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The ruins of Great Zimbabwe "the capital of the Queen of Sheba, according to an age-old legend" are a unique testimony to the Bantu civilization of the Shona between the 11th and 15th centuries AD. The city, which covers an area of nearly...

An oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. From the 1st to the 2nd century AD, the art and architecture...

Xochicalco is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a fortified political, religious and commercial centre from the troubled period of 650—900 that followed the break-up of the great Mesoamerican states such as Teotihuacan, Monte Albán...

Carthage was founded in the 9th century B.C. on the Gulf of Tunis. From the 6th century onwards, it developed into a great trading empire covering much of the Mediterranean and was home to a brilliant civilization. In the course of the long...

On the shores of the Bay of Bengal, bathed in the rays of the rising sun, the temple at Konarak in India is a monumental representation of the sun god Surya's chariot; its 24 wheels are decorated with symbolic designs and it is led by a team...

This group of sanctuaries, founded by the Pallava kings, was carved out of rock along the Coromandel coast in the 7th and 8th centuries in what is present-day India. It is known especially for its rathas (temples in the form of chariots...

Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, bears witness to a unique cultural phenomenon. A society of Polynesian origin that settled there c. A.D. 300 established a powerful, imaginative and original tradition of monumental sculpture...

Established in the 8th century on the slopes of Mount Toham, the Seokguram Grotto contains a monumental statue of the Buddha looking at the sea in the bhumisparsha mudra position. With the surrounding portrayals of gods, Bodhisattvas and...

The Chimu Kingdom, with Chan Chan as its capital, reached its apogee in the 15th century, not long before falling to the Incas. The planning of this huge city, the largest in pre-Columbian America, reflects a strict political and social strategy...

A Phoenician trading-post that served as an outlet for the products of the African hinterland, Sabratha was part of the short-lived Numidian Kingdom of Massinissa before being Romanized and rebuilt in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. Source...