Images

A landform with an ancient astronomical observatory at the top at the eastern entrance to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA.

The pictograph of a star potentially depicts a supernova event and is located at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA. Created c. 1054 CE.

A tri-walled structure outside Pueblo del Arroyo, a great house next to Chaco Wash at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA. Constructed from the 11th to the 12th century CE.

A great house built using a late masonry style at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA. Constructed during the 12th century CE.

The Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles, Athens. Built in c. 1000 CE, it is typical of the Byzantine church model copied everywhere across the Empire.

The interior of the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. It was built in 532-537 CE during the reign of Justinian I on the site of two more modest versions dating back to the 4th century CE.

A diagram of one of the finest surviving Byzantine basilicas, the Church of Saint Irene in Istanbul (mid-6th century CE and remodelled in the 8th century CE).

Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, England was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dallingridge. It was constructed not only for military reasons (threat of French invasion and risk of peasant rebellion) but also as a comfortable home with over 33 fireplaces...

A Byzantine book cover with an ivory icon of the crucifixion. Gilded silver with crystal, glass and sapphire cabochons. Constantinople, 11th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Byzantine icon of the Virgin and Child known as the Vladimir Icon, painted c. 1131 CE in Constantinople. Restoration following fire damage means that only the faces are original. (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow)