Asia

Ancient places can be found all over Asia. Their fascinating histories and impressive artifacts open intriguing glimpses to times past, and open up a window on Asian history. Visiting such historical places in Asia 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 the most interesting archaeological sites all over Asia, as well as new discoveries of ancient places that are worth paying a visit.

The village and citadel at Thula have their roots in the Himyarite kingdom. Source: fotoember/ Adobe Stock

26 August, 2022 - 14:48 Robbie Mitchell

The Himyarite Kingdom’s Bloody Conversion to Judaism: Passion or Ploy?

The Himyarite Kingdom was established in 110 BC and lasted until 570 AC. It is most often remembered these days as the “Jewish Kingdom”, thanks to the fact that for some time its predominant religion...

The center of the late-Neolithic-period Chinese pyramid palace city slowly emerging from the landscape it became part of thousands of years ago. Source: China Daily

11 August, 2022 - 18:56 Sahir

King Carved In Stone Found at 4,200-Year-Old Chinese Pyramid Palace

A team of archaeologists have potentially found the portrait of a king carved into stone at the base of a massive prehistoric pyramid complex in northwest China. At more than 70 meters (230 feet) in...

Tamerlane's cruelty was legendary and extensive, including 120 skull towers containing about 90,000 heads near Baghdad after the sultan of the city insulted him. (Kanphichaya / Adobe Stock)

8 August, 2022 - 15:00 Mark Brophy

Did The Curse of Tamerlane Cause One of the Bloodiest Battles in World War II?

When Tashmuhammed Kari-Niyazov and Mikhail Gerasimov were tasked by Stalin to lead an expedition to Samarkand in Uzbekistan to open the tomb of Tamerlane, they didn’t know just how significant their...

Members of the international team working at the likely site of the long-lost Khan palace in Van Province, Turkey. Source: The Daily Sabah / Anadolu Agency

24 July, 2022 - 18:56 Sahir

Long Lost Palace of Genghis Khan’s Grandson Found in Turkey

Turkish and Mongolian scientists may have found the remains of a long-lost Khan palace in eastern Turkey that they believe was built by Genghis Khan’s grandson, Hulagu Khan. Hulagu Khan was the ruler...

The waterway wonders of China’s Grand Canal are both picturesque and ancient in some sections but also super modern and unattractive in others. This part of the canal is in the ancient, preserved section of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China. Source: gui yong nian / Adobe Stock

22 July, 2022 - 22:57 Lex Leigh

The 2500-year-old Genius of China’s Grand Canal System

Ancient China is known for its famous dynasties, rich culture, and some of the first “advanced” technological innovations in the world. One of the best-known works created in ancient China is China’s...

Rabana ‘sanctuary, fortifications at the Rabana-Merquly. Source: © Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project / Antiquity Publications Ltd

20 July, 2022 - 14:58 Nathan Falde

Lost Royal City of Natounia May Have Been Found in Zagros Mountains

An ancient, fortified settlement known as Rabana-Merquly, which was located high in the north-central Zagros Mountains of modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan, was protected by impenetrable fortifications...

Latest Tavşanlı Höyük excavation site, with inset Mycenaean-like dagger-sword. Source: Kazılar ve Araştırmalar Dairesi Başkanlığı / Turkish Dept of Excavations and Research

19 July, 2022 - 22:59 Sahir

Mycenaean-like Dagger-Sword and Unique Seal Discovered at Anatolian Mound

Kutahya in Western Anatolia is home to one of the world’s oldest settlements, which began 8,100 years ago. At this very site, during the excavations of Tavşanlı Höyük or the Tavşanlı Mound, a 3,300-...

Circular gate in the Suzhou gardens. Source: rudiuk / Adobe Stock

15 July, 2022 - 22:54 Lex Leigh

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou: A Sight to Behold

Some of the most beautiful sights to see in China are the classical Suzhou gardens. Suzhou, located in Jiangsu province in eastern China, is known as the home of these gardens, which are often called...

The Tower of Babel. Source: Александр Михальчук / CC BY-SA 4.0

15 July, 2022 - 01:56 pkoutoupis

Gateway to the Heavens: The Assyrian Account of the Tower of Babel

The story of the fabled Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis has come to inspire artists throughout history and to symbolize the idea of human ambition. Once a real-life ziggurat at the center of...

Azerbaijan's Walled City of Baku holds centuries of bloody history and early oil wealth, and now its skyline is a mixture of ancient, modern and contemporary architecture. Source: Boris Stroujko / Adobe Stock

9 July, 2022 - 22:44 Robbie Mitchell

Blood, Tears, and Oil: The Bloody History of the Walled City of Baku

Today Baku is most well known for being the capital of the Azerbaijan Republic. Thousands of tourists every year flock to Baku to visit the Walled City of Baku and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and...

The aftermath of the Gezer fire of early July 2022 shown in this image reveals that ancient stone ruins can survive grass fires, but that climate change is making more fires overall. Source: Roee Shtrauss / INPA

7 July, 2022 - 22:56 Sahir

Gezer Fire Engulfs Canaan Site, But With Little Permanent Damage

The Gezer fire that broke out on Monday in Israel’s Biblical Tel Gezer National Park was fierce and swift. Initial reports of the fire at Gezer “proclaimed” widespread damage to this protected and...

The 1274 and 1281 AD Mongol invasions of Japan were well equipped and favored overall but both times the samurai and their “magical” storms won the day! Two Samurai with a dead Mongol at their feet from a votive image (ema) at the Komodahama Shrine on Tsushima, approximately halfway between Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula. Source: Public domain

4 July, 2022 - 23:00 Jake Leigh-Howarth

When Mongols Met Samurai: The Two Failed Mongol Invasions of Japan

Throughout time, there are a few instances where the weather became a determining factor in the outcome of a battle. The Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 AD have often been cited as salient...

Close-up of one of the Palmyra Aramaic inscriptions to the “Anonymous God”. Source: Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider / PAP

27 June, 2022 - 14:47 Sahir

Aramaic Inscriptions in Palmyra, Syria, Solve Mystery of the ‘Anonymous God’

The analysis of over 2,500 Aramaic inscriptions in Palmyra in south-central Syria has helped solve a 100-year-old mystery. Two hundred texts, dated mainly to the 2nd and 3rd century AD have been...

The grotto of the seven sleepers from the Menologion of Basil II. Source: Public domain

25 June, 2022 - 15:04 dhwty

The Ancient Grotto of the Seven Sleepers

The short story Rip Van Winkle , written in 1819 by the American writer Washington Irving, is about a man who woke up after a sleep of more than two decades. Although such a work of fiction is a...

The Stone of the Pregnant Woman at Baalbek quarry. Source: Lodo27 / CC BY-SA 3.0

18 June, 2022 - 18:46 Molly Dowdeswell

Baalbek’s Stone of the Pregnant Woman: How Was This 1000-Ton Megalith Moved?!

One of the biggest feats of Roman ingenuity lies in Lebanon’s historic Bekaa Valley, home to the ancient city of Heliopolis, now Baalbek. Here, the 2,000-year-old Temple of Jupiter was built on top...

The interior of a mudhif in southern Iraq. Source: TasfotoNL / Adobe Stock

18 June, 2022 - 01:40 Robbie Mitchell

Saving Iraqi Mudhif Reed Architecture from Oblivion

Take a look around someone’s house and you can learn a great deal about their way of life and their culture. This is true for historic dwellings as well, and the Iraqi mudhif reed house is no...

A honey collecting honey hunter in Nepal. Source: Andrew Newey

11 June, 2022 - 01:48 Joanna Gillan

The Ancient Art of Honey Collecting on the Himalayan Cliffs of Nepal

The Gurung tribespeople of Nepal have been collecting honey from Himalayan cliffs for centuries, risking their lives in an ancient tradition that has been passed down over many generations. But now...

Aerial view of the excavations revealing the Mittani Empire settlement at Kemune with Bronze Age architecture partly submerged in the lake. Source: © Universities of Freiburg and Tübingen, KAO

31 May, 2022 - 18:39 Sahir

Drought in the Tigris River Uncovers Hidden Mittani Empire City

Extreme drought and heat in Iraq has caused the historical Tigris River’s water levels to rapidly drop, revealing a 3400-year-old Mittani empire-era city. Water being diverted. Climate change,...

Wars of the Diadochi: Alexander the Great’s Generals Fight For Spoils

27 May, 2022 - 22:55 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Wars of the Diadochi: Alexander the Great’s Generals Fight For Spoils

As Alexander the Great slipped away on his deathbed on June 10-11th 323 BC, the iconoclastic emperor, whose remarkable achievements would be imitated by countless impersonators throughout history,...

The underground city of Derinkuyu in Turkey. Source: ninelutsk / Adobe Stock

27 May, 2022 - 01:58 johnblack

Home to 20,000, But Who Built it? The Underground City of Derinkuyu

Deep under the Turkish town of Derinkuyu, there’s an entire world reaching 85 meters (279 ft) into the earth. Covering a vast area and with a network of labyrinthine tunnels, Derinkuyu was lost to...

Reconstruction of the Peking man skull. Source: kevinzim / CC BY 2.0

20 May, 2022 - 19:00 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Peking Man and China’s Paleontological Nationalism

At the beginning of the 20th century, a team of international paleontologists prepared to excavate a cave located in a limestone formation known as Dragon-Bone Hill, a few hours outside of Beijing...

An aerial photo of the giant China sinkhole or tiankeng at Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark, in south China's Guangxi Province, which was huge and is home to an amazing primeval forest. Source: Zhou Hua / Xinhua

19 May, 2022 - 01:44 ashley cowie

A Lost Primeval World Has Been Found in a Giant South China Sinkhole!

Chinese explorers discovered a ‘lost world’ in an exceptionally deep and large sinkhole in south China. And in this ancient subterranean space they expected to find flora and fauna unknown to science...

Neo-Assyrian artwork found in a subterranean tunnel complex in Turkey. Source: Antiquity Publications Ltd

11 May, 2022 - 14:30 Sahir

Neo-Assyrian ‘Divine Procession’ Discovered in Hidden Tunnel, Turkey

Ancient Neo-Assyrian artwork showing a procession of deities has been found in an Iron Age tunnel complex carved into the bedrock in Turkey. The unfinished, yet exceptional ancient artwork was...

The Nabateans built this reservoir at the Nabataean city of ancient Hawara, modern Humayma or “Humeima”. Source: Larry W. Mays

8 May, 2022 - 14:58 mrreese

The Sophisticated Water Technologies of the Ancient Nabataeans

The Nabataeans were an ancient Semitic people, dating back to 586 BC, who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant. The desert climate created agricultural difficulties for the Nabataeans,...

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