The seven wonders of the ancient world: Did you mean...?

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 of his able successor Darius I (521-486...

Shinto means 'way of the gods' and it is the oldest religion in Japan. Shinto's key concepts include purity, harmony, family respect, and subordination of the individual before the group. The faith has no founder or prophets and there is...

One of the lasting contributions ancient cultures have made to modern life is architecture, both in terms of surviving monuments and their influence on contemporary buildings around the world. Ambitious rulers set up pyramids in Egypt and...

Meals in the ancient Mediterranean revolved around the common staples of cereals, vegetables, fruit, and olive oil, with an occasional bit of fish and meat thrown in for those who could afford it. The Phoenicians and Greeks then spread their...

Trade has been going on for as long as humans have needed or wanted something that others had and they did not. Bartering for goods and trade in kind developed into more sophisticated forms of exchanges using commonly agreed commodity currencies...

In many cultures of antiquity women had to battle the disadvantages of rules and conventions made for men and by men who dominated government, public life, and society. Nevertheless, many ancient religions had powerful female goddesses like...

Belief in an afterlife was common in the ancient world, as it is today, and each culture created its own unique vision of the land that existed beyond the grave. Even with their differences, there are many similarities, including a concept...

When we think about ancient Athens, it is almost always about the classical city. We think of such things as its numerous monuments (the Parthenon on the Acropolis for example), beautifying everywhere, the Agora swarming with people doing...

In the ancient world the gods were often held responsible for one's good health and making offerings to them, reading out spells or wearing amulets was a common way to make sure illness stayed far away but there soon developed a whole body...

The love of masks is one of the striking similarities across global cultures. In this gallery of images, we showcase 25 masks from world history. Very often made with precious materials such as gold, jade and turquoise, these finely-crafted...