The Sunken City of Heracleion/Thonis

The Story (and Heroes) of Chernobyl Seldom Discussed

Hopefully you find this as eye opening as I did.

Machu Picchu- The True Purpose

Who has not heard of or seen Machu Picchu, but do you really know anything about the enigmatic location?

Historical Misconceptions Rundown

Clearing up some mis-truths that likely welded themselves in to history due to the emotional response of the drama and stories that built up around the tales.

Myths & Facts About Ancient Egypt

Although number 12 comes off as no s@#$, why did you even have to mention that, the informative video provides a great deal of information bits that will hopefully elevate your understanding of Egypt.

Ghost City of Peru

Bring Some Stakes- Dracula's Tomb Found

Well maybe found according to some researchers. That said, I don't know about you, but I have found the actual Dracula leaps and bounds more interesting than anything Bram Stoker imagined. I could not pass up sharing this.

From Hurriyet Daily News-

Estonian researchers believe they may have finally discovered the whereabouts of “Dracula’s” grave, which is in Italy and not the Romanian Transylvanian Alps as first thought.

The inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel “Dracula” is thought to be Vlad III, the 15th century Prince of Wallachia in Eastern Europe. Known posthumously as Vlad the Impaler, the ruler was known for his brand of cruelty across Europe, which included impaling his enemies.

Vlad’s ultimate enemy were the Ottomans. Depictions of his endless cruelty made history books, securing his reputation as one of the biggest villains in Turkey’s collective consciousness, as written by Emrah Güler of the Hürriyet Daily News in 2012. Vlad’s story was also converted into a ballet last year in Turkey.

Born in 1431, Count Vlad Tepes was part of a noble family who belonged to the Order of the Dragon, a group that was founded as a means of protecting Christianity in Eastern Europe from Ottoman expansion. His father was nicknamed Dracul, meaning “Dragon,” so the young Vlad became known as Dracula, or “son of Dragon.”

In 1476, Vlad Tepes disappeared in battle. While some sources have claimed he died, researchers claim he was in fact imprisoned by the Turks, who hauled him away in chains. His daughter Maria was meanwhile brought to the Neapolitan court, whose ruling family was allied with her own family, where she was adopted and eventually married to a Neapolitan nobleman.

Scholars from the University of Tallinn say they have discovered evidence that suggests the count was taken prisoner, ransomed to his daughter in Italy and then buried in a church in Naples.

Researchers are claiming a newly uncovered headstone in Naples’ Piazza Santa Maria la Nova, in the same graveyard as his daughter and son-in-law, could be his final resting place.

The remainder of the article can be found here.

Robin of the Hood

Pasts of this appear more of a commercial for the 2010 Ridley Scott, Robin Hood movie, but that aside there is some good commentary about the historical figure that was or was not Robin Hood.

The Man Behind the Myth- Spartacus

I had been familiar with the mythos around Spartacus. It was interesting to get the history behind the name.

Castles of War

The Story Of Hannibal

The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu

I have to say, outside of ancient Egyptian history I never studied, read, had lectures concerning anything involving the history of Africa. However, the more I see concerning the continent's history (for instance- Egyptians mummy bodies having cocaine and tobacco in their bodies, the traverse of Northern African Kings to Mecca, or the potential start of the Egyptian religion in the Northern Sahara desert.) the more interesting the history becomes.

Who Killed Alexander the Great

An intriguing look at the new and old theories that have swirled since Alexander died some 2,300 years ago.

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James Romm examines some intriguing new theories about a long-standing historical mystery.

In Babylon on June 11th, 323 BC, at about 5pm, Alexander the Great died aged 32, having conquered an empire stretching from modern Albania to eastern Pakistan. The question of what, or who, killed the Macedonian king has never been answered successfully. Today new theories are heating up one of history’s longest-running cold cases.

Like the death of Stalin, to which it is sometimes compared, the death of Alexander poses a mystery that is perhaps insoluble but nonetheless irresistible. Conspiracy buffs have been speculating about it since before the king’s body was cold, but recently there has been an extraordinary number of new accusers and new suspects. Fuel was added to the fire by Oliver Stone’s Alexander, released in 2004 with new versions in 2006 and 2008: a film that, whatever its artistic flaws, presents a historically informed theory about who killed Alexander and why.

Few events have been as unexpected as the death of Alexander. The king had shown fantastic reserves of strength during his 12-year campaign through Asia, enduring severe hardships and taking on strenuous combat roles. Some had come to think of him as divine, an idea fostered, and perhaps entertained, by Alexander himself. In 325, fighting almost single-handed against South Asian warriors, Alexander had one of his lungs pierced by an arrow, yet soon afterwards he made the most arduous of his military marches, a 60-day trek along the barren coast of southern Iran.

Consequently, when the king fell gravely ill and died two years later, the shock felt by his 50,000-strong army was intense. So was the confusion about who would next lead it, for Alexander had made no plans for succession and had as yet produced no legitimate heir (though one would be born shortly after his death). The sudden demise of such a commanding figure would indeed turn out to be a catastrophic turning point, the start of a half-century of instability and strife known today as the Wars of the Successors.

Events of such magnitude inevitably prompt a search for causes. It is disturbing to think that blind chance – a drink from the wrong stream or a bite from the wrong mosquito – put the ancient world on a perilous new course. An explanation that keeps the change in human hands may in some ways be reassuring, even though it involves a darker view of Alexander’s relations with his Companions, the inner circle of friends and high-ranking officers that surrounded him in Babylon.

Ancient historians have reached no consensus on the cause of Alexander’s death, though many attribute it to disease. In 1996 Eugene Borza, a scholar specialising in ancient Macedon, took part in a medical board of inquiry at the University of Maryland, which reached a diagnosis of typhoid fever; Borza has since defended that finding in print. Malaria, smallpox and leukaemia have also been proposed, with alcoholism, infection from the lung wound and grief – Alexander’s close friend Hephaestion had died some months earlier – often seen as complicating factors. But some historians are unwilling to identify a specific illness, or even to choose between illness or murder: two Alexander experts who once made this choice (one on each side) later changed their opinions to undecided.

With historical research at an impasse, Alexander sleuths are reaching out for new ideas and new approaches. Armed with reports from toxicologists and forensic pathologists and delving themselves into criminal psychology, they are re-opening the Alexander file as an ongoing murder investigation.
The idea that Alexander was murdered first gained wider attention in 2004, thanks to the ending of Stone’s film. In its epilogue Alexander’s senior general Ptolemy (played by Anthony Hopkins), looking back over decades at his commander’s death, declares: ‘The truth is, we did kill him. By silence, we consented … Because we couldn’t go on.’ Ptolemy then instructs the alarmed scribe recording his words to destroy what he has just written and start again. ‘You shall write: He died of disease, and in weakened condition.’

More here

The Story of Arminius- The Man Who Stopped the Roman European March (Part 2)

The Story of Arminius- The Man Who Stopped the Roman European March (Part 1)

A part of history that is little looked at or glossed over in most history classes.

The Man Who Became Myth- Emperor Caligula

Caligula has gone done in history as psychotic, despotic, viscous, a sexual deviant, and so much more. However, history is caste by those who are remain and much what has been thrown at Emperor Gaius. This is not to say there is not truth in the myth, but like any myth that embellishes on the actual....