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Love, sex, and marriage in ancient Greece are portrayed in Greek literature as distinct, yet closely intertwined, elements of life. For many upper-class men, marriages did not take place for love, and other...

Cyrus the Great (558-530 BCE) built the first universal empire, stretching from Greece to the Indus River. This was the famous Achaemenid Empire of Persia. An inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam, the tomb...

The Queen of the Night (also known as the "Burney Relief") is a high-relief terracotta plaque of baked clay, 19.4 inches (49.5 cm) high, 14.5 inches (37 cm) wide, with a thickness of 1.8 inches (4.8...

Ancient History Encyclopedia has now been around for almost twelve years. Since then, over 136 million people have used our website to learn about history, making it one of the most-read history publications in...

One of the most famous objects in Norse mythology, Mjölnir was the hammer wielded by Thor, god of storms and thunder, and was his most potent weapon in battles against the enemies of gods and humans. But...

Excavations at Vergina in northern Greece in the late 1970s CE unearthed a cluster of tombs thought to be the burial site of Philip II (r. 359-336 BCE), the father of Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE), with...

The rose that grows in many different forms in gardens all over the world today is an evolution of rose-like plants that lived in the northern hemisphere between 33 million and 23 million years ago. Traces of them have...

Kanchipuram (sometimes simply called Kanchi or Kanci) is an ancient city in the Tamil Nadu region of southern India. Once a capital of the Pallava dynasty, Kanchipuram was also a noted centre of learning for Tamil and Sanskrit scholars...

The Great Game describes the rivalry between the British and Russian empires through the 19th century. The game was primarily concerned with the control of certain regions in Central Asia and the...

Saint Patrick (5th century) is the best-known patron saint of Ireland and one of the most successful Christian missionaries in history. He is credited with expanding literacy in Ireland through the monastic orders he established...