Canal: Did you mean...?

Aqueducts transport water from one place to another, achieving a regular and controlled supply to a place that would not otherwise receive sufficient quantities. Consequently, aqueducts met basic needs from antiquity onwards such as the irrigation...

The consequences of the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) were many, varied, and long-lasting. Working life in rural and urban settings was changed forever by the inventions of new machines, the spread of factories, and the decline...

Eritrea, located on the Red Sea coast of the Horn of Africa, was the ‘firstborn’ colony of Italy. The potential of a trade centre and naval base at Assab first attracted Italian interests in 1869. The Kingdom of Italy, however, did not officially...

The Curse of Agade (also given as The Cursing of Agade) is a poem dated to the Ur III period of Mesopotamia (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE), though it is thought to be somewhat older in origin. It tells the story of the Akkadian king Naram-Sin...

Ancient China produced what has become the oldest extant culture in the world. The name 'China' comes from the Sanskrit Cina (derived from the name of the Chinese Qin Dynasty, pronounced 'Chin') which was translated as 'Cin' by the Persians...

The Mahdist War (1881-99) in Sudan was led by the inspirational Muhammad Ahmad, an Islamic holy man who declared himself the Mahdi (the Messiah). The Mahdists wanted to overthrow Ottoman-Egyptian rule in Sudan and spread a new form of Islam...

The Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE) was a brief one with only two reigning emperors but it managed to unify China following the split of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. As had happened previously in Chinese history, a short-lived dynasty...

The siege of the port of Tobruk in Libya (April to Dec 1941) by Axis forces during the Second World War (1939-45) lasted 242 days and became a symbol of Allied resistance. Besieged by land but still supplied by sea, Tobruk was of vital strategic...

The Somaliland Protectorate, more informally and better known as British Somaliland, was created in 1884 and ruled by Great Britain until independence was won in 1960, when the Somali Republic was formed. Strategically important at the mouth...

The Enuma Elish (also known as The Seven Tablets of Creation) is the Babylonian creation myth whose title is derived from the opening lines of the piece, "When on High". The myth tells the story of the great god Marduk's victory over the...