John Julius Norwich’s new book – “The Great Cities in History” – selects a list of major cities that have been hugely influential throughout their eras. The cities that were chosen spanned across the globe, and you can read more about them in my recent article. In addition, you should definitely also watch Heritage Key’s video interview with Lord Norwich himself as he discusses his book, and how he came to choose the cities that made it to the final edition. But what about cities that didn’t make the cut?There are still several cities in the world which I still…
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Following on from Herb Schmitz’s visit to the stunning Roman ruins of Leptis Magna (you can watch Heritage Key’s video interview with Herb on his visit to Libya here), one of the most prominent members of Heritage Key’s Flickr group has also recently visited the North African site and shot some videos of the various ruins. Rafa Vjajes is a Spanish photographer who often visits heritage and cultural sites around the world, and you can find many of his photographs in Heritage Key’s Flickr pool and see his stunning shot of the Roman Theatre at Sabratha which I featured as…
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After Heritage Key’s recent video interview with John Julius Norwich on his new book “The Great Cities in History” (which you should definately watch here) I wrote an article looking at the greatest ancient cities that Lord Norwich selected. With cities across the globe and ranging from the Greeks and Romans, to the Egyptians and Muslims, as far as the Indus Valley and Chinese to the Mayan Civilisation. The city is very much an ancient concept, but one which our society relies upon today in order to maintain a place of power, culture and trade. The earliest cities were based…
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Being a bit of a gaming geek, I’ll admit I was a tad bit excited to finally get my hands on the first expansion pack for The Sims 3 – World Adventures! As I’ve written before, this new game features forays into France, China and, my personal favourite – Egypt. Having played about in Heritage Key’s own fantastic virtual world experience, King Tut Virtual, I was looking forward to seeing how the new release from Electronic Arts would fare up. If you’re not familiar with The Sims games, then I’ll give you a quick run down. You play a character…
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Following on from the amazing high resolution satellite images of the Pyramids of Giza, it’s worth noting that the Pyramid is a structure that is seen across the world. The pyramid form was a popular one in ancient times – when you mention the Pyramids, people will instantly think of the Ancient Egyptians, and the Great Pyramid of Giza. But many civilisations adopted the pyramidal form, from the Greeks and Romans to the Chinese and Mesopotamians! The primary reason for this would be the structural form of a pyramid – the majority of the construction material that would be used…
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Located on the coast of north-west Libya, Sabratha was incorporated into the Roman Empire during the second and third century AD as a trading post, when it flourished as an outlet for wares being exported from Africa. The city, nearby to Leptis Magna, was most notable for a fantastic Roman theatre which was built during 175-200AD as part of the reconstruction of the city under Emperor Septimius Severus’s rule. The remains are some of the finest examples of Roman architecture today, as is captured in a beautiful panorama in Rafa Vjajes’ photograph. The three storey structure had over 25 entrances…
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Every great king has a throne from upon which he rules, and King Tutankhamun was no exception with the Golden Throne which is one of the finest pieces of royal furniture ever created. With web-exclusive photography of this breathtaking artefact by world class photographer Sandro Vannini, we can see that this was one chair that is definitely fit for a king! Sure, there are other expensive chairs around in Egypt at the moment, but the beauty of the Golden Throne of King Tutankhamun outshines the many chairs throughout time! On display as a treasure of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, (as…
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Other than Stonehenge and the newly discovered Bluehenge, there are other henges across the lenght and breath of Great Britain, as Ann Morgan explained in her post a couple of months back. What does it take to be a Henge?Henges are at least 20 metres across in size, and have a single raised bank with one, two or four entrances set in strategic positions. Usually in a flat, circular or oval shape, excavations have revealed pottery and bones, fuelling speculation of ancestor worship (or travel by GPS, but that’s a whole other story). Interesting to note is that Stonehenge is…
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The recent discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard has turned up over 1,500 pieces of stunning gold and silver artfacts from the 7th century Dark Ages era. The find has been described as “unparalleled” and represents the largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever to have been discovered, within an area which was the heartland of theKingdom of Mercia. The Mercian tribe was particularly aggressive in their conquests and fought to expand the land in their control – centered on the valley of the river Trent, what today is the English Midlands – in wars against Northumbria and East Anglia. Out of…
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The largest collection of beautiful quality gold and silver treasures from the seventh century Anglo-Saxon period has been discovered in a field by a plucky metal detectorist, who’s previous plights had bought up no more than a Roman horse harness. Over 1,500 pieces have been found in a private field in Staffordshire, amounting to over 5kg in gold and 1.3kg in silver. The report of this find comes just weeks after the news of 10,000 Roman coins in neighbouring Shropshire being discovered, as well as news of the Vale of York hoard being purchased by the British Museum for over…