The Olympic games begin at Olympia
Panhellenic athletic contests held every four years brought rival Greek city-states into a shared calendar and truce.
Humanity
115 events across three thousand years — chosen to be multi-regional and honest about uncertainty. Follow a thread to trace one capability through time, or filter by region and kind.
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The Homeric epics take written form
The Iliad and the Odyssey, long recited orally, were fixed in writing and became the shared educational core of the Greek world.
The Cyrus Cylinder: an empire's charter of tolerance
After taking Babylon, Cyrus recorded in cuneiform that he restored temples and returned displaced peoples to their homes.
The Parthenon rises over Athens
Under Pericles, Athens rebuilt its acropolis in marble after the Persian wars; the Parthenon became the emblem of the city's democracy and empire.
Angkor Wat and the hydraulic city
Suryavarman II built Angkor Wat as a temple-mountain mirroring the cosmos; around it the Khmer engineered the largest pre-industrial urban water system known.
The Mughal empire and the Taj Mahal
The Mughals ruled a quarter of humanity at their peak; Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal (1632–1653) fused Persian, Islamic and Indian design into white marble.
Chronology
The Olympic games begin at Olympia
Panhellenic athletic contests held every four years brought rival Greek city-states into a shared calendar and truce.
The Homeric epics take written form
The Iliad and the Odyssey, long recited orally, were fixed in writing and became the shared educational core of the Greek world.
The Cyrus Cylinder: an empire's charter of tolerance
After taking Babylon, Cyrus recorded in cuneiform that he restored temples and returned displaced peoples to their homes.
The Parthenon rises over Athens
Under Pericles, Athens rebuilt its acropolis in marble after the Persian wars; the Parthenon became the emblem of the city's democracy and empire.
Angkor Wat and the hydraulic city
Suryavarman II built Angkor Wat as a temple-mountain mirroring the cosmos; around it the Khmer engineered the largest pre-industrial urban water system known.
The Mughal empire and the Taj Mahal
The Mughals ruled a quarter of humanity at their peak; Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal (1632–1653) fused Persian, Islamic and Indian design into white marble.