Learn more about the Pyramids of Giza, who they were built for, and the possible methods used to complete them.

Chogha Zanbil was first spotted from a surveillance airplane in 1935. The excavated complex was discovered to be one of the few ziggurats built outside Mesopotamia. The ruins of the ancient Elamite ...

Ca. 2300–2000 b.c. The head likely depicts a Mesopotamian ruler and is one of the earliest known life-size lost-wax metal sculptures to survive. It had been thought that the head was virtually solid, ...

The world’s first known lock-and-key system, dating back to 4000 BCE in Mesopotamia, shows how ancient people protected their valuables. Built from wood and pins, this mechanism inspired later Greek ...

Around 2112 B.C., the Sumerian king Ur-Namma (r. 2112–2095 B.C.) united the city-states of southern Mesopotamia into a short-lived kingdom known today as the Third Dynasty of Ur, or Ur III. More than ...

Globalization, migration, climate change and war—nation states are currently under huge pressure on many fronts.