Journal
Dispatches from the ancient world: research, mysteries and the tools to test them.
Saqqara: Where the Pyramid Was Invented
Around 2670 BC a royal tomb at Saqqara was enlarged until it became the first pyramid. It is also where Egyptian religious writ...
Abu Simbel: The Temple That Moved Uphill
Ramesses II cut Abu Simbel into a Nubian cliff so the dawn sun would reach his statue twice a year. Three thousand years later,...
Palenque: The Tomb Under the Temple
In 1952 a staircase inside Palenque's Temple of the Inscriptions led down to the tomb of King Pakal, the American pyramid that ...
The Nazca Lines: Drawings Meant to Be Walked
The Nazca lines were scratched into the Peruvian desert as much as two thousand years ago, and hundreds more are still being fo...
The Acropolis: Mathematics You Can Stand On
The Parthenon's perfection is engineered from deliberate imperfections, and what they were for is still argued. The rock undern...
Persepolis: The City Alexander Burned
The tablets from its fortification wall record rations paid to thousands of named workers, which is why calling Persepolis a pu...
Baalbek: The Largest Stones Ever Moved
Baalbek's temple platform carries the trilithon, three blocks of the order of 800 tonnes each, and the quarry holds three large...
Borobudur: A Real Alignment, and the Gap in Our Own Map
Borobudur has no interior; you climb it in circles. A complete carved level lies sealed inside its base, its construction date ...
Knossos: Europe's First City and the Labyrinth Problem
Knossos on Crete was Europe's first city, home of the bull-leapers and the labyrinth legend. It is also a cautionary tale about...
Delphi: The Navel of the World, by Declaration
The Greeks called Delphi the navel of the world. Its oracle steered colonies and wars for a thousand years, the oldest named mu...
Karnak: The Largest Religious Building Project in History
Karnak was built by roughly thirty pharaohs over two thousand years. Its Great Hypostyle Hall holds 134 columns, and its main a...
Newgrange: Older Than the Pyramids, Precise as a Clock
Newgrange was built around 3200-3100 BC, centuries before Giza's pyramids, and its roof-box still catches the winter solstice s...