For thousands of years, nilometers measured the water level of the Nile River during the annual flood season. This, in turn, was used to predict the fortunes of the annual harvest, the taxes to be...
The minaret is one of the most recognizable elements of Islamic religious architecture. Essentially, the minaret is a tower attached to a mosque. In the past, the minaret served mainly as the from...
Oneiromancy is a form of divination in which dreams are interpreted in order to predict the future. This form of divination was practiced in many parts of the world, including the ancient...
The Olympic torch lighting ceremony has been held in Greece . This ceremony has traditionally been the count-down to the modern games and it reaffirms the connection between the ancient and modern...
Archaeologists in Norway have uncovered a 1,500-year-old iron arrowhead in a melting glacier. The team of investigators inspecting Jotunheimen , a massive melting Norwegian glacier, have so far found...
Perhaps one of the most famous prophecies uttered by a Pythia, Oracle of Delphi, is that of Croesus’ defeat by the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, Croesus , the king of the Lydians wanted to...
The mysterious location of the tomb of Alexander the Great might finally have been confirmed. Alexander the Great was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon from 336–323 BC and after...
The impact of Alexander III of Macedon better known to us as Alexander the Great , continues to this day. Even in the Indian sub-continent, his legacy is still visible in the names of numerous...
On the eve of his conception sometime in 495 BC, Pericles’ mother Agariste dreamed of giving birth to a lion. It was then, months later, Pericles was born. Pericles (495 BC – 429 BC) was a legend...
Greece’s continuing demands for the UK to return its famous Parthenon Marbles has been ignored by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, again. What is becoming a historically significant archaeological...
The term, ‘Big Bang’ was coined by the English astronomer and cosmologist Sir Fred Hoyle in 1949. But when he first employed it, during a BBC radio broadcast on astronomy, it was meant to be derisive...
The Athenian Acropolis . This rocky citadel sits alone, striking out imposingly against the backdrop of the dry, blue Mediterranean sky. Towering 490 feet (150 meters) over the modern cityscape, the...
Polyphemus is the cyclops found in the famous Greek mythological tale found in Homer’s Odyssey . This one-eyed beast, arguably the most famous of his kind, is presented as a man-eating monster, and...
When we talk about the ancient ages of the Italian Peninsula, we often focus on Rome and the early history of its people. But the history of this crucial European region is very rich and intricate,...
Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza were always my favorite ancient mystery growing up. I was forever debating whether they were high-tech super machines or massive tombs of the pharaohs. Their odd angled...
Could the underground cities in Cappadocia, Turkey date back to 12,800 years ago? In 1963, so the story goes, a man living in Cappadocia excavated some large stones from his basement while renovating...