Igor's campaign: a Ukrainian landscape Who wrote this story? Nobody knows who wrote the Tale of Igor's Campaign. More Central Asian stories All our Central Asia articles What's it about? [...]
Roman baths of Cluny in Paris - barrel vault Making an arch into a roof Once you've built an arch, you know how to make a doorway or a window [...]
A bit of plaster left on the wall of a Punic house from Carthage People used plaster to cover the bare stone or mudbrick on the walls of houses, both [...]
Nave of Abbaye aux Dames (Caen, 1050 AD) The nave is the long narrow part of a Roman basilica or a Christian church - the part where people sit in a [...]
Six-part groin vault (Abbaye aux Dames, Caen, 1050 AD) Stone roofs and fireproofing In Romanesque churches, in the 1000s AD, architects or often just had a wood roof. But wood [...]
Flying buttress (Rouen Cathedral, 1200s AD) Gothic cathedrals In the 1100s AD, architects in northern France wanted to build big impressive Gothic cathedrals. They also wanted their cathedrals to be [...]
Looking into the side aisles of the Pisa Duomo (Italy, 1064 AD) What are double aisles? Some big basilicas and churches had two aisles instead of one: double aisles. The [...]
Buttress of St. Germain des Pres (Paris, 1100s AD) A buttress holds up a wall A buttress is a big pile of stone that keeps a building's walls from falling down. [...]
Just as African kids did so long ago, you can also learn pieces of poetry or Quran verses or Bible verses or readings from the Torah by heart. Memorization is fun and [...]
Medieval African economy: A salt caravan across the Sahara Desert West African caravan trade The African economy had always involved international trade. But trade became even more important in the [...]
