Africa

Colourised print of the Lighthouse of Alexandria as imagined in the 18th century

General ancient history

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: what were they, and what happened to them?

The magnificent ruins of the Great Mosque at Kilwa Kisiwani

Africa’s medieval golden age

What's History's Greatest Mystery?

General ancient history

What is history’s greatest mystery?

Hadrian's Wall (UNESCO World Heritage Site, 1987), near Housesteads, England, United Kingdom, Roman civilization, 2nd century.

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #15: What’s lurking in the background of medieval maps? And what did medieval people really know about the wider world?

Carved wall scene depicting Cleopatra at Dendera Temple

Cleopatra: what is the real legacy of the last pharaoh?

The Suez canal

How significant was the Suez Crisis?

Tutankhamun’s golden funeral mask

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about Tutankhamun

A family comprising several generations of enslaved people. Resistance, common throughout the history of slavery, ranged from slow working to violent fights for freedom (Universal History Archive/Gertty Images)

Freedom fighters: the enslaved people who fought for the abolition of slavery

The ship ‘Jesus of Lübeck’ was used in John Hawkins’ infamous early slaving voyages, some of which were sponsored by Elizabeth I. (Image by Alamy)

Were there slaves in Elizabethan England?

Illustration from Dante's ‘Inferno', depicting thieves tormented in hell by serpents.

General ancient history

A brief history of the afterlife

Japanese school girls wear protective masks to guard against the influenza outbreak, February 1920. (Photo by Getty Images)

A history of pandemics: from Spanish Flu to Covid-19

Francis Drake portrait

Francis Drake’s forgotten role in the English slave trade

A slave in chains expressing the inhumanity of slavery with the words 'Am I not a man and a brother?', 1774. (Photo by Getty Images)

8 podcasts about slavery and the slave trade to listen to right now

A slave in chains expressing the inhumanity of slavery with the words 'Am I not a man and a brother?', 1774. (Photo by Getty Images)

Britain and the slave trade

(Photo by Michele Falzone via Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about ancient Egypt