Ollantaytambo: The Living Inca Town Where Megaliths Crossed a River
In the Sacred Valley of the Incas, high in the Peruvian Andes, the town of Ollantaytambo rises in great stone terraces up a steep mountainside. Part fortress, part temple, part
Palmyra: The Desert Caravan City Whose Queen Dared to Defy Rome
In the middle of the Syrian desert, far from any coast, a forest of stone columns rises from the sand. This is Palmyra, an ancient caravan city that grew fabulously
Perge: The Pamphylian City of Round Towers, Colonnaded Streets, and a Great Stadium
Near the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey lie the extensive ruins of Perge, one of the great cities of ancient Pamphylia. With its distinctive round-towered gate, its long colonnaded streets,
Petra: The Rose-Red City the Nabataeans Carved Into the Cliffs of the Desert
Hidden among the desert mountains of southern Jordan lies a city carved not from blocks of stone but into the living rock itself. Petra, the ancient capital of the Nabataeans,
Sacsayhuaman: The Inca Fortress of Hundred-Tonne Stones That No Blade Can Pierce
On a hill overlooking the ancient Inca capital of Cusco stand some of the most astonishing walls ever built. At Sacsayhuaman, enormous blocks of stone, some weighing well over a
Sigiriya: The Sky Palace a Guilty King Built on a Sri Lankan Rock
Rising almost two hundred metres straight out of the green plains of central Sri Lanka is a sheer column of rock crowned with ancient ruins. This is Sigiriya, the Lion
Skara Brae: The 5,000-Year-Old Village Known as the Scottish Pompeii
On a storm-battered Orkney coast lies a Neolithic village so well preserved you can peer into 5,000-year-old homes, complete with their stone beds and dressers. Meet Skara Brae, older than the pyramids.
Stonehenge: How and Why This Ancient Stone Circle Was Really Built
Built and rebuilt over many centuries on Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge still guards its secrets. Here is what we actually know about who raised it, how, and why — and the myths worth letting go.
The Megalithic Temples of Malta: Older Than the Pyramids
On two small Mediterranean islands stand the oldest free-standing stone monuments on Earth. Malta’s megalithic temples were built around 3600 BC — a thousand years before the pyramids — by farmers, not giants.
The World’s Oldest Art: Inside the Painted Caves of Lascaux and Chauvet
By firelight in the deep dark, Ice Age people painted horses, lions and bison on cave walls up to 36,000 years ago. These are some of the oldest artworks ever made — and they are astonishingly alive.
