Paradise: Did you mean...?

Burial of the dead is the act of placing the corpse of a deceased person in a tomb constructed for that purpose or in a grave dug into the earth. Archaeological excavations have revealed Neanderthal graves dating back 130,000 years, marking...

A belief in an afterlife was central to every major civilization of the ancient world and this encouraged the recognition of the reality of ghosts as the spirits of the departed who, for one reason or another, either returned from the realm...

A text known as The Lay of the Harper, dating from the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE) encourages its audience to make the most of the time because death is a certainty: Make a holiday! And do not tire of playing! For no one is allowed to...

A panel from the east doors of Florence’s Baptistery of San Giovanni. Made from 1425 CE by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455 CE). Gilded bronze. This panel shows the story of Joseph and his brothers. The artist Michelangelo gave the doors the nickname...

The gods of the Mesopotamian region were not uniform in name, power, provenance or status in the hierarchy. Mesopotamian culture varied from region to region and, because of this, Marduk should not be regarded as King of the Gods in the same...

Esau & Jacob on Lorenzo Ghiberti's Doors of Paradise for the Baptistry, made between 1420 and 1447 with assistance from Lucca della Robbia, Donatello, Michelozzo, Benozzo Gozzoli, Bernardo Cennini, and two of Ghiberti's sons. Museo dell'Opera...

Hall of the Great Council, Doge's Palace, Venice. The room is 53 meters long and 25 meters wide (173 x 82 ft) and can seat 2,000 people. On the back wall is one of the largest oil paintings on canvas in the world: The Glory of Paradise by...

Ancient Persian culture contributed many of the aspects of the modern world which people take for granted as having always existed. The designation “Persia” comes from the Greeks – primarily from the historian Herodotus – but the people of...

At the beginning of time, the god Atum stood on the primordial mound in the midst of the waters of chaos and created the world. The power which enabled this act was heka (magic) personified in the god Heka, the invisible force behind the...

The Mayan religious text, the Popol Vuh (known by many names, among them, The Light That Came From Beside The Sea) is the Quiche Maya story of creation translated into Spanish in the early 18th century CE by the missionary Francisco Ximenez...