General ancient history

Charlton Hetson races a chariot in Ben-Hur

Wacky races: 10 weird and wonderful contests through history

The food served at the wedding of Joffrey Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell may be inspired by accounts of ancient Roman excess, says Ayelet Haimson Lushkov. (© Home Box Office, Inc/Sky Atlantic)

Power plays and scheming queens: the ancient history behind Game of Thrones

Towards the end of the third century BC, the First Emperor of China sought to make his new state immortal by shielding it with what would be the earliest predecessor to the Great Wall. (Photo by Jean-Luc PETIT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

General ancient history

A brief history of border walls – from 2,000 BC to Trump’s Mexico wall

Passengers reading a newspaper while waiting to disembark from the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury, having sailed from Jamaica, taken by an unknown photographer for the Daily Herald newspaper, 21 June 1948.

Do we need to decolonise history? And if so, how?

Relief showing lion hunt on horseback.

General ancient history

Ashurbanipal ‘the Great’, the Lion of Assyria

A memorial tomb to King Æthelstan, the first Saxon king of all England, in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire. (Photo by Geography Photos/UIG via Getty Images)

A brief history of England

A thin section of the Great Wall of China near Beijing disappearing into the distant hills. (Photo by Eye Ubiquitous/UIG via Getty Images)

General ancient history

10 facts about the Great Wall of China

Max Adams. (Photo by Kona Macphee/Royal Literary Fund)

Remarkable women through history

Wat Pra Singh is among the most visited temples in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Photo by Getty Images)

General ancient history

My favourite place: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Illustration from Dante's ‘Inferno’, the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem ‘Divine Comedy’, depicting thieves tormented in hell by serpents. Engraving by Gustave Dore, 1885. (Photo by Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images)

General ancient history

A brief history of the afterlife

A counting of goats and rams in cuneiform script, ancient Ngirsu, Iraq, 2360 BC. (DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Cuneiform: 6 things you (probably) didn’t know about the world’s oldest writing system

Professor Kathleen Burk and Simon Jenkins discuss Jenkins's new book, 'A Short History of Europe'. (Photo by David Hampton for BBC World Histories magazine)

Simon Jenkins and Kathleen Burk on the history of Europe

Professor Kathleen Burk and Simon Jenkins discuss Jenkins's new book, 'A Short History of Europe'. (Photo by David Hampton for BBC World Histories magazine)

Great wars were started by young men with “jangling hormones”, argues Simon Jenkins

An Aztec priest performing the sacrificial offering of a living human's heart to the war god Huitzilopochtli. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

General ancient history

Q&A How many people did the Aztecs sacrifice?

The Fountain of Arethusa on Ortygia, the historical heart of Syracuse, separated from the main city by a small channel. (Photo by Alamy)

General ancient history

My favourite place: Syracuse, Sicily