The famous city walls surrounding the ancient Chinese capital of Xian could be in store for a major makeover. Last week, the city publicized a plan to invest about $1.75 billion to renovate the already well-preserved walls, which have stood for centuries. The plan is meant to better restore the…
- Part 33
Daily Flickr Finds: China Roamer’s Big Wild Goose Pagoda
The Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an, China is a holy site for Buddhists, and a well preserved ancient relic. Built in 652 using a simple style of construction, the structure was created to hold Buddhist relics taken from India. It stands at 64.5 metres high, and its walls are…
Bettany Hughes to Play for Greece in Live Remake of Monty Python Philosophers’ Football Match Sketch
A key new signing has been made in the lead-up to the biggest sporting event of the year for philosophers: historian Bettany Hughes has joined Greek team Socrates Wanderers in a shock late move in the Philosophers’ Football Match 2010. Hughes, who has appeared in shows such Alexandria: The Greatest…
Bonus! King Tut’s Chariot Set to Roll Into New York Exhibition
Dr. Zahi Hawass, the charismatic Secretary General of Eygpt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, and chief bodyguard of Egypt’s ancient treasures, likes to make revelations to the media -and he didn’t disappoint atWednesday’s press preview of the final leg of ‘Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs’, set to open…
The Truth behind Saint George
Saint George killed a dragon, saved a princess and became the patron saint of England. Tomorrow he’ll be honoured with no small amount of flag-waving, beer-drinking and, you’d think, a fair few A&E visits. But who’s the man behind the myth, the man Shakespeare’s Henry V evoked so brilliantly at…
King Tut returns to Seattle with ‘Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs’
Thirty years after the wonders of King Tut first toured the world, an even bigger exhibition Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs will make its appearance at the Pacific Science Center starting May 24th, 2012. With an almost entirely different selection of treasures and more than twice the…
Watch Gladiator on the Big Screen to Save Colchester’s Roman Circus
Gladiator was the world’s biggest blockbuster when it hit screens in 2000. Now, ten years later, Colchester’s Odeon Cinema is offering viewers the chance to relive Ridley Scott’s classic on Thursday 13th May, with proceedings going to help save the city’s Roman Circus. The project has already reached an initial…
Face-Off: Hadrian’s Wall ‘V’ London Wall
When he arrived in Britain in 122AD, Emperor Hadrian immediately saw a problem. The Roman Empire was already stretched thinner than a Jim Davidson joke, and spreading out into the monstrous back yard of the Picts and Brigantes, two of the island’s fiercest clans, was a hassle he couldn’t afford….
London’s Top Ten Age of Exploration Personalities
Fearless globetrotters or carpetbagging looters? Whatever your opinion, Britain’s adventurers during the Age of Exploration, from the opening of the world’s first museum in Oxford to the King Tut tomb raid, changed ancient history forever. The Ancient World in London is reaching its climax, and over the course of our…
Sandro Vannini’s Photography – Anubis Shrine and “Anubis Fetishes”
Anubis is the jackal-headed god for the afterlife and mummification, who is seen as a key figure for a Pharaoh to pass into the afterlife. The jackal was associated with associated with death and burials in Ancient Egyptian time for their reputation of scavenging human corpses and eating their flesh….