Capital Punishment: Did you mean...?

The inscription on this marble capital reads "May the God of Saints aid Master Heraklius". 6th to 7th century CE. From Beyazit, Istanbul, in modern-day Turkey. (Museum of Archaeology, Istanbul, Turley).

Heiankyo (Kyoto), located in the centre of Honshu island, was the capital of Japan for over a thousand years and gave its name to one of the golden ages of Japanese history, the Heian Period (794-1185 CE). Built according to Chinese...

Zvartnots is the oldest and largest aisled tetraconch church in historical Armenia. It was built in the middle of the 7th century CE, under the instructions of the Catholicos Nerses III (r. 641-661 CE). Four column capitals...

One of the capitals of the 120 columns on the Lower Temenos of the Great Temple of Petra (Jordan). They were all decorated with heads of Asian elephants and are dated to the 1st century BCE or early 1st century CE.

Pyongyang (aka Pyeongyang) was the capital of several successive ancient Korean kingdoms. Located on the Daedong River in the north of the peninsula, the site was chosen by the legendary Dangun (Tangun), founder of the first...

Memphis was one of the oldest and most important cities in ancient Egypt, located at the entrance to the Nile River Valley near the Giza plateau. It served as the capital of ancient Egypt and an important religious cult...

Ashur (also known as Assur) was an Assyrian city located on a plateau above the Tigris River in Mesopotamia (today known as Qal'at Sherqat, al-Shirqat District, northern Iraq). The city was an important center...

Capital of a column from the audience hall of the palace of Darius I, Susa, c. 510 B.C.E., Achaemenid, Tell of the Apadana, Susa, Iran (Louvre) Speakers: Dr. Steven...

Xanadu (aka Shangdu, Shang-tu, and Kaiping) located in Inner Mongolia, northern China, was first the capital (1263-73) and then the summer capital (1274-1364) of the Mongol Empire. It came to prominence during...

Eustathios Rhomaios was a prominent Byzantine judge and jurist during the late-10th and early- to mid-11th century. He studied Roman Law and began his career under Basil II (reign 976 to 1025...