Images

A scene from the 16th-century Codex Telleriano-Remensis showing the death of Pedro de Alvarado (c. 1485-1541), the Spanish conquistador who became the first governor of Guatemala in 1527. Alvarado was killed in Mexico when his horse fell...

A colourised version of an early 20th-century portrait of Pedro de Alvarado (c. 1485-1541), the Spanish conquistador who became the first governor of Guatemala in 1527. Original illustration by Tomás Povedano.

A map illustrating the rise and evolution of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (from the name of Achaemenes, an ancestor of the empire's founder, Cyrus the Great) from its origins in around 550 BCE when Cyrus II of Persia conquered the Medes...

Brown grass on a body of water at Norden, Germany.

A beautiful pond emerges from the waterfall deriving from Mt. Saos, Samothrace.

Gold dinar of Shajara al-Durr, sultana of Egypt (r. 1250 CE). The British Museum, London.

Mausoleum of Shajara al-Durr, sultana of Egypt (r. 1250) in the al-Khalifa neighbourhood, Cairo.

A map illustrating the changing patterns of Christian pilgrimage during the Middle Ages - for the average European, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem was out of the question - a journey to the Holy Land was too far, dangerous, and forbiddingly expensive...

This map illustrates the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the earliest and most extensive administrative division of the Spanish Empire. At its peak, it encompassed a vast array of territories across North America, the Caribbean, and Asia, serving...

A modern statue in Panama City of Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475-1519), the Spanish conquistador who famously discovered the Pacific Ocean after crossing the isthmus of Panama in 1513.