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Ancient EgyptThe Largest Egyptian Statues and Where to See Them
The Sphinx, Abu Simbel, Memnon and Ramesses' fallen giant: how big Egypt's largest statues are and where to see them.
Ancient EgyptHow Were the Pyramids Built? What the Evidence Shows
Copper tools, wet sand, boats and a papyrus logbook: what the evidence says about how the Great Pyramid was built.
Ancient EgyptAbu Simbel: Why Ramesses II Carved a Temple Into a Cliff
Four 20-metre kings cut from a cliff, a sunbeam twice a year, and a temple moved 65 metres uphill.
Ancient EgyptMap of Ancient Egypt: Why Is the South Called Upper?
Why the south is 'Upper' Egypt, and how the Nile decided where the Egyptians lived, ruled and buried their dead.
MesopotamiaIshtar Gate Lion Panel: Why One Lion Mattered
About 120 glazed lions lined Babylon's festival road: how one panel was made, and where to see it.
MesopotamiaWhy Do Sumerian Votive Statues Have Big Eyes?
Shell, black stone and bitumen: why Sumerian worshippers left statues with huge eyes to pray for them.
MesopotamiaDur-Sharrukin: Why Build a New Assyrian Capital?
A capital built from scratch in eleven years and abandoned the year after: Sargon II's Dur-Sharrukin.
MesopotamiaStandard of Ur: What the War and Peace Sides Show
Chariots and captives on one side, a royal banquet on the other: how to read the Standard of Ur.
MesopotamiaThe Dying Lion Relief: Why Is It So Moving?
Three arrows, paralysed back legs, open jaws: why Ashurbanipal's dying lioness still stops visitors in London.
MesopotamiaDid the Hanging Gardens of Babylon Exist?
Greek writers praised them, Babylon kept silent: the evidence for the Hanging Gardens, and the case for Nineveh.
MesopotamiaGroom Leading Horses: What Does the Relief Depict?
A foreign groom, two horses in Assyrian harness and traces of paint: what the Khorsabad relief shows.
MesopotamiaHow Did the First Cities Form in Mesopotamia?
Canals, granaries, temples and clay tablets: how Uruk and its neighbours became among the world's first cities.
MesopotamiaWas Etemenanki the Tower of Babel?
Babylon's great ziggurat and the story in Genesis: what links Etemenanki to the Tower of Babel.
MesopotamiaFoundation Figure with Basket: Building as Royal Ritual
Copper kings with baskets of earth on their heads, buried under temple walls: why nobody was meant to see them.
MesopotamiaMask of Warka: The First Monumental Face from Uruk
A marble face from Uruk, about 3100 BCE, built for inlaid eyes, stolen in 2003 and recovered that September.
MesopotamiaEannatum Votive Statuette: What Can We Actually Verify?
No statue of Eannatum is securely known. What survives of him, and what clasped hands meant in Sumerian temples.
MesopotamiaThe Famous Assyrian Reliefs: A Beginner’s Guide
Lion hunts, the siege of Lachish and Nimrud's winged spirits: the Assyrian reliefs to know first, and where they are.
MesopotamiaGudea Statues: Why Hard Stone Mattered
Dark stone brought from distant Magan and carved with abrasives: why Gudea of Lagash wanted his statues in diorite.
MesopotamiaBas-Relief vs High Relief: What Is the Difference?
Shallow carving tells long stories along a wall; deep carving stands guard at the door. How to tell them apart.
MesopotamiaStele of the Vultures: Battle, Burial and Divine Power
A king's army on one side, a god's net full of enemies on the other: Sumerian war in stone.
MesopotamiaTemple of Inanna at Uruk: What Remains and What We Know
Foundations, cone mosaics and a brick façade in Berlin: what survives of Inanna's temples at Uruk.
MesopotamiaEtemenanki: What Did Babylon’s Great Ziggurat Look Like?
Seven stages, 91 metres a side and 91 high: what Babylon's great ziggurat probably looked like.
MesopotamiaMesopotamian Art and Architecture: A Beginner’s Guide
Mudbrick, glazed brick, reliefs and seals: how Mesopotamia built cities, power and belief out of clay.
Mesopotamia