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Category: Middle East

By The Generalist Posted on November 20, 2020November 19, 2020

The order of the Quran

The Quran contains 114 chapters, but they are arranged neither chronologically nor thematically. Instead, they go from longest to shortest.

Categories: Arts, Literature, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
Funerary granary
By The Generalist Posted on October 6, 2020April 28, 2021

Ancient dioramas

We all know that Egyptian tombs contained models of servants, boats, and animals to accompany the deceased in the afterlife. But they sometimes also contained model gardens, granaries, bakeries, breweries, stables, and slaughterhouses.

Categories: Ancient history, Architecture, Arts, Fashion & design, History, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
Arch of Taq Kasra
By The Generalist Posted on September 11, 2020April 28, 2021

Largest brick arch

Tāq Kasrā, one of the last surviving buildings of the ancient Sasanian Empire’s capital city, has the largest unreinforced brick arch in the world.

Categories: Ancient history, Architecture, History, Middle East, Places
Solander
By The Generalist Posted on July 1, 2020April 17, 2021

The Apostles of Linnaeus

Between 1746 and 1792, seventeen students of Carl Linnaeus set out across the globe to collect plant and animal samples for his new taxonomy. Seven of these apostles died on the trip, and one would betray Linnaeus.

Categories: Africa, Animals, Early modern history, Europe, History, Middle East, North & Central America, Oceania, Places, Plants, Sciences, South America
Giparu
By The Generalist Posted on June 18, 2020June 13, 2020

First author

The first author whose name we know was Enheduanna. Daughter of Sargon the Great, she wrote religious hymns, so she can also lay claim to being the first named poet in history.

Categories: Ancient history, Arts, History, Literature, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
By The Generalist Posted on April 7, 2020April 28, 2021

Moving bridges

How many ways can you move a bridge to let boat traffic through? Well, you can lift it, fold it, curl it, retract it, tilt it, swing it, or submerge it.

Categories: Architecture, Europe, Middle East, North & Central America, Places, Sciences, Technology
Enki
By The Generalist Posted on April 1, 2020April 1, 2020

Forty

It’s our 400th post! In most religions originating in the Middle East, the number 40 equals a large unspecific number: 40 days, 40 nights, 40 years should all be interpreted as “many” days, nights, or years.

Categories: Ancient history, History, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
Bee
By The Generalist Posted on January 18, 2020April 17, 2021

Mad honey

Honey takes on the chemical properties of nectar gathered by bees. This fact turns out to be quite useful if you’re fighting the ancient Romans.

Categories: Ancient history, Animals, Food & agriculture, Health & medicine, History, Middle East, Military, Places, Plants, Sciences
Master of Animals
By The Generalist Posted on January 10, 2020May 14, 2021

Master and Mistress of Animals

In ancient art from Europe to India a particular artistic motif frequently appears: a male or female figure grabbing two wild creatures, one in each hand. These are the Master and Mistress of Animals.

Categories: Ancient history, Animals, Art, Arts, Europe, Fashion & design, History, Middle East, Places, Prehistory
Darbi-e Imam
By The Generalist Posted on January 8, 2020August 14, 2021

Girih tiles

The Darb-e Imam shrine in Iran contains an early and exciting example of non-periodic tiling that was only mathematically appreciated five hundred years later.

Categories: Art, Arts, History, Mathematics & statistics, Medieval history, Middle East, Places, Sciences
Immovable ladder
By The Generalist Posted on December 21, 2019April 28, 2021

Immovable ladder

Certain holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem cannot be changed without agreement from the many local denominations. As a result, a ladder has been propped against a window ledge on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre since 1728.

Categories: Architecture, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on November 18, 2019April 17, 2021

Two-year Mediterranean

Around five million years ago, the Strait of Gibraltar closed and the Mediterranean dried up. When it reopened, the sea refilled in less than two years.

Categories: Africa, Earth science, Europe, History, Middle East, Places, Prehistory, Sciences
Ramesses III
By The Generalist Posted on November 6, 2019November 4, 2019

Harem conspiracy

The Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III was murdered in a conspiracy formed by one of his harem wives that included magicians, physicians, and butlers.

Categories: Ancient history, History, Middle East, Places, Politics & law
Sea Peoples
By The Generalist Posted on October 3, 2019September 26, 2019

Sea Peoples

Around 1200 BCE, almost every civilisation in the Eastern Mediterranean collapsed, or just barely survived. One possible culprit were invaders from across the sea: the Sea Peoples. No-one knows precisely who they were.

Categories: Ancient history, Europe, History, Middle East, Military, Places
Ramesses II
By The Generalist Posted on August 31, 2019August 30, 2019

Red-headed pharaoh

Ramesses II was the most famous and powerful pharaoh of Egypt’s New Kingdom. And we’re pretty sure that he was a redhead.

Categories: Ancient history, History, Middle East, Places
Royal Game of Ur
By The Generalist Posted on August 8, 2019April 21, 2021

Oldest board game

The Royal Game of Ur is the oldest board game for which we have a near-complete set of rules. People were playing it five thousand years ago, and it is still played today.

Categories: Ancient history, Games & sport, History, Middle East, Places

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