portion of modern Turkey, extending from the Bosporus and Aegean coast eastward to the borders Russia, Iran, and Iraq. The Greeks and later the Romans referred to western Anatolia as “Asia.” While Anatolia is the home of Catalhuyuk, which may be the oldest city in the world, and later to colonies of [more...]
The regions west and southwest of Aleppo in northern Syria are home to the “Dead Cities.” These are ruins of some 700 Byzantine cities, towns, villages and monastic settlements. They are among the most important treasures of ancient Byzantine architecture found anywhere in the world. The region of the Dead Cities once supported an immense population, [more...]
Near the fabled Pompeii is Herculaneum, another city buried and frozen in time by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Herculaneum was smaller, much wealthier, and more important to Roman high society, than the now more famous Pompeii. Herculaneum catered to the richest of the rich and the most powerful of the Empire. After the eruption of [more...]
Stretching across the Nazca plains like a giant map left by ancient astronauts, are the famous Nazca Lines of Peru. The drawings as well as their meaning are even more mysterious than their origin. It is not known how long it took to create them, nor how the creators were able to measure them with [more...]
Palenque is an ancient Maya city in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It has some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-reliefs the Maya ever produced. It was first occupied around 100 BC and flourished at its peak from about 600 to 700 AD. During the 8th century, the city came under increasing [more...]
Ephesus was an ancient city on the west coast of Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League and was famed for the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The area of Ephesus was inhabited during the Early Stone Age about 6000 BC. The city [more...]
Persepolis was founded by Darius I in 518 B.C., as the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. It was constructed on an immense half-artificial, half-natural terrace, where the king of kings created an impressive palace complex inspired by Mesopotamian predesessors. The earliest remains date from around 515 BC. To the ancient Persians, the city was called [more...]
There are the ruins of many civilizations found at the Lebanese city of Byblos, one of the oldest Phoenician cities. It has been inhabited since Neolithic times and has been closely linked to the history of the Mediterranean region for thousands of years. Byblos is associated with the history of the Phoenician alphabet. The city [more...]
The sanctuary of Delphi, where the oracle of Apollo spoke, was the site of the omphalos, the ‘navel of the world’. Charged with sacred meaning, Delphi in the 6th century B.C. was the religious center and symbol of unity for the ancient Greek world. The sacred precinct in Delphi was a place, where every four [more...]
Leptis Magna was a prominent city of the Roman Empire. Its ruins are located in Libya and is one of the most unspoiled Roman ruins in the Mediterranean. The city was founded by Phoenician colonists around 1100 BC. It survived the attention of Spartan colonists, became a Punic city and eventually part of the new Roman [more...]
The Temple of Olympian Zeus also known as the Olympieion, is a temple that was dedicated to Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. It was finished fairly late in ancient history and is located in the center of Athens. It was in use for less than a century. It was the largest temple in Greece [more...]
Borobudur is a ninth-century Buddhist temple in Indonesia. The monument has six square platforms topped by three circular platforms. It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues and a main dome on the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues inside perforated stupas. Originally, it was probably plastered white, and painted [more...]
Melankomas was winner of the Boxing event in the 207th Olympiad in 49 AD. He was known to be the bravest of all the competitors and had a very unique boxing style. Melankomas was undefeated throughout his career yet he never once hit an opponent or was hit by one. His boxing style was to [more...]
Tenochtitlan was a city state located on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. Founded in 1325, it became the capital of the growing Aztec empire in the 15th century, until its defeat in 1521. Today ancient Tenochtitlan is known as Mexico City. Tenochtitlan, being on an island, was connected to the mainland [more...]