Chronology
Five thousand years, end to end
35 records shown
- 776 BCECultural
The First Olympic Games
Olympia
A single foot race at the sanctuary of Zeus becomes the Greek world's shared calendar.
↓ next - c. 700 BCECultural
Delphi and the Oracle of Apollo
Delphi
A sanctuary on Mount Parnassus became a meeting place for pilgrims, city-states and questions about the future.
↓ next - 575 BCEMonument
Babylon's Ishtar Gate
Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar II builds a gate of blue glazed brick.
↓ next - 518 BCEMonument
Darius Founds Persepolis
Persepolis
The Achaemenid king begins a terrace palace for Nowruz.
↓ next - 508 BCEPolitical
Athenian Democracy Established
Athens
Cleisthenes reorganises Attica into ten tribes and hands sovereignty to the assembly of citizens.
↓ next - c. 500 BCECultural
Confucius Teaches in Qufu
Qufu
The teacher of Lu gathered disciples whose recorded sayings shaped Chinese ethics for two millennia.
↓ next - 490 BCEMilitary
The Battle of Marathon
Marathon
Athenians and Plataeans defeated a Persian expedition on the coastal plain of Marathon.
↓ next - 480 BCEMilitary
The Battle of Salamis
Salamis Strait
Greek warships fought the Persian fleet in the narrow waters beside Salamis.
↓ next - 480 BCEMilitary
The Stand at Thermopylae
Thermopylae
A Greek coalition defended a narrow pass against Xerxes’ invading army.
↓ next - 432 BCEMonument
The Parthenon Completed
Athens
Fifteen years of work on the Acropolis end with a temple whose columns are deliberately imperfect.
↓ next - 399 BCEPolitical
The Trial of Socrates
Athens
A jury of 501 Athenians condemns a philosopher for impiety; he drinks hemlock rather than flee.
↓ next - c. 340 BCECultural
The Theatre of Epidaurus
Epidaurus
A theatre took shape beside a sanctuary where pilgrims sought healing from Asclepius.
↓ next - 336 BCECultural
The Royal Tombs of Aigai
Aigai — Vergina
Macedonia’s royal burial ground preserves remarkable evidence of court life in the age of Philip II.
↓ next - 315 BCEPolitical
The Foundation of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Cassander founded a new Macedonian city that would become a crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean.
↓ next - c. 300 BCEMonument
Pyramids of Meroë
Meroë
Kushite rulers were buried under more than two hundred steep pyramids near the Nile, in a kingdom famed for iron working.
↓ next - 283 BCEDiscovery
Founding of the Library of Alexandria
Alexandria
The Ptolemies attempt to collect every book in the world in one harbour city.
↓ next - 256 BCEDiscovery
Dujiangyan Irrigation
Dujiangyan
Li Bing split the Min River without a dam, an irrigation system still watering the Chengdu plain.
↓ next - c. 214 BCEMonument
Qin Joins the Great Wall
Badaling
The first emperor linked older border walls into a defence against the northern steppe.
↓ next - 210 BCEArchaeology
The Terracotta Army
Chang'an
China's first emperor is buried with 8,000 clay soldiers.
↓ next - 167 BCECultural
Delos Becomes a Free Port
Delos
A sacred island became an international trading hub after Rome changed its political and commercial status.
↓ next - 146 BCEMilitary
Rome Destroys Corinth
Ancient Corinth
The defeat of the Achaean League brought destruction to a major Greek city.
↓ next - 146 BCEBattle
The Destruction of Carthage
Carthage
Rome ends the Third Punic War by razing its rival.
↓ next - 130 BCEDiscovery
The Silk Road Opens
Chang'an
Han envoys reach Central Asia and stitch together a 6,400 km commercial and cultural corridor.
↓ next - c. 100 BCEArchaeology
The Nazca Lines
Nazca
Desert people scratch giant animals into the plain.
↓ next - 44 BCEPolitical
The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Rome
Sixty senators stab the dictator perpetuo at the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March.
↓ next - 30 BCEBattle
Actium and the End of Ptolemaic Egypt
Alexandria
After defeat at Actium, Cleopatra VII dies and Egypt becomes a Roman province.
↓ next - 1st century CEMonument
The Treasury of Petra Carved
Petra
Nabataeans carve a tomb façade into rose-red sandstone.
↓ next - c. 30 CECultural
Crucifixion of Jesus
Jerusalem
A Galilean preacher is executed under Pontius Pilate.
↓ next - 79 CEDiscovery
The Eruption of Vesuvius
Pompeii
Ash buries Pompeii and Herculaneum in a single day.
↓ next - c. 200 CEMonument
The Pyramid of the Sun
Teotihuacan
A 65-metre pyramid rises over the Avenue of the Dead.
↓ next - 203 CEMonument
Leptis Magna Rebuilt
Leptis Magna
Emperor Septimius Severus lavished his home city with a forum, basilica and harbour that made it a jewel of Roman Africa.
↓ next - 330 CEPolitical
The Founding of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantine dedicates a new Rome on the Bosphorus, at the hinge of Europe and Asia.
↓ next - c. 330 CECivilization
The Stelae of Aksum
Aksum
King Ezana adopts Christianity and raises granite obelisks.
↓ next - 366 CECultural
Mogao Caves of Dunhuang
Dunhuang
Monks began carving Buddhist cave shrines on the Silk Road; they grew into a thousand-year gallery of art.
↓ next - 476 CEPolitical
The Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Rome
Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus and sends the imperial regalia east.
Range shown: 776 BCE — 476 CE