All  

Store Banner Desktop

Store Banner Mobile

Africa

Ancient places can be found all over Africa. Their fascinating histories and impressive artifacts open intriguing glimpses to times past, and open up a window on African history. Visiting such historical places in Africa can be an unforgettable experience.

Science is constantly discovering new archaeological places and uncovering more evidence into what we once thought we knew about our history, therefore offering new pieces to the ever changing puzzle of humanity’s past and altering how we interpret it. This section will present ancient African history articles, highlighting the most interesting archaeological sites all over Africa, as well as new discoveries of ancient places that are worth paying a visit.

Idanre Hills, Nigeria. Source: Fela Sanu / Adobe Stock

The Stunning Landscape and 9 Wonders of Idanre Hill

Idanre Hill, also known as Oke Idanre, is a remote town located in the southwestern Nigerian Ondo State. Though the area boasts several cultural landmarks, it is most famous for its landscape atop an...
This is just a small selection of the Greek pottery made at the Ptolemaic to Byzantine period ceramic workshop in Alexandria, Egypt, which was found near to the ceramic workers’ living quarters. 	Source: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Ancient Greek Pottery Workshop Provides Stunning Examples of Craft!

The Supreme Council of Antiquities had made an exciting discovery at the Tabet Al-Motaweh site west of Alexandria. An extensive Greek pottery workshop and storage area from the Ptolemaic era (305-30...
Oklo, Gabon has the world's first and only natural nuclear reactor. Source: WORLDKINGS

Gabon: The Home of Ancient Nuclear Reactors

Nuclear reactors, manmade machines designed to generate energy from nuclear fission, have been around since 1942. Some may be surprised to find out, however, that though manmade nuclear reactors were...
As the Earth’s axis tilted towards the Sun, the Green Sahara transitioned to the dry Sahara and still many millions continued to impact this changing ecosystem. Source: appledesign / Adobe Stock

The Sahara As We Know It Today Versus The Green Sahara It Once Was!

The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world. Covering over 3.6 million square miles (9.3 million square kilometers), it is more or less equal to the entire United States. However, ten...
Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. Will archaeologists ever find concrete evidence for the Exodus and the metropolises the Israelites built in Egypt? Source: Public domain

Mythical Metropolises: Pithom, Piramesses, and the Israelite Exodus of Egypt

The legendary Egyptian metropolises of Pithom and Piramesses were first noted in the Exodus story of the Old Testament. One of the foundations of the Jewish religion, it told of the plight of the...
The Giza Sphinx in Egypt. Source: donyanedomam / Adobe Stock

The Sphinx of Giza: Who Built the World’s Most Famous Sphinx in Egypt?

A sphinx is a monstrous being, a mythical creature with the face of a man, the body of lion, and an eagle’s wings. According to the Greek mythology, the sphinx was sent by the gods to punish the town...
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Dr. Khaled El-Enany, visiting the newly discovered tombs in Egypt. Source: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Excavations Unearth Five Stunning 4,000-Year-Old Tombs in Egypt

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced another discovery in Saqqara, the necropolis of the erstwhile capital of the ancient Egyptian empire, Memphis. Ongoing excavations revealed...
The Egyptian emeralds would have looked this these (from Brazil) when taken from the ground. (Géry Parent / CC BY-ND 2.0)

Vast Roman-Period Emerald Mines Revealed in Egyptian Desert

A topographic scan of emerald mines in Egypt’s Eastern Desert has revealed scores of time locked chambers, tunnels and sacred spaces dating to the Graeco-Roman and Byzantine periods. Emerald mines...
Ancient columns at the Temple of Horus at Edfu, Egypt. Source: EwaStudio / Adobe Stock

5 Interesting Facts Straight Out of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt is one of the most captivating civilizations in human history. Renowned for its remarkable achievements in architecture, art, religion, and governance, the civilization left an enduring...
African genetic research has gone to a new level by looking at what happened in Africa after the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens migrated into Eurasia. Rock painting of humans and antelopes from the Drakensberg mountains, South Africa by the San bushman tribe. 		Source: EcoView / Adobe Stock

Genetic Research Untangles Africa’s Human Evolutionary History

An international team of anthropologists, archaeologists, and genetic researchers that included 44 scientists from 12 countries has completed a new African genetic research study that reveals more...
These two daggers were found in King Tutankhamun's burial wrappings: the lower one is King Tut’s dagger made from iron from a meteorite, and likely foreign made according to the latest research study. 		Source: Ancient Egypt

King Tut’s Dagger Twist: It Was Not Made In Egypt

Subject of many studies and investigations, Egyptian King Tut’s dagger has already been proven to have been made from meteorite iron. A recent study has now added a new dimension to exactly where...
Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is the current king of what is left of the Asante Empire. Source: Asante Kingdom

The Asante Empire of Ghana and the Anglo-Asante Wars

The Asante Empire (also known as the Ashanti Empire) was an African state that existed between the 18th and 20th centuries. This empire occupied the area of modern-day Ghana and benefitted greatly...
The Cradle of Humankind visitors’ complex in Maropeng, South Africa.	Source: Olga Ernst / CC BY-SA 4.0

Denizens of South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind: The First Walking Apes

The human story begins in Africa. Of the many fascinating fossil sites in Africa, an important one is the Cradle of Humankind outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. The many caves and rock outcrops...
Pictorial ostracon with a baboon and an ibis, the two sacred animals of Thoth, the god of wisdom, one of 18,000 pottery fragments unearthed at the ancient northern Egyptian city of Athribis.		Source: Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

18,000 Pottery Fragments Speak of Life in Ancient Athribis, Egypt

Archaeologists in Egypt have interpreted the text and images on 18,000 pottery fragments. Not only do they tell of ancient Athribis trading culture, but they also detail school punishments. The 18,...
The Narmer Palette discovered at Nekhen. Source: Public domain

Predynastic Site Emerges from the Sand: Nekhen, City of the Hawk

Nekhen was once a bustling city located on the western bank of the River Nile in predynastic ancient Egypt, well before the construction of the pyramids. Also known as Hierakonpolis, the Greek for “...
Left, inside view of the entrance to the Greco-Roman tomb at the Aga Khan Mausoleum. Right, Patrizia Piacentini and other researchers in the tomb.	Source: Egyptian-Italian Mission (EIMAWA)

New Greco-Roman Tomb with 20 Mummies Found in Aswan

With Egypt’s recent tilt towards resurrecting its historical importance and looking for new avenues of research and archaeological digs, another find has been added to the mix this time from Aswan. A...
The Omo Kibish formation where the fossils of the oldest Homo sapiens were discovered. Inset: Reproduction of an Omo I skull.	Source: Céline Vidal 2018/ Nature (Inset: CC BY-SA 4.0)

Omo Kibish Homo Sapiens Just Got Older!

The debate around human evolution and the Out-of-Africa theory has received a fresh update, this time from southwestern Ethiopia’s Omo Kibish region. A study in Nature has pointed out how the Homo...
In a new breakthrough, scientists have digitally scanned the sarcophagus of pharaoh Amenhotep I to reveal a stunning image of his actual head and body.		Source: S. Saleem and Z. Hawass / Frontiers in Medicine

Digital Scan of Ancient Egyptian Mummy Amenhotep I Shows His True Face

The 3,500-year-old mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I had remained virtually unexamined since its discovery at Luxor, Egypt in 1881. As one of the few royal mummies from ancient Egypt yet to be...

The Walls of Benin: Four Times Longer Than The Great Wall of China!

The Kingdom of Benin was an important African kingdom that flourished between the 13th and 19th centuries AD. Benin was located in the southwestern part of modern-day Nigeria, with Benin City as its...
Kunta Kinteh Island in Gambia. Source: s-aznar / Adobe Stock

Kunta Kinteh - The African Island at the Heart of the Slave Trade

Not many people know of the Gambia. The smallest country of mainland Africa, this small nation can seem quite unremarkable at first glance, being confined only to the length of the Gambia River and...
These Ethiopian megaliths in the Gedeo Sakaro Sodo area, photographed in 2014, have been dated to 1,000 years older than previously believed and everyone’s amazed!		Source: Ashenafi Zena / Washington State University

Phallic Ethiopian Megaliths Are 1000 Years Older Than Believed

Ethiopia’s Gedeo zone has the largest concentration of stone stelae in Africa. A new study published in the Journal of African Archaeology has pushed back the dates of megalithic stelae dotting the...
The man’s skull with golden tongue clearly visible was discovered during excavations at Oxyrhynchus. Source: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Two Oxyrhynchus Mummies Discovered with Golden Tongues

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said on Sunday that two 26th Dynasty tombs were excavated at El-Bahnasa (Oxyrhynchus) archaeological site in the Upper Egypt governorate of Minya...
The complete large straw-tempered Egyptian beer jars from Hierakonpolis in the background. The recent research study suggests the contents of these big jars would have been decanted into smaller, finer beakers, like the three shown in this image.		Source: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Porridge-like Egyptian Beer Was Used 5,800 Years Ago in Rituals

New research published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology has revealed that Egyptian beer was produced and consumed as a staple as well as for ritual purposes as far back as 5,800 years...
In summer Tunisia's Chott el Djerid salt lake is almost entirely dried up, as seen in this photo from May 2021, but many believe that beneath this sand lies the remains of Tunisian Atlantis. 		Source: Kais photographies / CC BY-SA 4.0

The Theory of the Tunisian Atlantis - Beneath the Sands of Africa!

Ever since the age of the classical antiquity, there was a widespread myth of the fabled, sunken city of Atlantis. A true ancient metropolis that was in many ways the epitome of advanced civilization...

Pages