Nile Valley
Ancient Egypt
3100 BCE — 30 BCE
Three millennia of dynastic rule along the Nile, from Menes to Cleopatra VII.
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Every record sits at the crossing of time, place and person.
- 22
- Events
- 15
- People
- 15
- Places
- 3
- Collections
Civilizations
Three long arcs
Aegean & Mediterranean
Ancient Greece
800 BCE — 146 BCE
A constellation of city-states that shaped democracy, drama, and philosophy.
Mediterranean & Anatolia
Rome & Byzantium
509 BCE — 1453 CE
Republic, empire, and its long Eastern afterlife at Constantinople.
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3100 BCECivilization
Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt
Tradition credits King Menes with joining the two lands and founding the first dynasty at Memphis.
Source: Toby Wilkinson, 2010
2560 BCEMonument
Construction of the Great Pyramid
Khufu's tomb at Giza rose to 146 metres and stayed the tallest structure on earth for 3,800 years.
Source: Mark Lehner, 1997
1754 BCEPolitical
The Code of Hammurabi
282 laws cut into a two-metre basalt stele, published where any literate subject could read them.
Source: Martha T. Roth, 1995
776 BCECultural
The First Olympic Games
A single foot race at the sanctuary of Zeus becomes the Greek world's shared calendar.
Source: Nigel Spivey, 2004
508 BCEPolitical
Athenian Democracy Established
Cleisthenes reorganises Attica into ten tribes and hands sovereignty to the assembly of citizens.
Source: Josiah Ober, 1996
432 BCEMonument
The Parthenon Completed
Fifteen years of work on the Acropolis end with a temple whose columns are deliberately imperfect.
Source: Mary Beard, 2003