Images

Painting depicting Joan of Arc, or Jeanne d'Arc. Painted by John Everett Millais in 1865, oil on canvas.

A portion of the 16-17th century fortifications at San Juan de Ulúa, an island opposite the port of Veracruz, Mexico, once a major port on the Spanish Main. The rings in the walls were for ships to tie themselves...

A detail of an 18th-century oil painting by Samuel Scott showing the British attack on Portobelo in November 1739 by Admiral Vernon. Portobelo, now in Panama, was a major port on the Spanish Main and a collection...

A c. 1589 map showing the port of Cartagena on the Spanish Main (now in modern Colombia). Cartagena was one of the main ports for the Spanish treasure fleets and acted as a collecting point for gold, silver, emeralds...

A mid-18th century illustration showing the attack of the buccaneer force led by Henry Morgan (c. 1635-1688) on the city of Panama on the Spanish Main in 1671. (From an early edition of Charles Johnson's A General History...

An illustration showing the attack of the buccaneer force led by Henry Morgan (c. 1635-1688) on Puerto Principe, Cuba in 1668. (From On the Spanish Main by John Masefield, 1939)

A 17th-century illustration of the buccaneer of the Spanish Main and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, Sir Henry Morgan (c. 1635-1688). (From an early edition of The Buccaneers of America by Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin)

Garry Shaw, author of the Egyptian mythology travel guide Egyptian mythology: a Traveller's Guide from Aswan to Alexandria.

Egyptian Mythology: a Traveller's Guide from Aswan to Alexandria book cover. © Thames & Hudson

Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple, oil on canvas painting by Theodoor Rombouts (1597-1637) Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.