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ANCIENT HISTORY
View All PostsThe concept of an underworld has been fundamental to civilization since the start of history. Discover five examples of underworlds from different cultures.
Despite being over 1,300 years old, making it one of the oldest Buddhist temples in the world, Japan’s Horyu-ji continues to fascinate and astound.
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HISTORY
View All PostsHidden away in the rugged Caucasus, Svaneti, Georgia is a land no empire ever conquered. It features medieval towers, remote churches, and a colossal, Soviet-era dam.
The Black Codes were laws passed after the Civil War in the South that stripped African Americans of freedom, turning criminality into legal slavery.
PHILOSOPHY
View All PostsGottfried Leibniz saw reality as built from monads: indivisible, non-physical units of force at the foundation of the universe.
Descartes teaches us to actively engage our minds, question assumptions, and seek clarity in our pursuit of knowledge.
ART & ARTISTS
View All PostsRooted in Byzantine art, Orthodox iconography flourished in numerous regions of the eastern Mediterranean and into Russia over the centuries.
Art collectors like Gertrude Stein, Solomon Guggenheim, and Sergei Shchukin saw past conventional taste and reacted to the most innovative forms of art.
TRAVEL & CULTURE
View All PostsFrom Samarkand's Registan Square to Bukhara's ancient market domes, Central Asia's most historic sites are some of the Silk Road's most extraordinary legacies.
Persepolis is one of ancient Persia’s most breathtaking treasures and a remnant of one of history’s most formidable empires.

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View MapsReligion
View All PostsKing Saul was the first king of Israel and, unfortunately, also the first to show that God's warnings against a monarch in Israel were justified.
Most Christians imagine Jesus as a Caucasian, long-haired, bearded man, but this is not how artists always depicted him. So, what did Jesus look like?
Stories
View All PostsWorld War II raged across much of the Northern Hemisphere between 1939 and 1945 in many epic battles. What historic battlefields can still be visited?
From Greek constellations to Gaelic spirits, these 15 English word origins reveal how a Germanic language evolved into a global vocabulary.




























