While Europe today has 12 monarchies out of a total of 44 countries, the European continent has seen dozens, if not hundreds of kingdoms come and go over the centuries. And if some lasted close to 1,000 years others couldn’t even make it an entire decade. Here are 10 such European kingdoms that most people…
Author: Adrian Chirila
When imagining a picturesque medieval landscape, it’s nearly impossible not to also visualize a castle somewhere in the background. And while it’s true that various types of fortifications have been around since ancient times, it was during the medieval period that castles truly came into their own. But what most people don’t know about medieval…
Lost cities have long been the subject of fascination. Places like Atlantis, El Dorado, or the Lost City Of Z have stirred all sorts of wild theories and deadly expeditions but to no avail. Others like Troy, Petra, Memphis, or Machu Pichu have since been rediscovered. When it comes to lost cities, we tend to…
World War II started off with the Nazis pretty much wanting to control the whole world. Twenty years after the previous World War, Europe was still in a period of recuperation and Germany was one of the countries worst off in the aftermath. In an astonishingly short period of time, they were able to rebuild…
Even though history is, in theory, a fixed and unchangeable field of study, in practice it evolves all the time. Things and events that we were sure to have happened can be turned on their head by a single archaeological discovery or a reinterpretation based on new facts. It is after these changes in historical…
Made popular today by the 2006 epic war film and the 1998 comic book series 300, Sparta was an ancient Greek city-state that went down in history as one of the world’s most powerful and warlike civilizations. And even though it is true that Sparta is known for its military prowess, what really made it great were…
Starting from humble beginnings, Rome managed to make a name for itself – a name that withstood the test of time. Ancient Rome was a highly militaristic society, enabling it to subdue one tribe after another and stretch its borders to the edges of the known world. Yet, it was that same army buckling under…
As Mark Twain famously put it, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” And so it is with movies. As authors and screenwriters use their imaginations to come up with some truly amazing stories, they do draw inspiration from the real world on occasion. Events, places, and even characters are influenced by what really is out there. Believe…
Tattoos have been around for a very long time. The oldest direct evidence we have about them comes from the 5,300-year-old Otzi the Iceman, whose remains were discovered by accident in 1991 by a group of hikers high up in the Italian Alps. Archaeologists believe that tattooing has been taking place since as early as…
Ligers are an interesting breed, to say the least. They are the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, and only exist in captivity. Currently in the wild, lions and tigers share only one small patch of forest in western India as a common habitat, and thus, ligers haven’t been documented outside…
Like people, not all animals are the same. Some have gone on to make a name for themselves in this world, and considering the name of this list you can probably gather what we’re going to talk about today. Whether intentional or not (probably not, though), these animals have reached international recognition for one reason…
The word “prehistory” refers to the earliest period of human development, up until the start of recorded events. But since the world evolved differently in terms of its humanity, prehistory starts and ends at different times, in different regions. Europe is no exception to this rule. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITrtE5U6oaA Read the full list!
We seem to be constantly bombarded by all sorts of information about climate change, and what negative effects it has on the environment and humanity as a whole. But in light of those many gloomy facts, we’re not really given any options as to what we can do ourselves to counter the situation – making…
Evolution is a continuous and ongoing process that has shaped life on Earth, as far back as life on Earth has existed. And like history, this process hasn’t somehow stopped just because we’re now here to experience it. The problem with the theory of evolution, however, is the fact that we can’t directly see it…
Vikings is a historical drama TV series on the History Channel. The story follows the legendary Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok and his family as they leave their mark on the world. But even though the series is historical in nature, the storyline only loosely follows historical fact, being sprinkled with many Norse myths, legendary figures,…
Living in a world that’s so detached from nature, we often forget just how connected to it we really are. Many people living in huge cities around the world have never left their urban environments, and as a result, the natural world seems to them as foreign a concept as outer space is for most…
In many parts of the world today, a lot of people are living relatively sheltered lives. But that safety and comfort can disappear at a moment’s notice. Compared to what nature can throw at us, the human body is a fragile thing. But in some fortunate cases, where people were faced with some truly grueling…
Art, in its many shapes and sizes, is particularly appreciated for its beauty and the emotions it stirs up. What makes any particular piece of art into a masterpiece, however, is the level of honesty that’s been infused into it by its creator. It is then up to us to see and appreciate it. Now,…
Located in Eastern Europe and part of the former Iron Curtain, Romania does not draw in many tourists compared to many other nations within the European Union. Nevertheless, in recent years their numbers has been steadily rising to an annual total of 9.3 million international tourists. Given its geography and geopolitical past, the country has…
For all intents and purposes, the United States can almost be considered an entire continent in itself. This means that a person from another country can’t come, visit for several days or a week, and say that he or she has seen what the entire US is all about. But there are several landmarks that…
It is somewhat safe to say that, without transportation, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. The discovery of fire, speech, writing, and all the other man-made inventions, have definitely brought us a long way. But without the ability to transport these inventions to other parts of the world, many of them would have simply faded back…
The study of place names and their origins, known as toponymy, can reveal a lot about human society as a whole. Did you know that almost every country in the world can place the origin of its name in one of only four categories? These are either a directional description of the country, a feature…
Even though it’s hard to see it, our planet is in a continuous state of change. Continents constantly shift and clash with each other. Volcanoes erupt, glaciers expand and recede, and life has to keep up with all of it. Throughout its existence, Earth has at various times been covered by miles-high polar ice sheets…
The Gallic Wars, waged between the Gallic tribes living in present-day France and Belgium and the Roman Legions under Julius Caesar, took place between the years 58 BC to 50 BC. These wars are what ultimately gave Caesar the upper hand over the Senate and his former political ally Pompey the Great, leading in turn…