A collection of great stories that teach, inform, and inspire millions of readers.

Persian Emperor Darius the Great engineered a massive canal connecting the Nile to the Red Sea centuries before the modern Suez Canal was built.

Numerous cultures from ancient Mesoamerica influenced the development of the infamous Aztec civilization. Here are five that deserve more attention.

With brute force and engineering skill, the Persians defied a natural boundary to supply their vast army in Greece.

These five medieval queens influenced the English throne through diplomacy and war despite being frequently omitted from the standard historical record.

The Battle of Bouvines, won by King Philip Augustus of France, was one of the most decisive battles in European history.

Contrary to popular myth, the signature color of the British Empire wasn’t used to hide blood!

In the Republic, Plato asks who should rule and whether justice is better than power.

Nishida Kitarō, founder of the Kyoto School, offers three Zen-inflected philosophical lessons for facing existential dread without falling into despair.

For Aristotle, true happiness does not lie in mere amusement, but in fulfilling the highest and noblest capacities of our species, capacities which, according to him, belong to our rational intellect.

The Renaissance revolutionized the way the West looked at the world and created its art. Check out the seven museums where its greatest masterpieces live.

From an Anglo-Saxon ship burial to Churchill’s underground war bunker, the highlights of British history are retraced in seven exceptional museums.

From purple parrots to pink lions and dazzling displays of rich color, some of the world’s flags are vibrant and ignore all the rules!

The only ghost story in the Hebrew Bible is controversial, as it sees King Saul summoning a ghost contrary to his own edict against necromancy.

From slave to convict to pope, Callixtus I championed radical forgiveness, challenged social and religious norms, and forever changed the early Christian Church through mercy.

Marcion transformed from a wealthy Christian patron to an infamous heretic, challenging biblical orthodoxy and inadvertently inspiring the first Christian canon.

The Blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek baffled science for decades, until a rare mutation that caused the color was discovered.

When the Black Death struck Europe, society didn’t know how to treat it. Some remedies had their basis in herbal medicine, but others were nonsense and made patients worse.

The sculptor and installation artist Anish Kapoor bought exclusive artistic rights to the world’s blackest black in 2016, resulting in widespread controversy and a longstanding feud with Stuart Semple.