Story collection
Ancient Civilisations
Explore six ancient worlds through their cities, societies and empires: the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, early China, Egypt, Greece and Persia. Follow the stories by their starting dates to compare civilisations whose histories often overlapped.
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Prehistoric · 7000 BCE – 1900 BCE
The Indus Valley
Planned cities reveal a brilliant civilisation we still cannot fully read.
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Stories are ordered by their starting dates; some periods overlap.
Prehistoric · 6500 BCE – 539 BCE
Mesopotamia
Ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was one of the birthplaces of urban civilisation. In this Tigris and Euphrates civilization, communities built some of the first cities, developed cuneiform writing, organised law codes, and created early empires. From Sumer and Akkad to Babylon and Assyria, this history of Mesopotamia shows how farming, irrigation, temples, kingship, trade, and record-keeping helped create the structures of complex society. It also works as a Mesopotamia timeline and Mesopotamia civilization overview, with clear Mesopotamia facts tracing how Mesopotamian civilization grew from villages into states and empires.
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Prehistoric · 5000 BCE – 771 BCE
Early China
From Neolithic farming villages to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Early China built the writing, bronze culture, and political doctrines that gave Chinese civilisation its enduring character.
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Prehistoric · 3100 BCE – 30 BCE
Ancient Egypt
Follow Ancient Egypt from its unification around 3100 BCE to Cleopatra's defeat in 30 BCE. This story explains how the Nile River, pharaohs, pyramids, gods, temples, hieroglyphics and burial beliefs helped one of history's longest-lasting civilizations endure for more than 3,000 years.
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Classical · 800 BCE – 146 BCE
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was a civilisation of city-states, sailors, philosophers, soldiers, artists, and political experiments whose influence reached far beyond the Aegean world. From Athens and Sparta to the Persian Wars, democracy, philosophy, drama, and Alexander the Great, Greek history helped shape ideas about citizenship, empire, knowledge, and culture. Its legacy survived through Rome, Byzantium, Islam, and modern Europe, making Ancient Greece central to the story of the classical world.
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Classical · 550 BCE – 330 BCE
The Persian Empire
From Cyrus the Great to Alexander's conquest, the Achaemenid Persian Empire turned regional kingship into a vast realm held together by conquest, roads, tribute, local cooperation, and royal power.
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